Those standards are most likely overriden by an agreement to reserve one condo or apartment inside the new building for low income people on Section 8. This piece doesn’t address those cases but this is New York City and the totalitarian left runs everything so the guys on welfare have rights that are greater than those of the mere property owners next door. More accurately, the new building's owners won back some of their property rights by being landlord to "the guys on welfare." I'm in favor of zoning (as opposed to its complete absence) but to depict it as a defense of property rights is Orwellian.
Zoning allows us to live at higher densities than would be possible without it. I do remember when every small town in Indiana had nothing less than 1 acre lots ~ that was or the septic systems and room to dig and redig outhouses over time.
As sewers came in smaller lots were tolerable.
That's within living memory.