Looking ahead to next week’s public hearing on the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Waterfront Rezoning Plan before the City Planning Commission, members of the community organization known as CORD (Coalition for Respectful Development), a group of concerned citizens in Carroll Gardens, have issued explanations of what they see as problem areas.

Their comments follow:

As many of you are aware, the contextual rezoning in the Carroll Gardens area changes most of the current R6 designation to R6B with a portion of the area, for all intents and purposes, up-zoned to R6A. At previous public hearings, some concern was expressed for the portions of First Place, Clinton Street, President Street and Henry Street, where the current plan proposes an R6A [70-foot height limit] classification.

According to CORD, there are only three options: Accept the plan as proposed; request that some, most or all of the proposed R6A areas remain R6, as they are now; or reject the plan entirely.

Unfortunately, the “Special Planned Community District� designation, as CORD had suggested, was deemed by City Planning as a non-viable option at this time.

Looking at the development that took place pre-the wide street text amendment, which allowed for the greater FAR of 3.0 and a 70-foot height limit, it was on those “wide streets� where almost all of the larger scale development took place.

It is therefore logical to presume, that any “islands� of greater development potential that are created by the R6A rezoning, will draw developers for the greater profitability those islands afford.

City Planning is open to the neighborhood’s wishes within the three above options.

This is, admittedly, a very simplified portrait of the contextual rezoning. But it is vital that those who live on those portions of First Place, President Street, Clinton and Henry streets, where the proposed zoning was questioned, think about what is desired and make those wishes known.

The Planning Commission hearing, which is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, takes place at 22 Reade St. in Lower Manhattan.

For more information on CORD’s concerns, please e-mail cgcord@gmail.com.

CORD’s Explanations

R6 zoning: 55-foot height limit and an FAR of 3.0; R6B zoning has a 50-foot height limit and an FAR of 2.0; and R6A zoning has a 70-foot height limit and an FAR of 3.0.

FAR (Floor Area Ratio) is the number which your square footage of living space is multiplied by in order to come up with the amount of square footage you may increase your living space by.

(Please note: There are many other factors involved in addition to the FAR when calculating increases in your building’s size.)

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