BP MARKOWITZ STATEMENT ON PROPOSED COMMERCIAL REZONING ALONG FOURTH AVENUE

“I am thrilled that the City Planning Department is moving ahead with recommendations I proposed in a February letter to Commissioner Burden. This proposed commercial rezoning along Fourth Avenue from Atlantic Avenue to 24th Street—on which it was a pleasure to work with Councilman Brad Lander and the Park Slope Civic Council, among others—will allow for new retail and other appropriate uses while preventing the changes that have resulted in an aesthetically unpleasing environment for pedestrians. For years now, I have called for the transformation of Fourth Avenue into a signature street worthy of the great neighborhoods it traverses, and street-level retail is a necessary requirement to facilitating a vibrant and active street life. However, much of the new development has featured the unfortunate aesthetic of non-descript blank walls merely enclosing parking garages, and some buildings even face air exhaust louvers directly onto the Avenue and at pedestrian eye levels. I would welcome the opportunity to consider and comment on such a text change for residentially-zoned sections of Fourth Avenue during the land use approval process, as we move closer to transforming the entire stretch of Fourth Avenue from the Atlantic Ocean to Atlantic Avenue into my grand vision for a magnificent ‘Brooklyn Boulevard.’ That includes improvements funded through my office that will beautify the streetscape surrounding the 1930s art deco 4th Avenue/ 9th Street subway stop, once one of the grandest stations in the entire MTA subway system.”