City rezones Brooklyn site for housing developments.

The city will rezone a six-block area that will allow for the creation of several hundred new units of housing in Borough Park, Brooklyn and expand the Hatzolah of Borough Park, an all-volunteer, not-for-profit emergency medical response organization that serves the community.

Council members Simcha Felder and Bill DeBlasio, Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, President of SBCO, a Division of Agudath Israel of America, and Professor Elliot Roseman of Hatzolah of Borough Park attended the announcement at a breakfast with community leaders in Borough Park.

"Today, the city is committing land, a scarce and valuable resource in Borough Park, towards addressing two critical community needs," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

"Through the sale of land to SBCO and the rezoning of the Culver El, we will create much-needed housing in a community where opportunities for residential development are restricted, as well as enable the expansion of one of Brooklyn's fastest growing communities.

"To complement this effort, we will also be selling an underutilized lot to Hatzolah of Borough Park, which will allow for the growth and expansion of an organization that has been a vital part of the Borough Park community."

Borough Park is a community whose population has grown by 15.6% between 1990 and 2000 while there has only been a 4.5% increase in housing stock. The Culver El, a former right-of-way for the discontinued elevated railway, is a strip of largely undeveloped land running along 37th St. that currently used for parking and storage.