OBJECTS SPACES ABOUT CONTACT
ZONED COMMON
2009

how to build your own neighborhood park

By practising some neighborliness, rear yard zoning setbacks could become ideal community parks providing safe places for play. This is not a capital or technology dependant idea. It does not require existing buildings to be demolished or new building types to be built. But it does require building owners and tenants to redefine the standard perceived values of enclosed private space.

The following is a proposal based on the current built conditions in low rise neighborhoods in New York City. It is not a critique or validation of the zoning rules as written.
In New York City the zoning regulations in residential districts require a minimum rear yard setback of 30 feet. The setback is to ensure adequate light and air. But the remaining open space per lot has limited use at 600 sq. ft. It can be great for gardens and barbecues. But in reality these spaces are mostly ignored and typically accessible only to ground floor units. If the plots were opened to one another there would be space for sports, games, playgrounds, gardens, community orchards and still space to maintain a perimeter of privacy for individual building use. Access for upper floor tenants could be resolved on a block by block basis.
Typical blocks in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York are roughly 750 feet by 200 feet. Under current zoning regulations in residential districts that creates a courtyard space of 550 feet by 60 feet.
Current private uses in existing rear yards such as dining and socializing could still be maintained along the perimeter of the common courtyard space.