NEW YORK CITY-The City Council on Tuesday approved the rezoning of the Astoria section of Queens, a 238-block swath that hadn’t been rezoned comprehensively in nearly half a century. The downzoning was intended to put a cap on the height of residential projects in the area, which has seen its share of out-of-scale apartment buildings in recent years.

According to the Department of City Planning, the rezoning in this eastern Queens neighborhood focuses on two large existing zoning districts: R5 to the north of the Grand Central Parkway and R6 to the south. “These residential districts have not been modified since their initial implementation in 1961, and since they allow a variety of building envelopes and housing types, newly constructed buildings have been increasingly inconsistent with prevailing scale, density and built character,” the DCP says in its summary of the rezoning proposal.

Among other things, the rezoning calls for incentives for the development of affordable housing through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program on blocks fronting Vernon Boulevard, 21st Street and 31st Street. The rezoning is also intended to encourage new development along some of the neighborhood’s wider streets, commercial corridors and the transit hubs near the N train.