The Department of City Planning (DCP) presented finished plans for the third rezoning project in the Glendale area in as many years at a Glendale Property Owner's Association meeting last week.

DCP's Middle Village, Glendale, and Maspeth rezoning proposal would downzone the area to preserve the neighborhoods' mostly residential, family-home character, disallowing the development of many larger residential and commercial properties.

The existing zoning in the areas targeted by the plan have not changed since 1961. In 2005, DCP approved the first rezoning for a different 161-block section of Middle Village and Glendale. The downzone was adopted in March of 2006.

Five months later, after listening to community concerns that the downzone had missed areas in Middle Village, leaving them vulnerable to overdevelopment, DCP pushed through a second rezone, adopted by the City Council in August of 2006, that downzoned another 21 blocks in Middle Village.

The latest, and most likely final, rezoning proposal for the area would be the biggest yet. Plans for the roughly 300-block area cover eastern and western portions of Glendale, as well as areas of Maspeth and Middle Village.

According to DCP, the eastern Glendale area - bounded roughly by Cooper Avenue, Woodhaven Boulevard, 78th Avenue, and 77th Avenue - will be zoned to match the rowhouses, detached houses, and semi-detached houses in the area.

In western Glendale, the rezoned area - bounded roughly by 70th Avenue, 73rd Place, Forest Park, and the Amtrak Railroad Line - would limit building heights to existing three- and four-story rowhouses on Myrtle Avenue, and limit development in the Liberty Park area, as well as along Cooper and Cypress avenues.

The Maspeth and Middle Village rezone plans also present contextual downzones to match existing districts.

"By and large we're very happy with this rezoning," said Brian Dooley, president of the Glendale Property Owner's Association (GPOA) "I think it's fair. [City planning] spent a good amount of time trying to work with us and they've addressed some of our concerns."

Dooley said community groups in the area had lobbied for a single, comprehensive rezoning effort several years ago, but were told by city planners such a project would be too large. Instead, said Dooley, City Planning divided the project into several parts, tackling various issues along the way.

The revised plan includes a roughly 50-foot cutback in commercial overlays along Myrtle Avenue and in other areas, and new, lower-density zoning status for large swaths of Glendale, among other things, said Dooley, that GPOA and Community Board 5 have desired for years.

Dooley said once this latest plan is finished it should complete the massive, several-year rezoning process.

"I would expect that this is probably the last big thing, for Glendale, anyway," said Dooley.

Dooley and Kathy Masi, president of the Glendale Civic Association, credited DCP official Thomas Smith, who made the latest rezoning presentation to the community, for moving the process towards completion.

According to DCP, the presentation was an opportunity for the department to discuss the plans with the public, as well as any lingering concerns, before the official public review process - formally known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure or ULURP - begins this spring. City planners said the ULURP process will take approximately seven months.