BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Civic gurus shot down a developer’s
proposal to build a
four-story mixed-use building
in Vinegar Hill, with locals
fearing a rash of new, oversized
building projects in the low-rise
historic district.
“These new buildings could
be more than twice as high as
the historic brownstones and
be forever totally out of character
with the low-rise houses of
Vinegar Hill Historic District,
which we so much want to protect,”
said Monique Denoncin, a
longtime Vinegar Hill resident.
“The unguided explosion of development
that we experienced
in Dumbo will then come our
way. We do not want to be a refl
ection of Dumbo.”
A lawyer representing the
Spinard family, which owns a
roughly 6,500 square-foot lot
at 265 Front St., came before
Community Board 2’s Land Use
Committee seeking the group’s
endorsement of a rezoning application
to allow the construction
of a 50-foot-high L-shaped
building the property.
The development, according
to attorney Eric Palatnik,
would contain nine two-bedroom
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COURIER L 16 IFE, FEB. 28-MAR. 5, 2020
units, commercial space
on the ground fl oor and a 30-
foot court yard in the back.
But board members living
around the proposed development
were not thrilled with the
idea, fearing the development
would commercialize an otherwise
residential block, and invite
the same noise, traffi c, and
tourists that plague Dumbo to
their neck of the woods.
“Trucks will idle, they’ll
back up, traffi c will be blocked,
there’s noise, there’s pollution,”
said Vivian Scott Woodburn.
“Take a walk from the now overcrowded
F train at Jay and York
street or through the hordes of
selfi e-taking tourists on Washington
Street in Dumbo and
you’ll come upon on a tiny oasis
of tree-lined cobbled streets and
historic architecture.”
The Spinards are looking to
A photo of the rendering shows the now-scrapped plans for 265 Front St. Photo by Kevin Duggan
change the zoning around the
industrial property to have an
R6A designation, which would
allow buildings of up to eight
stories in height, almost twice
as high as the adjacent 19thcentury
row houses.
However, the family opted to
a shorter, less dense structure
to avoid installing an elevator
— a legal requirement for buildings
six stories or higher. And
by going with a smaller development,
the Spinards will not
have to set-aside 20 to 30 percent
of the building for so-called “affordable”
housing, which is required
for structures larger
than 12,500 square feet, according
to Palatnik.
“The economics of it don’t
work out so well,” he said.
But the development as proposed
remains too tall for locals,
and several residents argued
that the developers should
instead go for the next-lower
zoning designation, known as
R6B, that would allow about
the same height as their plans
but with slightly less bulk, saying
the Spinards could fl ip the
property to another developer
interested in taking full advantage
of the heights allowed under
R6A.
“We’ve seen rezonings occur
and whole other issues have
popped up,” said Bill Flunoy.
HILL TO DIE ON
Community rejects Vinegar Hill
rezoning fearing over-development
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