BY JESSICA PARKS
Sunset Park activists are
beginning their battle against
a planned 14-story apartment
building in Greenwood Heights
that they claim will price out
the area’s current inhabitants.
“As a community, we want
to come together and we want
to say what do we envision
here,” said lifelong Sunset
Park resident Antoinette Martinez.
“We want a say in how
we are going to move forward,
how we are going to have real
housing policies that are going
to benefi t real neighborhoods
and real families.”
Protesters rallied at the site
of the proposed structure on
Fourth Avenue between 24th
and 25th streets on Nov. 9 demanding
developers meet the
needs of the neighborhood’s lowincome
residents who’ve been
severely impacted by the ongoing
COURIER L 10 IFE, NOV. 13-19, 2020
coronavirus pandemic.
“What we are looking for
are real housing solutions,”
Martinez said.
Totem, the Brooklyn-based
development fi rm behind the
project, is seeking approvals
to rezone the lot at 737 Fourth
Ave. — where a Dunkin’ Donuts
and Baskin Robbins drivethrough
currently stands — to
allow for the proposed mixeduse
development, which would
include 140 apartment units.
Of those 140 units, the developers
have proposed that 40
will be “affordable” under the
city’s Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing Program — but protesters
say they want developers
to make their estimates according
to the average median
income of the neighborhood,
as opposed to more general
citywide data.
Developers, however, maintain
that they intend to target
the real incomes of the neighborhood
at 30 to 60 percent of
the annual median income for
the percentage of their proposal
that is “affordable.”
“We are really making an
effort at the behest of the community
board to really focus on
these lower AMI levels,” said
Tucker Reed, Totem’s chief
principal offi cer at an October
meeting of Community Board 7.
Apartment units will
mostly be one- and two-bedrooms,
with some three-bedrooms,
developers said — but
protesters further argued
that the 40 “affordable” units
will be mostly one-bedrooms,
which they say don’t serve the
needs of their community.
“Sunset Park is a workingclass
Protesters rallied against a proposed 14-story building at 737 Fourth Ave.
Photo by Jessica Parks
community of families,”
Martinez said. “What families
are going to benefi t from
mostly one-bedroom apartments?”
Developers told Brooklyn
Paper they will try to “squeeze
out” as much space as possible
for low-income tenants, and
have elected to eliminate all
studio apartments from the
proposal. And while some
protesters called for Totem
to earmark every unit in the
proposed building as “affordable,”
Reed said they would
love to — except the city has
no programs to facilitate such
an endeavor, and the company
still needs to see a fi nancial return
from the property.
“If there were a city program
that we were allowed to
enter that would foresee 100
percent affordable, we would
love to,” he told Brooklyn Paper.
“But this land is not for
free. It cost signifi cant dollars
to put together.”
To read more about the proposal
and the Nov. 9 protest,
visit BrooklynPaper.com.
NOT SO FAST
Activists rally against proposed
Greenwood Heights development
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