By Michèle De Meglio
A plan to downzone Brighton Beach will be unveiled at Community Board 13 meeting later this month. Chuck Reichenthal, the board’s district manager, made the announcement to cheers from community residents eager to see the cozy nabe downzoned. “I’ve been told now it’s April,” Reichenthal explained at the board’s meeting last week. That meeting on March 26 was supposed to be when the Department of City Planning presented its downzoning plan. “I’ve been told by City Planning that the long delayed downzoning plan for Brighton Beach would be at our March meeting. This is our March meeting,” Reichenthal said. Brighton Beach residents spent the last five years calling on city officials to downzone the neighborhood. As they’ve waited, developers have knocked down modest homes and constructed multistory residential buildings in their place. Fears have heightened in recent weeks as a spate of fires destroyed several bungalows in Brighton Beach. “I have three 10-story buildings outside my window,” said community activist Ida Sanoff. Sanoff says the situation has worsened now that the economy is headed for a recession. She says developers are abandoning projects, leaving them partially completed. The belief is that construction will resume when the economy improves. “All the developers in Brighton Beach are just sitting around doing nothing and waiting,” Sanoff said. Sanoff said developers are even leaving construction materials at project sites and on roofs so when it rains, debris is washed down the streets. “There’s Styrofoam rolling down the streets,” she asserted. And, “we’re breathing dust.” “There’s all this construction going on and nobody is monitoring this,” she continued. Community Board 13’s next meeting will be held on April 30 at 7 p.m. at Coney Island Hospital, 2601 Ocean Parkway, in the second floor auditorium. Contact the board at 718-266-3001 for more information.
