Moving Forward on Fourth

There is no denying that Fourth Avenue is perhaps not the prettiest of South Brooklyn's boulevards.

Borough President Marty Markowitz has spouted hopes of transforming the avenue from "a 'traffic chute' into a grand 'Brooklyn Boulevard,’" but for now, much of the time the avenue remains desolate – serving chiefly as a mode of transport for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians between neighborhoods.

But a group of local residents and politicians are hoping that changing the avenue’s commerce situation just might change the avenue for the better.

Thanks to Councilmember Brad Lander, the Department of City Planning is now considering changing the avenue’s zoning in a way that would encourage more commercial activity – and with it, make the avenue more pedestrian-friendly to accommodate the avenue as an ever-growing residential district.

The DCP now says its working on a proposal to augment the requirement of existing zoning regulations to mandate more active ground floor use, particularly in new developments on the avenue.

Currently, much of the avenue’s ground floor spaces remain either vacant or without the space to accommodate retail at all.

“Under the new rules, new buildings would relate to the street a lot better and encourage mixed uses,” said Michael Cairl, President of the Park Slope Civic Council, which has long pushed for many improvements to the avenue. “That can only be good for Fourth Avenue and it is a development I am sure the community will embrace.”

After holding an initial public forum on the future of Fourth Avenue, the PSCC came to a few conclusions. Mainly, they found the avenue was badly in need beautification, traffic-calming measures, and, perhaps most importantly, commerce.

The PSCC and many others have long pointed to new condominium developments on the avenue as one of the main setbacks in fostering a social community environment.

Josh Levy, a trustee on the PSCC, and point man for Fourth Avenue at the PSCC, has pointed to the mega-condo The Argyle as a great example of what the avenue is missing. The Argyle scrapped retail on the first floor in favor of a parking garage – meaning that huge, garish metal ventilation grates face the street.

But just across the street, the Novo condos offer the opposite example: the building features ground level retail, and the residents are an active part of the community, helping to maintain J.J. Byrne Park, adjacent to the building.

There is currently no set timeline for when these new zoning changes might take place. A spokesperson for the DCP said that the agency’s plan will be presented to the public later this year.