{"id":238361,"date":"2026-05-20T19:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238361\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:08:11","slug":"cb10-votes-against-11-story-building-at-bay-ridge-staples-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238361\/","title":{"rendered":"CB10 votes against 11-story building at Bay Ridge Staples site"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BAY RIDGE \u2014 The proposed rezoning and redevelopment of the former Staples site at 9305 Fifth Ave. continues to spark debate and concern.<\/p>\n

Community Board 10 held its monthly general meeting May 18 and one of its topics included\u00a0the application that seeks to rezone the property to build an approximately 11-story mixed-use building containing 292 residential units, 88 income-restricted units under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, commercial space and accessory parking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The existing zoning would allow a low-rise structure of about six stories, called a R6B.The developer seeks a zoning map amendment to increase the building to 11-stories, which is R7X.<\/p>\n

Zoning and Land Use Committee Chairperson Stephanie Simone-Mahaney recapped a prior meeting where the applicant Daniel Grinshteyn and his team at 9305 Fifth Avenue LLC in Bay Ridge emphasized that the project would create permanently income-restricted housing in a community district identified by city metrics as producing comparatively little newly developed affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we thought about is using this space as a connectivity point for that whole block,\u201d said Grinshteyn of the project during an earlier meeting. \u201cIf you look at the retail across the street and to the left of us, it\u2019s suffering. The pizzeria doesn\u2019t have as much foot traffic as it used to have decades back. The bar across the street is a bit limited in how many people are coming. What we want to do is connect the block. Our side of the block is very quiet with the exception of a couple of stores to the right of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simone-Mahaney also discussed concerns voiced by locals and the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe district office received 88 written comments regarding the application, including 85 in opposition and three in favor,\u201d she said. \u201cWritten comments reflected strong community engagement on the proposal and addressed issues including neighborhood character, infrastructure capacity, affordability, environmental review, traffic and parking impacts, and long-term planning concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many stated the current development proposal raises concerns due to its scale, warning it could set a damaging precedent for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Former Councilmember and new CB10 board member Vincent Gentile remains opposed to the plan. \u201cThe enormity of the project that the developers are proposing now would impact Bay Ridge severely and would set us on that decline of precedent to continue this throughout the neighborhood,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Community<\/a>Community Board 10 voted against the 11-story building, instead recommending a smaller one.
Rendering: Menzak Architect P.C.<\/p>\n

Others voiced their issues with the proposal, including plans to add retail to the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some talk about there being a supermarket as part of the project,\u201d one speaker said. \u201cAs a resident living down the block from a very large supermarket, this is what we experience: Regular extreme morning traffic jams caused by truck deliveries, the loss of parking spots, which we can\u2019t allow more of, and regular noisy garbage haulers starting anytime between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

They continued, \u201cI\u2019m not against building. I\u2019m against speculation. The developer has applied to build six-stories as of right now. Mr. Grinshteyn should do that. I ask the Community Board 10 and the City Council to say no to the 11-story rezoning. Bay Ridge character, history and safety should not be for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Hofmo, president of the Bay Ridge Conservancy, asked about the purpose of such a\u00a0large building.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does a community like Bay Ridge that has stable housing stock and hardly any empty lots comply?\u201d she asked. \u201cI am opposed to this applicant\u2019s request. The applicant bought a property knowing what is permitted on the lot. Our community\u2019s already been altered substantially. Why should they ask for more?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is transportation,\u201d said another speaker. \u201cThe developer has decided not to do environmental studies nor transportation studies. Keep in mind the 95th Street train station \u2014 what happens to it? We\u2019re not talking about a brand-new train station. It\u2019s quite old. What happens after the building\u2019s gone up? Look at the transportation at that site. We have buses on 86th Street coming from Staten Island, quite a few of them. Also, Third and Fifth Avenue, the B8 comes down. I know he said they don\u2019t have to do these studies, but just because you don\u2019t have to doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a May 7 meeting, the committee adopted a motion recommending against the proposed R7X rezoning and \u201cfurther recommending that the site instead be considered within the context of a broader neighborhood plan, with R6A introduced as a more moderate zoning framework for consideration,\u201d Simone-Mahaney said. \u201cThe motion was seconded and approved without opposition, abstentions or recusals.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the general meeting a week later, a motion was discussed and seconded to recommend against the proposed R7X rezoning again, instead advocating for evaluation within a broader neighborhood plan using R6A as the more moderate alternative.<\/p>\n

Following a call to question under parliamentary procedure, the motion was put to a vote and passed with 27 in favor and two opposed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAY RIDGE \u2014 The proposed rezoning and redevelopment of the former Staples site at 9305 Fifth Ave. continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[61815,4211,18444,9,24,63,1491,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-238361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-community-board-10-cb10","tag-housing-development","tag-jaime-dejesus","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-real-estate","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}