Defund City Planning

Dear Editor:

I was at the Community Board meeting last Tuesday, as well as a special meeting of the Bayswater Civic Association Board of Directors on Monday. Both meetings discussed the application of Isaiah Moultrie for a zoning change on his property on Hartman Lane between Beach Channel Drive and Far Rockaway Boulevard.

The property had been zoned R5 but was downzoned to R4. Mr. Moultrie asked to have the R5 zoning restored so that he could build market rate senior housing. The Department of City Planning refused the request but said that they would approve a rezoning to R6 with ten “affordable” apartments. So, with City Planning’s gun to his head, he applied for R6, which the Community Board denied.

I believe that the City Planning Commission is no longer interested in planning.  It has become an instrument for stuffing as many apartments as possible into whatever small spaces they can find.  Therefore, I believe that it is time to defund the Department of City Planning.

Eugene Falik