Bloomberg’s 2nd biggest rezoning creeps toward approval

The Department of City Planning’s proposal to rezone 530 blocks of Ozone Park in southwest Queens is inching closer to becoming a reality.

The 13-member City Planning Commission will vote on it next month, just before it heads to the City Council for a final vote. The rezoning would limit residential development to one- and two-family homes in an effort to prevent high-rise, high-density buildings. In the shopping section of the neighborhood, zoning would offer incentives for comparatively taller commercial and mixed-use developments.

Businesses, residents and politicians have been largely supportive of the plan, which is the second biggest rezoning under the Bloomberg administration, the Wall Street Journal reported. Local community boards approved it earlier in the fall.

“There are developers who have filed permits and are racing to beat the clock, but we have been doing everything we can to move the process along and protect the community,” City Council member Eric Ulrich told the Journal. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer