Space and Community at Sunnyside
Part 3. Deregulation and Designation
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Sunnyside Gardens interior courtyard,
where onetime common space has been fenced in by current
property owners
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For the eight years following 1966, every
common court in Sunnyside Gardens experienced some dissipation
through backyard fencing. In a few instances, courts were
nearly completely appropriated by private residents. Walkways
and mews, protected by permanent easements, remained largely
unobstructed, but access to subdivided courts held increasingly
less appeal for neighborhood residents. Several owners also
took advantage of their newly acquired artistic license and
renovated their houses in styles ranging from Californian
and Mediterranean to imitations of the White Castle fast food
restaurant. These alterations created startling contrasts
to the English country houses built by CHC and left many members
of the community aghast. Furthermore, although the original
plan had provided parking garages for Sunnyside residents
at the edge of the development, a number of residents preferred
driveways in front of their houses. Those who felt this way
were free during this period to cut the curbs in front of
their houses and pave areas previously used for front yard
gardens.
Battles over preservation and property
rights polarized the residents of Sunnyside Gardens. Debates
took on overtly political overtones, pitting “liberal” preservationists
against “conservative” property rights advocates, the result
being a further breakdown of any cohesive sense of community.
As these disputes became more intense,
the City Planning Commission came under increasing pressure
to take action. Rather than analyzing Sunnyside Gardens’ problems
specifically, however, the CPC opted to include the neighborhood
in a zoning resolution which applied to four separate communities
around New York City, communities bound only by their perceived
historical value as feats of early twentieth century planning.
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"The
objectives of the Special Planned Community Preservation
District are to preserve communities which are superior
examples of town-planning or large-scale development;
to preserve and protect the character and integrity
of these communities which by their existing site plan,
pedestrian and vehicular circulation systems, balance
between buildings and open space arrangement and landscaping
add to the quality of urban life; to preserve and protect
the charity of neighborhoods and communities that presently
exist which contribute greatly to the uniqueness and
livability of the city; to maintain and protect the
environmental quality that these communities offer to
their residents and the city-at-large, and to guide
future development within these areas consistent with
the existing character, quality, and amenity of the
Special District."
New York City Planning Commission,
“Zoning Text Amendment to Permit the Mapping of Special
Planned Community Preservation Districts,” Comprehensive
City Planning Calendar of the City of New York,
CP-22501 (New York, June 12, 1974).
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The other three areas dubbed Special
Planned Community Preservation Districts were Fresh Meadows
Housing Development in Queens, Parkchester in the Bronx, and
Harlem River Houses in Manhattan. Like Sunnyside Gardens,
these three developments each boasted unusual site plans;
unlike the CHC project, however, these three later plans were
characterized by an emphasis on large-scale apartment buildings
rather than single-family houses. Many Sunnyside Gardeners
thus immediately criticized the resolution as inappropriate
to the needs of a more suburban-style development.
The restrictions imposed by the 1974
zoning resolution required the issuance of special permits
by the Board of Estimate prior to almost any property alteration.
The law was not retroactive however, and therefore did little
to restore the common courts in Sunnyside Gardens. Furthermore,
as Havelick and Kwartler point out, “the city was [not] able
to enforce the new law effectively, since it had difficulty
with, among other things, distinguishing between old legal
fences and new fences built after the zoning ordinance.”
Curb cuts represented a particular sore spot among many residents,
and by 1978 an organization called the Concerned Citizens
for Sunnyside was created to lobby the City Planning Commission
to allow as-of-right driveway installation. These efforts
were not successful however, and the driveway issue remains
a point of contention to this day.
In the wake of the 1974 zoning ordinance,
preservation-minded Sunnyside Gardeners were compelled to
devise new methods for restoring the original character of
the community. While the CPC’s action had largely staunched
the building and fencing activities which had run rampant
during the previous eight years, it did nothing to encourage
the upkeep and restoration of the neighborhood.
Frustrated by the divided spaces and social networks
of the community, a number of residents took it upon themselves
to revive a demoralized Sunnyside Gardens.
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