In Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Heated Debate Over Fenimore Street Rezoning and Gentrification Fears

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — In yet another demonstration of how contentious neighborhood development policy is in Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Community Board 9 voted Tuesday to co-sponsor a rezoning application applying to 21 houses on a single block of Fenimore Street.

The application aims to maintain the properties, currently single-family detached homes, as they are. According to the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP process, the application will first be evaluated for completeness by the Department of City Planning, and then returned to CB 9 for a vote, the first two steps in a six-step process that governs rezoning decisions.

But despite impacting a small number of homes, the vote only took place after a long and increasingly tense debate, showing how deep local mistrust of developers, and the planning department, runs.

What does the Fenimore Street Block Association Want?

The zoning change in question is relatively straightforward. A group of 19 homes on the south side of Fenimore between Bedford and Rogers avenues, plus two adjacent properties on Bedford, are currently in an R6 zone.

A residential area's zoning designation, marked one through 10, determines what type of buildings are allowed to be constructed there.

R6 zones allow for a variety of structures, including large multi-unit properties.

The existing zoning includes the 19 homes on the south side of Fenimore, and the two on Bedford, in an R6 zone. Image via Paul Graziano.

The 21 homes in question are all single-family structures, and their owners want to keep them that way. But they said Tuesday that they're facing increasing pressure from developers seeking to make a deal.

"They're relentless," owner Calvert Hadley said of the developers. Hadley said he's lived on Fenimore for more than 40 years, and is bothered by major developments going up near his home.

Surveyors are routinely going door to door on Fenimore, looking for properties to buy, he said, as another 43-year Fenimore resident, Edna Moshette, nodded in agreement.

In response, the homeowners and their organization, the Fenimore Street Block Association, solicited the help of consultant Paul Graziano, who specializes in zoning fights.

Paul Graziano speaking on Tuesday at Community Board 9. Photo by John V. Santore

Working together, the group found the original deeds to their houses, almost all of which state the properties cannot host multi-unit dwellings. Graziano also found a court ruling from 1961 that placed a group of directly adjacent homes starting on the north side of Fenimore in an R2 zone, which only permits single-family detached houses.

As a result, the Block Association is arguing that its 21 homes should also be zoned as R2.

The proposed rezoning, including the south side of Fenimore and two adjacent homes on Bedford in the R2 zone. Image via Paul Graziano.

Why is Community Board 9 involved?

The Block Association plans on petitioning the city's Department of City Planning for a zoning change — which brought them to CB 9.

The Association submitted a resolution to the board asking CB 9 to co-sponsor its zoning change application. According to the homeowners and Graziano, an application co-sponsored by CB 9 would effectively require a review by the Planning Department, since it would have been submitted by a government entity.

Furthermore, they said, when government bodies apply to Planning, the city waves a fee for assessing the application's environmental impact, which can often run into the thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars, something the Block Association would struggle to afford.

On Tuesday night, CB 9's full board voted to co-sponsor the application, with 20 votes in favor, eight against, and nine abstentions — but not without a struggle.

Fears of Trojan Horse gentrification

For years, residents of Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens have fought the rapid and large-scale redevelopment of their neighborhood, which they say will produce a mass displacement of existing residents.

The struggle, a common one in New York, has gained particular prominence due to the activism of The Movement To Protect The People, or MTOPP, a group led by Alicia Boyd, known both for her disruptive tactics at community board meetings, and for effectively forcing her anti-gentrification message into the center of CB 9's business.

MTOPP has vociferously objected to any action they think would lead to a broad rezoning of the area. The group sued to block a May, 2015 request from CB 9 asking Planning to study rezoning part of Crown Heights. That suit was tossed out last December, but MTOPP activist LaShaun Ellis says an appeal is still in court.

Ellis was one of those raising objections Tuesday to the resolution before CB 9.

She argued that nothing about the resolution explicitly limited its rezoning reach to Fenimore Street. That matters, Ellis said, because MTOPP believes Planning could use the resolution as a jumping-off point for a neighborhood rezoning study. More specifically, Ellis told Patch the group is worried Planning would treat the application as a bargaining chip — in short, that it would offer to down-zone Fenimore from R6 to R2 in exchange for up-zoning other neighborhood areas, allowing new construction.

The distrust of Planning's motives was shown in a recent Facebook post by Equality for Flatbush, another anti-gentrification group that partners with MTOPP.

"Members of this community have kept the Department of City Planning out of CB9 for over 2 years," it read. "We must remain diligent and skeptical of those that have shown themselves to be disrespectful of 'public' opinion/opposition."

On Tuesday, Ellis called for more time to assess the resolution, as well as a written document stating the resolution would only apply to Fenimore Street. That, she told Patch, would prevent the Fenimore vote from becoming "sort of a backdoor way for City Planning" to rezone the whole area.

One block, two very different perspectives

The Fenimore homeowners were adamant that they wanted the opposite of a wide-scale rezoning.

"If you're concerned about your block, dig deep" into your property's legal history, one Fenimore resident said to the room, encouraging others to take the same path he and his fellow residents had.

"Take action. Be proactive. We're trying to prevent the madness form coming to our block," the resident said.

Fenimore's Ben Toro said the property owners would happily sign a document stating their application applied only to their street, while Michael Liburd, the chair of CB 9's land use committee, said the resolution was only about Fenimore's residents "trying to protect their block."

"On my watch, there will be no negotiating," he said. The idea that Planning could use the resolution to do a general rezoning study "is just not true at all," he continued. "It's this block, period, end of conversation."

Michael Liburd at Tuesday's meeting. Photo by John V. Santore

For her part, Planning Department spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff threw cold water on the idea that the city would take on any rezoning study without active local involvement.

"All land use applications depend on robust community engagement prior to and throughout the formal public review process," she said to Patch in a statement.

"We do not have a broader study of CB9 in our work program," Raynoff continued. "City Planning staff has met with the leadership of Community Board 9 and offered to work them if they wished to commence a planning process that would identify shared goals for the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area. Fostering consensus on the general direction is an essential component for any potential future study or successful land use application."

After CB 9's vote, Graziano said the focus of MTOPP and those skeptical of the Fenimore Street resolution was misplaced — though he approached the matter from a perspective different from Raynoff's.

"City Planning does not need a pretext to begin a study or do a ULURP process," Graziano said, his exasperation visible. The city, he said, can choose to initiate a rezoning process regardless of what the community wants, rendering local zoning applications like those from Fenimore Street moot in that larger context.

Any such rezoning process would follow the ULURP procedure, and ultimately could only be stopped by the City Council, he stressed. (The opinions of community boards are only advisory.)

Faced with that reality, locals should be actively pursuing strategies like that of the Fenimore Street Block Association, Graziano argued, before developers cut deals with their neighbors, who might cash in on an offer that's too good to pass up.

"Strike while the iron is hot," he said.

Pictured at top: Fenimore Street. Image via Google Maps.