An applicant presented a rezoning request on July 16 for 5502 Flatlands Avenue in Community District 18 seeking to change the site from R3-2 to R6A with a C2-4 commercial overlay and map MIH. The proposal described a seven-story, roughly 49,637-square-foot mixed-use building with about 36 residential units (25% affordable in the applicantstimate) and roughly 7,399 square feet of ground-floor commercial space; the applicant said the site has been vacant for decades and initially sought a commercial overlay and one-story retail but City Planning directed consideration of R6A given planning priorities.

The applicant said the irregular triangular lot does not lay out well for residential floor plates and said their primary goal was a one-story commercial building. Community Board 18 and multiple community speakers, including the district manager and the local assembly office representative, said they supported a one-story commercial retail building consistent with the corridorharacter and raised concerns about parking, traffic, sewer capacity and recent power reliability issues.

CB18 voted to approve only a C2-4 commercial overlay for a one-story retail building and opposed the R6A residential rezoning. The district manager said the corridor is predominantly one-story retail and that the neighborhood experiences stormwater flooding, blackouts and limited infrastructure capacity; she urged the borough president to support the commercial-only outcome. The applicant told the panel it would accept multiple MIH options if residential were approved but stressed the siteonstraints for regular residential floorplates because of the triangular shape.

No formal city action occurred at the hearing; the borough president will submit recommendations to the City Planning Commission under ULURP. Written comment was invited through July 18, 2025.