Council to ban paved lawns

Paving entire front yards of homes is about to become a thing of the past, as the City Council is expected to approve a bill Wednesday that would ban what was a popular way to create parking spots in Queens and Brooklyn. The zoning law would require homeowners to keep 20 to 50 percent of their front yards green (existing concrete lawns are exempt). While some homeowners say that ugly concrete lawns hurt property values, others say that parking is a key selling point.