Letter Decries Omission of Jewish Residents from Zoning Study

A zoning study which was requested by the Jewish Community Council and meant to explore the possibility of improving conditions for Crown Heights homeowners has been the point of much contention. In a strongly worded letter the JCC decries the fact that the proposal has been drastically changed from the initial proposal and has spawned racist and hate-filled debate between residents and activists opposed to any zoning change.

In a letter from November 2013 members of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council sent a letter to then-chairman Jacob Goldstein requesting that a zoning study be conducted, which would explore the possibility of up-zoning certain R-2 restrictions up to R-6 which would make it easier to obtain permits and maximize living space for homeowners.

Since the proposal has been submitted, it has been the source of much contention and debate, even rising to levels of racism and hate-mongering, all while being repeatedly changed to the point where none of the original proposed zoning areas have been completely omitted.

“Basically the zoning study right now paves the way for developers to build skyscrapers along Empire Boulevard and fill their pockets from tiny luxury apartments that would not cater to any of the existing demographics within the community” a source told CrownHeights.info.

Currently the proposed zoning study will include an area stretching from New York Avenue to Flatbush Avenue and from Eastern Parkway down to Clarkson Avenue – which includes little to no part of the predominantly Jewish area of Crown Heights.

Tomorrow, February 4th, the ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] Committee is scheduled to meet and on the agenda is a proposed rewrite of the resolution calling for the zoning study. Ahead of this meeting the CHJCC has sent a letter to Community Board 9 imploring them to re-include the original portions of the neighborhood which were omitted from the study [see below].

The meeting is scheduled to take place Tuesday, February 4th at 7:00pm in the auditorium of S. Francis DeSales School, 260 Eastern Parkway on the corner of Classon Ave and is open to the public.

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4 Comments

  • What about R4

    Why aren’t we requesting that R4 be upzoned as well. R2 will only benefit a fraction of the community, while R4 will benefit a majority of the community. One can make the same argument they are making for R2 for R4; many of the houses in R4 are also currently overbuild under current zoning.

    Besides, those couple blocks mentioned are actually beautiful blocks, and it would be a shame to allow development which will likely ruin the beauty.

  • JCC Caused The Problem

    So the naive JCC caused the whole problem. Time to hold new elections.

    • fedupwithrererere elections

      the only problem with reelections is that are nobody to run.look what happened to old zaky. here today gone tomorrow,

  • Quit While You're Behind

    Why doesn’t the JCC quit while they’re behind. Based on their total lack of influence, as compared to that of the high rise developers, the result of including the Jewish part of Crown Heights in the zoning study will be high rise developments for other demographic groups right in the middle of the Jewish Community.