Middle Village rezoning approved

Last Wednesday, May 10, Community Board 5 approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to downzone 21 blocks in South Middle Village as a follow-up to the Middle Village/Glendale rezoning adopted two months ago.
Under the new plans, the 21 blocks currently designated R5 zones will become lower-density and contextual R4, R4-1 and R5B zoning districts, which are more consistent with the fiber of the neighborhood.
The rezoning study, which was in response to community concerns that the Middle Village/Glendale rezoning did not go far enough to prevent overdevelopment in this predominantly residential area.
“The land use community [of Community Board 5] voted unanimously in favor of it and the board voted unanimously in favor of it,” said Community Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano.
Now, Community Board 5 will send their recommendations to the City Planning Commission, the elected officials in the zone and Borough President Marshall’s office before it conducts a hearing sometime next month.
“This is going to be much easier than others because we aren’t recommending changes in this case,” Giordano said.
Although the community board unanimously approved this rezoning, City Planning did not include any of the recommendations the community board made regarding rezoning parts of Glendale.
A City Planning spokesperson said that the Glendale area as well as parts of Middle Village and Maspeth is currently in the initial planning stages and more information will become available throughout the summer months.
“We are happy with the changes that have been made [to South Middle Village],” Giordano said. “We need to make sure that some of the other changes in Glendale are included in the phase two study.”
Giordano acknowledged that he thought the Glendale rezoning, in which planning started in 2005, would likely create more controversy.
“We had some recommendations with regard to things we thought needed to be changed; things that we thought were at risk for development,” Giordano said.