It’s a fight that’s been brewing for more than six years, once arriving with a mountain of momentum only to be put on the back burner. Until now.

This time, residents along several square blocks of Bedford Park intend to harangue the city into changing zoning rules they say could stave off further development, reflect most of the zoning standards across Bedford Park, and save the handful of two- and three-story private homes within the neighborhood.

The request stood at the center of a pointed Community Board 7 Land Use/Housing Committee meeting on May 18, where residents heard a presentation from Shawn Brede, deputy commissioner for the Bronx office for the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP). The agency is tasked to determine the context and appearance of neighborhoods through zoning. The result became a lesson on zoning, an arcane process that had many questioning DCP’s methods.

But the conclusion came: downzoning that portion of Bedford Park is unlikely. Therefore, further development may occur in an already tight neighborhood.

The neighborhood in question, whose perimeter includes Grand Concourse, East 204th Street, East Mosholu Parkway, Briggs Avenue, and East 201st Street, comprises of narrow streets, a hodgepodge of three-story homes and mostly six-story residences. It’s classified as an R8 district, a 55-year designation that allows buildings up to 10 stories. While other areas of Bedford Park are considered an R5B District, a lower zoning category, the neighborhood studied does not.

“There’s a reason behind all these rules,” said Brede. “They’re meant to meet a specific context in a community.”

With the majority of the buildings following current zoning rules, a downzoning would put a large percentage of the neighborhood, mostly the six-story buildings, “out of compliance,” a label that carries no penalties but limits homeowners from making any significant property alterations in the future. A downzoning request is honored if the zoning rule largely matches the existing layout of a neighborhood.

The community has been down this road before. In 2010, John Reilly, a resident familiar with housing matters, sent a letter to DCP asking the surrounding neighborhood be changed to an R5B District to prevent “monstrosities” from being built.

“The construction of 12- and 14-story buildings on such narrow streets will destroy the quality of life and block out virtually all sunlight,” wrote Reilly. “It will overtax our limited sewer system and electrical grid.”

Staving Off Development

Neighbors were motivated to bring their concerns to DCP after a sliver of neighboring Woodlawn, which bears some characteristics to Bedford Park, was downzoned. The downzoning runs counter to the current policy by the de Blasio Administration, whose housing agenda looks to build up neighborhoods, given the affordable housing crunch impacting the city.

But Brede emphasized that the two neighborhoods are indeed different since the newly downzoned area of Woodlawn, specifically East 236th Street near Webster Avenue, abutted a large swath of detached single-family homes, an area categorized as an R4A. Brede characterized the downzoning as a correction since the area closely matched the surrounding R4A distinction. Whether an intended or unintended consequence, the new zoning halted the development of a larger building on East 236th Street and Webster Avenue.

The request to downzone Bedford Park is a pressing one for residents attempting to thwart a developer’s evictions of neighbors at one building. The developer, Peter Fine, is still not the official owner of 267 E. 202nd St., an aging two-story residence with an adjoining parking lot, though he sent neighbors notices on behalf of the existing owner demanding they vacate the building within 30 days.

“I don’t want to be forced out,” said Nina Archeval, one of several residents living in the building.

Marisol Jimenez, another tenant, said the family “went nuts” when they heard about the eviction. “My mother’s started becoming hysterical,” said Jimenez.

For now, Briggs Towers LLC owns the property. The building itself has been largely neglected by the owner, according to neighbors, who pointed to uneven ceilings, traces of lead, and layers of rust on bathtubs.

Briggs Towers LLC contracts management duties to Genesis Realty. There have long been plans to erect a 10-story building at the same property, according to an image rendering found on the management company’s website.

Andrew Darcy, an attorney representing the tenants, has asked a judge to order a swell of repairs made in the building and rescind evictions. Darcy cited that since there are six units in the property, it qualifies tenants for rent stabilization protection, a status that makes it tougher to issue evictions.

With the property falling in an R8 district, developers such as Fine are entitled to build an “as of right” residence whose look is dependent on how far back it would go from the street, and whether it would block the sun.

Brede, who stood neutral over the eviction matter, noted that rezoning is not a tool to stop construction of a building but to keep the features of a neighborhood uniformly intact. “We don’t do spot zoning,” said Brede, referring to changing the zoning status of one particular lot to prevent construction. “We can’t go in and rezone a couple of people’s houses on the block. There has to be some rationale behind it.”

Barbara Stronczer, a Bedford Park resident and Community Board 7 member attending the meeting, said that the mixed zoning has thrown off the neighborhood. “How you can leave two sides of Mosholu Parkway in two different zonings is beyond me,” said Stronczer.

For now, Bedford Park’s motley character remains, though existing zoning could inspire more to build a neighborhood crammed with large buildings and scant space.

“There’s no room to build,” said Andrew Laiosa, a Community Board 7 member attending the meeting.

“They’re going to squeeze as much as they can,” said Jean Hill, committee chair.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.