Sewers for nearly six hundred homes
Start with the drainage record, because it is specific and dated. In April 2014 the Department of Environmental Protection announced a $48 million project for "the Woodrow area" (DEP 14-026), and in August 2017 it reported the work finished ahead of schedule (DEP 17-073). By DEP's account, "prior to the work, very few streets in this area were equipped with catch basins or storm sewers and roadway flooding often occurred during heavy rainstorms." The project laid 23,278 linear feet of sanitary sewer, which "will allow 590 homes to connect to the City's sewer system and discontinue the use of septic tanks," plus 15,059 feet of storm sewer, 197 catch basins and 133 manholes, and new 8- and 12-inch water mains.
Stormwater from those streets runs to a new wetland "built on City-owned property at the east end of Sheldon Avenue." The city's design and construction commissioner called the job "a capstone on the Sweet Brook system." A 2018 DEP release recaps it as "this $48 million infrastructure upgrade to the Woodrow area" (DEP 18-031).
What those releases cannot tell you
They are dated 2014 to 2018. They say homes became able to connect; they do not list which streets were done, and they do not say every owner did connect. DEP's 2010 south-shore releases told owners they had to hire a Licensed Master Plumber to connect within six months of notification (DEP 10-73). So for a house here built before 2017, three things are worth having before closing:
- the DEP connection permit and the plumber's name;
- a clear answer on the old tank, pumped and filled or dug out;
- camera footage of the house sewer, start to finish.
A yard that once held a tank can settle where the fill was loosely placed, which is worth a walk across the lawn and a look at any patio or shed built over the spot.
A place name that crosses an official line
Woodrow does not sit neatly inside the statistical area that carries its name. The Woodrow Methodist Church at 1109 Woodrow Road, built in 1842 and designated on November 15, 1967, lies in the neighboring Arden Heights-Rossville official area. The Coleman House at 1482 Woodrow Road, built before 1859 and designated on February 1, 2011, lies in the Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Woodrow area. The Census Bureau's geocoder puts the church in ZIP 10312 and the Coleman House in 10309, and Woodrow has no Staten Island Railway station of its own name in the MTA's station data.
Sandy Ground
LPC's 1985 report on the Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery on Crabtree Avenue, established in 1852, describes Sandy Ground as "a sandy plateau located on the outskirts of Woodrow, a small farming community gathered around the Woodrow Methodist Church which had been established in 1787." It locates the western edge of Woodrow near the intersection of Woodrow and Bloomingdale Roads. The 2011 reports go further: "this area, called Woodrow, Little Africa, or (more commonly) Sandy Ground, was home to a group of free black people."
Two more designations stand on Bloomingdale Road, covering three buildings: the Rossville AME Zion Church at 584, built in 1897, and the cottages at 565 and 569, dated about 1887 and 1898. Despite the Rossville name, the geocoder places 584 and 565 inside the Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Woodrow official area. Exterior changes on any of these lots need Landmarks Preservation Commission approval.
Houses, by the numbers available
The tax-lot profile for the whole official area is on the Annadale page. By building type, ZIP Code Tabulation Area 10312 counts 9,744 one-unit detached houses, 7,611 one-unit attached houses and 4,876 units in two-unit buildings in the 2020–2024 American Community Survey (structure-type table). That ZIP area covers part of Woodrow and much else besides.
Attached and semi-attached houses of the late twentieth century share a roof line and a party wall with the next owner. The flashing where two roofs meet, the fire separation in the attic and a shared driveway's drainage all need checking with the neighbor's side in mind. Frame two-family houses of the same era typically have separate heating plants and meters, and one of the two often gets less attention than the other.
Flood and zoning, briefly
FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer shows the Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Woodrow official area containing or bordering AE zones, floodways, Zone A and shaded Zone X (a 0.2 percent yearly chance), with VE along that area's shoreline. Get the parcel's panel from the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
The Special South Richmond Development District, which DCP maps over the Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Woodrow official area, sets out, among its purposes, "to avoid destruction of irreplaceable natural and recreational resources such as lakes, ponds, watercourses, beaches and natural vegetation." In practice that means tree credits, a two-foot limit on cut or fill measured from grade as it stood on November 2, 2023, and protected ground around counted trees; check each lot in ZoLa. Staten Island also sits in the Lower Density Growth Management Area, which DCP's 2011 metadata describes as demanding more parking, yard and open space for new development. One- and two-family homes fall outside Local Law 152's periodic gas-piping checks (DOB), and the Local Law 126 basement program is not yet in effect and has no Staten Island district currently in its area (DOB FAQ).