Brooklyn Neighborhood Congress tackles BSA issues

March 15, 2012 Denise Romano
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The impact that Board of Standards and Appeals’ (BSA) decisions have had on local communities was the subject, as members of the Brooklyn Neighborhood Congress (BNC), an organization consisting of representatives from civic associations around the borough, met at the Prospect Park Residence on March 6.

Ed Jaworski, president of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association and co-founder of the BNC, discussed legislation in front of the City Council related to BSA’s operations. The bills include one that would increase regulations pertaining to the expiration of variances (which enable property owners to do something different with their property compared to what it is zoned for) and community involvement in their decisions, especially ones relating to special permit applications and variances.

“There are things that we are dealing with, that if you hire an attorney, you will find they are illegal,” Jaworski said. “Special variances and permits must be backed by a plan.”

This issue has hit close to home in southwest Brooklyn, most recently with the Calko Medical Center – a nine-story building that looms over Bay Parkway and 60th Street – which got special permission from the BSA to provide only 177 parking spaces instead of the 238 spaces required by the city despite outraged residents who showed up to every hearing. The BSA specifically asked for revised parking plans, especially in the building’s basement, but Calko’s developer, the Marcal Group, never presented any, making many Bensonhurst residents feel powerless.

“A developer goes to the BSA when they don’t like what the Department of Buildings tells them,” commented Enid Braun, a representative to the group from the Fort Greene Association.

“The BSA is the doctor that will cure all ills,” added Jaworski, pointing out that it seems that the same four attorneys are always the ones representing developers at BSA hearings. “They have allowed illegal things to take place.”

The BNC consists of civic organizations. Residents from Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Victorian Flatbush, Homecrest, Park Slope and Fort Greene attended the meeting.

The night’s guest speaker, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, talked about how the city’s bureaucracy –especially the BSA — has to be restructured to work from the bottom-up instead of top-down

“For many of us we share the same story. Our grandparents came looking for a better life, they became New York’s middle class and built this city,” he said. “Now they feel the city is pushing them away. The BNC makes sure that the working people in the city are taken care of.

“We have to start thinking about helping working families and how the community can play a role in what happens in the neighborhood,” Stringer said. “We want to change the way the community speaks to government. Part of what local planning is about is involving the entire community and not shutting anyone out. Not everyone gets what they want, but everyone gets a vote.”

Stringer contended that cities like London and Paris are planning ahead 10 to 15 years, while New York is more reactive. “In New York, we plan based on developer’s proposals. You aren’t planning, you are reacting to a project,” he explained. “When it comes to transportation, we did everything backwards over the past 10 years. We have to look at what the outer boroughs want [first]. We have to listen to people who live beyond Park and Fifth Avenues and really build a five-borough community.”

Attendees briefly discussed why it’s so hard to get things like new bike lanes in the outer boroughs.

“It’s not just the people and the developer, there’s a bunch of agencies in between,” Stringer explained. “Let’s create a commission that plans long term. Every member of the community must be involved. This way it wouldn’t be about the cynical politics of term limits.”

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