City Council Votes 48-0 to Rezone Carroll Gardens and Columbia Waterfront

The City Council unanimously approved the rezoning of Carroll Gardens and parts of the Columbia Waterfront on Wednesday, limiting the height and scope of future developments. All of us at CoWNA worked hard toward this goal, but I want to particularly thank all the members of our Landuse Committee, and particularly Committee chair Norman Cox, for all their efforts. Also a special thank you to John Hatheway, Glen Kelly and Maria Pagano from the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association for spearheading this effort and to Council Member Bill de Blasio for sponsoring the bill.

Council Votes 48-0 to Rezone Carroll Gardens [Brooklyn Eagle]

Carrol Gardens Rezoning Sails Through Council [Brownstoner]

B61 Split in January 2010

The MTA has announced that starting in January 2010, the B61 will be going from the IKEA Terminal to the intersection of Smith Street and Livingston Street. The new B62 bus will be going from Boerum Place and Livingston Street to Queens Plaza. The change will enable the buses on these lines to avoid congestion and improve timeliness. More information can be found at the MTA website:

http://www.mta.info/mta/news/releases/?en=090729-NYCT113

City Council Subcommittee Approves Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street Rezoning

City Council's Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises met Monday 10/26 and voted to approve the proposed rezoning proposal for Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Waterfront. This puts the application one step further along the path to full approval.

Rezoning Update

Our fight to downzone our neighborhood heads into it's next phase as the City Council’s Zoning Committee will take up the issue on Oct. 26 at 9:30 am at City Hall.

Next Public Meeting: Monday November 9th

At the general meeting of the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association (CoWNA) on Monday November 9th, 7pm at Jalopy, CoWNA will be electing its Board for the 2010 term. If you would like to nominate yourself or others to serve on CoWNA's Board, please forward a brief bio of no more than two paragraphs, including why you/they are well suited to advance quality of life issues in the neighborhood. The nomination should be submitted to contact@cowna.org for public posting on CoWNA's website two weeks prior to the general meeting. Service on CoWNA's Board requires attendance at monthly Executive Committee meetings, interaction with neighbors and policy makers and above all a dedication to leading and achieving consensus on a broad range of issues that affect the quality of life for residents and businesses in the district.

Where: Jalopy, 315 Columbia Street, between Hamilton and Woodhull

When: Monday 11/9 7 PM

Lead paint removal on BQE bridges

The green tanks-in-shacks on the BQE overpasses between Cobble Hill and the Columbia Waterfront have been noted by many neighbors on both sides of the BQE. The tanks are indeed hazardous waste containers for the lead-based paint that is removed by sandblasting and subsequent vacuuming. Work will be done at night, and it does generate some noise. Air quality is to be continually monitored. Nevertheless, there have been complaints about lingering clouds of dust. Please do call 311 to report dust clouds or any other potential hazardous effects of the work on the bridges, and do also leave a comment on the CoWNA website so that we can gauge the spread of any problems.

More details can be found at the Word on Columbia Street, Brownstoner, Lost City, The New York Times, and finally the Department of Transportation

http://wordoncolumbiastreet.blogspot.com/2009/10/lead-paint-removal-on-hicks-st-bridges.html

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/10/lead_paint_remo.php

http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/2009/10/are-bqe-bridge-cleaning-lead-shacks.html

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/the-mystery-of-those-metal-units-over-the-bqe/

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bqebridges.pdf

City Planning Issues Approval for Rezoning

City Planning issued their approval of the Carroll Gardens/Columbia Street Rezoning on 23 September 2009. The report is available here:http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/cpc/090462.pdf.

A table showing the public review timeline is here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/carroll_columbia/carroll_columbia4.shtml.

Note that we are in the last phase of the process, the proposal will be taken up next by City Council for approval.