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Plans for City-owned Parking Lot at 530 thru 542 Dean Street? — Brooklynian

Plans for City-owned Parking Lot at 530 thru 542 Dean Street?

pierpont
pierpont
edited November 2015 in Prospect Heights
Dean Street Lot

This morning, as I almost got swiped by a car pulling into the City-owned parking lot at 530 thru 542 Dean Street (between Carlton and 6th Ave), I wondered if the City has plans to put affordable housing on this site. The City is scrambling to hit the mayor’s ambitious affordable housing goals, and is even considering taking back community gardens for that purpose (see here: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150116/morningside-heights/community-gardens-threatened-by-de-blasios-affordable-housing-plan). Why not put affordable housing on this property as well?

This is a roughly 60-space parking lot occupying over 17,000 square feet of land. It appears to be serving City HPD, which has a site office on the next block at 516 Bergen Street (which itself could probably be better utilized). While I’m sure HPD needs a place to stash some City-owned vehicles, do they really need 60 parking spaces in one of the most transit-rich parts of the city? 

By my back-of-the envelope calculations, a 35-unit apartment building could go here under the current zoning. A few zoning tweaks and a creative designer could probably even accommodate some dedicated HPD parking in a future building (though probably not 60 spaces). It seems like such a wasted opportunity for such a prime location.

Anyway, I’d be curious if anyone knows whether the City has plans for this lot, or has even looked at it for development.

Comments

  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    edited November 2015

    To move out of this space, the city would need a space to go to.  If I had a magic wand, it would be to one of the M1 zones in the area.

    However, I also wonder how outcry HPD would receive from neighbors if (instead of moving) it announced it was constructing a 4 story parking facility that would accommodate the vans in about 1/3 of the footprint.  

    The rest of the lot could become park space or subsidized housing.

  • pierpont
    pierpont

    To move out of this space, the city would need a space to go to.  

    Not necessarily. While some of the parking spaces are used to store HPD vehicles, I believe a not insignificant number are used for employee parking, which is arguably unnecessary given its proximity to the subways and LIRR at Atlantic Ave. If HPD could get by with half as many spaces, it could conceivably get a developer to build an affordable housing project that, in addition to the required off-street parking spaces of between 15 to 20 spaces, included 30 spaces for City vehicles.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31

    Are we sure that the employees do not park their cars in the spaces vacated by city owned vehicles?

    My suspicion is that on most occasions, most of the city vehicles are out and about:   Doing inspections and repairs of buildings, etc. 

    I'd check out the lot on a day like Thanksgiving to see how many city vehicles use the lot, and how many privately owned vehicles are merely using the temporarily vacant spaces.  


  • pierpont
    pierpont

    I'd check out the lot on a day like Thanksgiving to see how many city vehicles use the lot, and how many privately owned vehicles are merely using the temporarily vacant spaces.  

    Good idea. Even if they are all in use by City vehicles, it just seems counter-intuitive that this parking lot, and the facility at 516 Bergen, are the best places in the area for this use when they would be such ideal locations for affordable housing. Wouldn't the acres of land the City owns in the M1 zones in East NY be better suited for what is essentially a HPD back-of-house function? 
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    edited November 2015

    yup.   In addition, my sense is that these vehicles often drive east, because (with the exception of properties that landlords are trying to clear of rent stabilized tenants), that is where the buildings are in Brooklyn most in need of HPD assistance.

    Assuming this HPD location only serves Brooklyn, someplace along Foster Avenue would seem cost and time efficient.   

     

    foster
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