BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
Borough President Antonio
Reynoso and northern Brooklyn
Councilmember Lincoln
Restler are demanding an end
to minimum parking requirements
for new construction in
transit-rich areas.
When a developer seeks a
rezoning to build taller developments,
they’re often forced
to build off-street parking —
which is designed to reduce the
impact that new construction
has on parking in the neighborhood.
But now, the group of electeds
signed a petition letter calling
on the Department of City
Planning (DCP) to fully waive
parking constraints for all residential
developers of any rezoning
projects in public transitrich
areas.
The representatives aim to
disincentivize people living in
areas with access to subways
and buses from using and buying
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cars, with the intention to
reduce carbon emissions and
improve the “borough’s urban
fabric” — all while providing
developers with the option to
redirect space toward construction
of more affordable
housing, said Restler in an exclusive
to the Brooklyn paper.
“The accessory parking in
buildings on key mixed-use corridors
like Fourth Avenue, Flatbush
Avenue, and Fulton Street
disrupt our borough’s urban
fabric, making our City less
affordable, less walkable, and
incentivizes car ownership,”
read the electeds’ letter to the
DCP. “The last place we need
developers to build accessory
parking is in areas with substantial
access to public transportation.
We need to reduce
car ownership in our city, and
requiring new parking within
close proximity to public transit
has the opposite effect.”
Restler pointed to one 28-
unit rising project just outside
the Bedford subway station,
which includes 14 required
parking spots on the ground
level — saying that, in addition
to other problems, such
requirements often make the
construction “drab, dark, and
lifeless.”
“Because below-grade parking
is so expensive to construct,
many developments across the
city do so on the ground-fl oor,
leading to drab, dark, lifeless
streets” said a statement from
Restler on Monday.
Even though there are
many businesses around the
crossroad of Bedford Ave. and
North Seventh Street, it is not
confi rmed that the new building
will have commercial
spaces.
Within slightly over 2
square miles, Williamsburg
A parking lot in Brooklyn. Photo by Steve Solomonson
residents have access to the
four bus lines and seven subway
stations.
“This is an example of an
area that doesn’t need more
parking, doesn’t need more
cars, for sure,” said Reynoso.
“So it’s a model development
for us to use as a fi rst shot at
showing people that parking
requirements should not be
used here. Also, I think the
most important thing is that
the parking requirements being
removed, allows for more
housing to be built. It makes
the projects less expensive. It
also makes it so that instead of
taking down, you can build up,
so we got more housing out of
this proposal.”
As the city bounces back
from the COVID pandemic,
real estate prices and housing
demand have been restored
and continue to rise.
“A lot of the pushback that
we get from developers over
how much affordable housing
they can build is that they have
to build out these spaces for
cars, that could be spaces for
people, but it’s a requirement
by law,” said Reynoso. “So I
guess there’s an assumption
that instead of parking there
will be housing. How much affordable
housing would really
depend on who’s negotiating
the project as a councilmember
and where and how much
of it is a part of Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing. So it’s not
it’s not so cut and dry. But it
should make it less expensive
to build.”
NO PARKING!
BP Reynoso, Restler demand a cut in
minimum parking requirements
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