Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Hello from CORD!
Today Cord is asking our readers and petition signers to please contact
the Department of Planning!
Amanda Burden, Chair, NYC Dept. of Planning, 22 Reade St. NY, NY 10007-1216. You can e-mail Ms. Burden at this link: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildcp.html
Limit your email to 150 words or less. (The below letter "fits".)
Sample letter:
"Dear Ms. Burden:
We need your help to preserve our beloved neighborhood. The proposed 70' tall, 446 unit new building proposed for 360 Smith St. and 2nd Place is too high and too dense for our block! Second Place is a lovely brownstone street with 35' deep front gardens decorated with flowers, statues and fountains. The developer is exploiting a loophole in the zoning law that is unique to Carroll Gardens. He can build bigger because 2nd Place is being calculated as a "wide" street due to the deep front gardens. The developer is also allowed to claim a "community facility" to gain more square footage for his proposed new building. Though it may be in the letter of the law, it is surely not in the spirit of the law. Don't let this happen on your watch! We respectfully request a moratorium on all new construction over 50' tall in Carroll Gardens until this issue can be properly addressed.

Sincerely, XXXXX"

Posted by at

CORD HISTORY:

With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.

To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)

We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns