COURIER L 4 IFE, FEB. 28-MAR. 5, 2020
Zoned out
Locals pan W’Terrace rezoning proposal
The proposed development the rezoning would allow. Renderings by FXcollaborative
BY BEN VERDE
Windsor Terrace civic gurus rejected
a developer’s scheme to demolish a local
church and build a 13-story mixed-use
tower in its place, with residents claiming
the proposed edifi ce is simply too big
for the neighborhood.
“We heard very clearly many of the
community members who came to the
public hearing, height was a huge issue
for them,” said John Fontillas, chairman
of Community Board 7’s Land Use
Committee.
Members of Community Board 7
voted 30-2 at a meeting on Feb. 19 to disapprove
JEMB Realty’s application to
rezone land surrounding the International
Baptist Church on Coney Island
Avenue near Ocean Parkway as R8-A,
which it requires to tear down the fourstory
house of worship and construct
the 145-foot-tall tower.
The new building would contain 278
units, including 70 so-called “affordable”
units, with rents ranging between $856
for a studio and $1,504 for a three-bedroom,
in addition to 80 parking spots.
Of those 36 would be reserved for parishioners
attending service at a new International
Baptist Church planned for
inclusion inside the new development,
which would also feature a community
space, school, and medical offi ces.
Many locals at the meeting on
Wednesday spoke in favor of some form
of residential development at the site,
but most expressed serious concerns
over the project’s size, which one man
said was out of scale compared to surrounding
buildings.
“The scope and the breadth of this is
really the thing that I bring into question,”
said Mark Duffi n, an Ocean Parkway
resident. “If they came and were
telling us ‘we want to put in eight-story
housing here,’ I think a lot of people
might not be so up in arms.”
Board members offered to support of
a more modest zoning request, such as
an R7-A designation, which would allow
the developer to erect a residential
building of about eight stories in height,
and featuring signifi cantly less housing
units.
However, an attorney for the developer,
Zachary Bernstein, told community
members at a preliminary hearing
on Jan. 30 that if his client’s rezoning
application was unsuccessful, the fi rm
would instead build a 17-story hotel at
the site, in a project that would require
no rezoning, and which the community
would have little opportunity to infl uence.
A spokesman for the developers said
they would prefer the neighborhood to
remain residential, and pointed out the
building is designed to move most of the
bulkier parts of the building to the widest
streets it falls on.
“We strongly believe this is a residential
neighborhood and should remain
so,” said Thiago Viana. “The design
was carefully planned to shift the
bulk of the building to Ocean Parkway
and Machate Circle, all while transitioning
to an 11 story building on Caton
Place and Coney Island Avenue.”
Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D–
Windsor Terrace) blasted the developers
at the meeting Feb. 19, accusing executives
at JEMB of wielding the hotel
as a threat in an effort to ram through
its residential development.
“The one thing I don’t like when
we’re dealing with developers is to be coerced
and threatened. An 18-story hotel
is a threat, it’s coercive, and it is not appropriate,”
Carroll said. “To say we will
put this completely out of place commercial
building on a quiet residential block
is not being a good neighbor.”
The community board’s vote on
JEMB Realty’s zoning application is
purely advisory, and Council will decided
on whether to approve the rezoning
later this year, when Councilman
Brad Lander will wield a decisive vote
as the legislator whose district encompasses
the property in question.