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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Illegal Driveways Vex Brooklyn Drivers & Community Board

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Many homeowners in Brooklyn have been illegally creating driveways on their front lawns and paving the streets with unauthorized curb spots, causing a lack of parking and infuriating locals, The N.Y Post reported.

This is a rampant problem on 79th Street between 19th and 20th Avenues. This stretch of the street alone has more than a dozen bogus driveways, residents say. Many of those have popped up over the last 6 months, according to Fox-5.

Police officers have a difficult time determining which driveways are legal and which are not; frequently the homeowners who install the illegal addition to their property, will call police if someone parks in front of their makeshift driveway, resulting in tickets.

“So many have paved over their lawns and made illegal curb cuts. And the current laws have no bite to reverse them once they’re there”, said Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of Community Board 11 in Bensonhurst

The Department of Buildings said that inspections for illegal curb cuts are complaint-based and officials encourage the public to call 311, but very little action has been taken, residents told FOX-5

“Most of them I’ve seen go from a lawn to a driveway overnight….. “It’s infuriating. It’s obscene. There’s so little parking as it is without it being reduced further. There’s no greenery here”, Michael Buhse, 55, who lives on 79th Street between 19th and 20th avenues in Bensonhurst, told the NY Post. The resident said that even at 1 AM, it can take a half hour to find a spot.

These driveways also violate a “green zone” zoning amendment. This text amendment was added into NYC codes to preserve and enhance the streetscape character of residential neighborhoods. The NYC Yards Text Amendment from 2008, requires residential developments to have a part of their front yards planted, ranging from 20 percent for narrow lots to 50 for lot 60 feet wide or greater, previously it was allowed for an entire area to be paved.

Brooklyn is not the only area that has experienced this growing concern, Woodhaven is another hotspot for illegal driveways. They illegally covered up all of the drainage,” said Vance Barbour, a board member of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association. “This is against the law.”

Barbour told the Queens Chronical that in 2017 a contractor came to the area and started ripping up the front yards of several houses on 86th St and creating driveways. After Barbour reported the problem at least two of the properties have been served with a violation from the Environmental Control Board.

By Artie Weinberger

 

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