The Big Apple will slowly become the Green Apple thanks to a couple of amendments to the zoning code passed recently by the City Council.
If you are planning on building or enlarging an existing home, now the city wants you to make room for greenery - by law.
The City Council recently passed a zoning amendment promoting green streetscapes and open spaces with permeability. It requires homeowners to stop paving over their front yards to use them for additional parking places.
According to the amendment to the city’s zoning resolution on yards and open space, a portion of a house’s front yard must be planted and trees must be planted too.
That portion depends on the size of the street frontage - at least 20 percent for lots less than 20-feet-wide and 50 percent for lots 60-feet-wide or more. The new bill however, does not apply to existing properties.
“I understand the need [for parking]. But the way to solve the problem is not by forcing the rest of us to look at a concrete jungle,” said Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. of the City Council’s Environmental Committee.
The new green legislation will also require planting trees for new residential and other types of developments as well as for major enlargements and some conversions.
At least one tree should be planted on every 25 feet of a lot’s frontage, according to the Department of City Planning. Pre-existing trees will count towards the requirement.
The bill stipulates that the site owner will have to plant the trees, but the Department of Parks and Recreation will be responsible for their maintenance.
The City Council estimates that this will result in approximately 10,000 new trees annually.
“The overwhelming majority of the residents will be ecstatic [about the legislation],” said Vallone.
Besides improving the looks and air quality of the borough, the legislation will also ease the strain on its sewers as trees and green front yard strips capture storm water, reducing water runoff and flooding at street catch basins.
This legislation is part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, a comprehensive long-term plan designed to enhance the environment of a more populous and growing New York City.
Editor’s Note: The Queens Courier first highlighted this problem in January of 2006. We wrote at the time that the concreting of Queens properties was contributing to flooding conditions in many neighborhoods. We cited the case of one Bayside homeowner who bought several attached houses and immediately paved over the entire frontage of the four two-family homes giving him parking for 16 cars.
