Could Height and Zoning Restrictions Save LICH?

When Judge Barros served SUNY Downstate with a restraining order last week, preventing it from taking actions to close Long Island College Hospital until after a hearing, the decision bought supporters of the Cobble Hill institution a little more time to fight back.

Now, after some creative strategizing between Councilman Brad Lander and members of the Cobble Hill Association, a new 'contextual zoning' proposition could place height regulations and zoning restrictions on the medical center's property, possibly protecting LICH from a future sale.

On Monday, the Councilmember, along with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, New York State Senators Daniel Squadron and Velmanette Montgomery, among others, requested that the New York City Department of City Planning

..."apply contextual zoning—in particular, a 50’ height limit—on the blocks bounded by Hicks, Henry, Atlantic, and Congress Streets, and also several lots on the east side of Henry Street, between Pacific and Amity Streets, which comprise the University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital, aka the LICH campus, in order to prevent out-of-context development."

The Special Limited Height District was established in conjunction with the Cobble Hill Historic District in 1969, and extended in 1988. But at those times, the LICH campus was not evaluated for designation or covered by the height restrictions, stated the letter.

"The community was, and remains today, willing to provide the hospital with flexibility to offer much needed health services to the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond," wrote the electeds.

But local officials do not wish to extend that flexibility to a would-be real-estate developer.

In a separate letter to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the group also requested that the Cobble Hill Historic District be extended to include LICH. "

"The LICH campus contains a number of historic structures that are worthy of preservation," officials stated in the letter.

To wit, not all borough residents may be aware that the 155-year-old hospital was the first in the U.S. to introduced the practice of bedside teaching, to use stethoscopes and anesthesia, as well as introduce the first emergency ambulance service in Brooklyn.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission, in its 1969 designation report for Cobble Hill, found that the neighborhood is an "unusually fine 19th century residential area," that it "retains an aura of the past with its many tree-lined streets," and that it "has the pleasing quality of relatively low uniform building height."

"The LICH land is not worth the reported $500 million," said Cobble Hill Association president Roy Sloane in a statement to Patch. "What could a couple of blocks of low-rise brownstones be worth: $50 million at most? It's a low-rise brownstone neighborhood.

"SUNY is using bogus claims of the land's value to abet their scheme to shut down our hospital," he continued. "No three blocks in Cobble Hill are worth $500 million unless the City throws a zoning nuclear bomb at us and allows high-rises in the heart of brownstone Brooklyn. If the only way to scuttle the closing of our hospital is to remind the City of its commitment to contextual zoning, then that is what we will do."

Will the proposals be accepted? And will these little zoning changes be enough to save a neighborhood hospital? It is too soon yet to tell.

But if history is any indication, sometimes the littlest things can make all the difference.