Community Facility UseA community facility use provides educational, recreational, religious, health or other essential services for the community it serves. Use Groups 3 and 4 are classified as community facility uses.
406 15th Street is located in a R6B zone between 7
th and 8
th Avenues directly across from the Park Slope Armory Sports Facility. The plans identify the proposed use as an Ambulatory Health Care Facility, Occupancy Group C, Use Group 4. Sixty eight persons are allowed within its 6,793.86 cellar space. You can click on the plans below to expand the drawings.
NYC Zoning Handbook:
Community Facilities
Chapter 6The Zoning Resolution recognizes certain types of uses which serve the general welfare as community facilities. There are three broad categories of community facility uses:
Local Community FacilitiesLocal community facilities-elementary and secondary schools, branch libraries, houses of worship, community centers and settlement houses-provide essential services for the neighborhoods in which they are located. While some of these facilities may serve an area larger than the surrounding community, it is generally agreed that they exist primarily to enrich the residential community.
Regional Community FacilitiesRegional community facilities serve the population at large. Some uses in this category, such as colleges, central libraries, museums and hospitals, could locate almost anywhere. Other community facilities in this category are residential facilities such as orphanages, nursing homes, and homes for retarded children.
Auxiliary Community FacilitiesAuxiliary community facilities include uses which support local or regional community services. For example, monasteries, convents, college dormitories, hospital staff housing, parish houses or rectories do not usually provide a direct service to the public but some colleges, hospitals, schools, churches and community centers could not function effectively without them. Virtually all of the uses in this category are places of residence.
Community facilities are listed in either Use Group 3 or Use Group 4. As a rule, facilities found in Use Group 3 are deemed to be incompatible with Use Groups 1618 uses and, therefore, are not allowed in C8 and M1 districts. Facilities listed in Use Group 4 are allowed as-of-right in C8 districts and are permitted by special permit in M1 districts. No community facilities are allowed in M2 and M3 districts. The Zoning Resolution has generally encouraged the location of community facilities in residential areas.
The 1961 Zoning Resolution allowed a community facility to be larger than a residential structure built on a zoning lot of equal size in the same zone. If the same residential bulk controls were imposed on most community facilities as on residential buildings in the district, many community facilities would not be able to locate in most residential districts. A school, house of worship, hospital or college must be a certain size to operate efficiently, even in low-density, low-bulk zones. Applying the same residential floor area ratio to community facilities would require community facilities to occupy significantly larger sites in most zoning districts. Assembling large sites in New York City is complicated, difficult and expensive, creating problems for institutions the city needs and wants and for the neighborhoods in which they locate. Also, by allowing community facilities, which are often tax-exempt, to fit more floor area on smaller sites, more land remains on the tax rolls. However, in some districts, the City Planning Commission has determined that community facility buildings should not be significantly larger than neighboring residential buildings.
In 1973 the Zoning Resolution was amended to require that community facilities in R1 and R2 districts be limited to the same FAR as residential developments. Another amendment of that year provided that several types of community facilities with sleeping accommodations could no longer exceed the residential floor area ratio except by special permit Medium and higher density contextual districts generally allow community facilities either the same (or only slightly higher) floor area ratios than the other uses in the district.
These
Bricolage Designs Inc. approved architectural plans indicate the position of the Carbon Monoxide exhaust vent for the
subcellar parking facility as being in the rear yard patio. In response to a 311 complaint from 1 -26- 09 inquiring about the proper position for the vent and it's immediate proximity to the rear property line of 397 16
th street, the Brooklyn Buildings Department inspectors found on 2- 6- 2009 that the
"complaint unsubstantiated based on Department records".
Pointed 10 feet from any child's window? There is a very real chance, according to the above advertisement from
M Properties Group of Manhattan, LLC, that the outdoor terrace surrounding this CO exhaust vent could someday soon become
the ideal playground space for a daycare center!Knowing how concerned Park Slope parents are when it comes to the health and safety of their children, I can't imagine
Pre-K teachers allowing anyone under their care to play along side this potentially life threatening hazard. The risks are just too high.
Now more than ever, the DOB needs to reevaluate their position as to whether allowing the vent to remain in its present location will be in the best interest of the community.
The neighbors of 16
th Street have already spoken. They want this vent moved. It is simply unacceptable.
IMBY Links: Suck on this NIMBY's
