Parking Lot Legality

I need some advice on an issue that is going to start affecting myself and my neighbors here in the next few weeks. I live in an apt with a backyard and it opens up to another larger yard that is owned by Cabbad (same guy that owns the bike shop on 5th that everyone hates). This area has been shared between myself and my neighbors for the past few years as a place to hang out, throw horseshoes etc... This lot is located in the middle of buildings and has access to the road by an alley between two buildings. Now he has been threatening to turn this into a parking lot for awhile and it seems as though that time has come. Now I have some questions as to whether the zoning on my block would legally allow him to do this. Does anyone have any advice where I can find out about zoning laws on my block and if it is indeed illegal, how do I go about stoping this? Much thanks in advance for any and all advice.

I would begin by calling 311 and asking them where you can find block by block zoning information, and whether that information is organized by street and house #, or by some other scheme that is less transparent, such as: "block #976; lot #26".

Check with these guys. They are against more parking lots. Besides zoning considerations, they might have some more "creative" ways to stop this.


http://www.transalt.org/about

try the department of buildings site at http://nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml

and city planning at http://nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html
go to zoning on the left hand menu.
you are gonna want to look at either map 16C or D.