COURIER L 8 IFE, MARCH 19-25, 2021
Green light!
Contested Sunset Park rezoning gets
go-ahead from local Councilmember
The rezoning will allow a 14-story on a site currently occupied by a Dunkin’. Dencityworks
BY BEN VERDE
A developer’s plan to erect a 14-story,
135-unit apartment building on Fourth
Avenue in Sunset Park got a major boost
on March 16, as the area’s City Councilmember
gave his go-ahead for the
building’s contested rezoning.
Speaking during a Council subcommittee
meeting, Councilmember Carlos
Menchaca acknowledged concerns from
some activists looking for more apartments
to be earmarked as “affordable”
— but ultimately gave his blessing, as
the structure will contain around 33 below
market-rate units.
“This proposal is not perfect,” he
said of the planned building between
24th and 25th streets. “It will not, for
instance, build 100 percent affordable,
which I believe we need to do here in the
city of New York, but it does represent
the clearest example of one of the only
things that will break the cycles of displacement
and gentrifi cation forever —
community-driven and accountable development.”
Menchaca’s support of the proposal
is all but essential for it to pass the full
Council vote due to the unwritten practice
of “member deference,” wherein
city legislators largely follow the lead of
the councilmember that represents the
area where the planned rezoning lies on
land use issues.
Of the 33 affordable housing units
in the building, developer Totem has
pledged to target either 12 or 13 apartments
to families and individuals making
30 percent of the Area’s Median Income,
while the remaining units will
target 60 percent of the AMI — coming
to a total average of 46 percent of AMI,
which is lower than the legally mandated
60 percent under the city’s Mandatory
Inclusionary Housing Program.
The developer, at the request of the
community, also agreed to not include
any of the affordable units as studios. so
to better serve families. As a result, the
affordable units will range from a onebedroom
apartment at $503 monthly to a
three bedroom unit at $1,658.
“We have worked closely with the
community to design a project that helps
meet the needs of long-time Sunset Park
residents and also works to address the
city’s critical housing shortage,” said
Vivian Liao, a Principal at Totem. “This
project and the broad-reaching community
benefi ts agreement that we have
signed alongside several community
groups is an example of how privatelyled
development can keep local needs at
the heart of their work.”
The legally-binding community benefi
ts agreement signed with the developer
also provides other guarantees on
top of the affordable housing units, such
as a pledge not to turn the development
into a homeless shelter, the inclusion of a
large bike-storage facility by local business
Oonee Pod, and the setting-aside
of an easement to add an elevator to the
25th Street subway station.
Sunset Park faces a dire housing crisis,
as documented in a recent report
by the Fifth Avenue Committee, which
found that the neighborhood has actually
lost more housing units than it has
created since 2014, while its population
has ballooned during the same period
due to continued immigration, and the
arrival of those priced out of neighborhoods
like Park Slope.
Menchaca, who is also running for
mayor, repeatedly stressed that he felt
the development team had done adequate
outreach in the lead-up to the rezoning.
“I see this rezoning as an example
of yet another development which has
come to terms with community control
and accountability,” he said. “I know
others will disagree.”
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