As construction has boomed in recent years, many property owners have sought — legally, with a permit from the Department of Buildings, and illegally — to make curb cuts, which are, literally, cuts into the curb that create the entrance to a driveway.The Politics of Curb Cuts and Driveways
Many of their neighbors...are unhappy, arguing that the cuts reduce the amount of on-street parking, effectively converting public sidewalk space into the entrance for private driveways. Then there is the aesthetic issue: a paved-over front-yard driveway may be convenient for its owner, they say, but it is not much to look at for everyone else.
The city’s Planning Commission, meanwhile, has proposed changes to city zoning, known as the Yards Text Amendment, which would require a certain percentage of front-yard space in certain zoning districts to have grass or other greenery planted on it, thereby preventing homeowners from paving their entire front yards. A planning department spokeswoman said the agency expects the City Council to approve the amendment on April 30.
Curb cut permits, though, are issued by a different agency –- the Buildings Department — and that agency interpreted the new zoning differently, ruling that a driveway is allowed in an eight-to-10-foot strip along the edge of the property known as a “side lot ribbon.”
4 comments:
This is why overdevelopment has been rampant and the city looks like s***. DCP and DOB interpret the same Zoning laws completely different. Tony Avella is right. The only agency that should be interpreting anything is DCP - the one who created the laws in the first place.
Nothing can stand in the way of development, or so the city thinks, and will think that way going forward until YOU apply pressure on YOUR city councilmember to STOP IT.
Don't ever believe that there is any obstacle to a unified interpretation. There simply is no obstacle.
The difference leads to all sorts of revenue. Fines and bribes.
Mox nix to the city. The money flows at all times.
I fail to see how an attached dwelling can have a "side lot ribbon" -- here is the definition of a Side Lot Ribbon
Side Lot Ribbon
A side lot ribbon is that portion of the zoning lot that is contiguous to, and extends along the entire length of, a side lot line from the street line to an intersecting lot line.
Post a Comment