Carroll Gardens downzoning looms

Calls are growing to downzone all of Carroll Gardens, a low-rise Brooklyn neighborhood lined with brownstones. Outgoing Council Member Bill de Blasio is holding a rally next week to push for downzoning the entire neighborhood. De Blasio announced that the Department of City Planning has agreed to changing an old zoning regulation that defined narrow streets as wide streets, which allowed for taller developments. Front-yard gardens — which gave the neighborhood its name — had been counted in the width of streets.