32nd Street Left Out Of Rezoning Plans
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Community Board 1 will again take up the banner for residents of Dutch Kills on 32nd Street between 36th and 37th Avenues. "We want to send a letter reaffirming our position," Board Chairperson Vinicio Donato said.

A rezoning plan for Dutch Kills was passed by the City Council on October 7 without including a recommendation, supported by Community Board 1 and the Borough President's Office, to limit zoning on 32nd Street where residents are increasingly concerned that they are being surrounded by buildings twice the allowable height of their homes.

"We made it very clear what our position was and the borough president made it very clear what her position was. It made no difference," Donato said at the board's October meeting.

Joy Chen, board liaison for the Department of City Planning, said the zoning for Dutch Kills was approved by the City Council with modifications for an increase of floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturers, but that the DCP could not include 32nd Street.

"[The 32nd Street modification] is out of scope [with the environmental impact statement] and couldn't be done even though the community board recommended it," she said.

"Was there a way to delay the process and send [the recommendation] back for review?" asked First Vice Chairperson Joseph Guarino. "We spent five hours here that night," he said in reference to the June meeting at which the Dutch Kills zoning was approved by the board with recommendations. "I don't understand why [DCP] couldn't do an [environmental impact statement] on 32nd Street."

John Carusone, zoning chairperson for Board 1 said, "The problem was, there were two groups, a residential group and a commercial group." The commercial group was concerned about a loss of FAR while the residential group's issue was 32nd Street.

The DCP allowed for changes in FAR, first from 2 to 3, and then, upon recommendation from the City Council, from 3 to 4, for the commercial group, but would not allow any modification for 32nd Street.

"When [the FAR] was changed from 2 to 4, doesn't that have a greater [environmental] impact?" Carusone asked. "How can the residential impact be greater?

"That would make sense," said Chen. "But the [original] zoning did not allow for any residential use at all. Any (residential modification) required an additional EIS and that would have taken another year."

Chen said the board's recommendation for 32nd Street, while solid, was "unfortunately out of scope".

"Why didn't anybody tell us?" asked Donato.

In other business, a renewal for an enclosed sidewalk cafe at Pizza Palace (29-29 Ditmars Blvd.) for seven tables and 26 seats was approved, while renewals for unenclosed sidewalk cafes at Steinway Billiards (35-25 Steinway St.) for 10 tables and 20 seats, Zorba's (29-05 23rd Ave.) for six tables and 18 seats, and Ovelia (34-01 30th Ave.) for 20 tables and 40 seats, were also approved.

Applications to renew licenses for unenclosed sidewalk cafe at Brick Cafe (30-95 33rd St.) for 12 tables and 30 seats and at Plaza Patisserie (29-20 30th Ave.) for 14 tables and 37 seats were denied.

The board also approved its capital and expense budget recommendations for Fiscal Year 2010.