Councilman Carlos Menchaca has
vowed to vote against any Industry
City rezoning that is not accompanied
by a municipal investment in
Sunset Park. Photo by Caleb Caldwell
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COURIER LIFE, JANUARY 3-9, 2020 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
The city has declined to
bow to a list of demands that
Sunset Park Councilman Carlos
Menchaca laid down to secure
his approval for an application
to rezone Industry City
— increasing the lawmaker’s
resolve to vote down the controversial
rezoning scheme,
according to a top aide.
“It’s entrenching his skepticism
that the best thing that
could happen for the neighborhood
could happen through
the ULURP that kicked off
in October,” said Anthony
Chiarito, the councilman’s Director
of Communications.
Menchaca — whose support
is necessary for Industry
City’s rezoning application
to succeed — said
he would only approve the
maker space’s aggressive 12-
year, $1 billion expansion
plan if Mayor Bill de Blasio
committed in writing to
provide funding for a high
school, affordable housing,
and tenant programs benefiting
Sunset Park residents.
However, in a Dec. 13 letter
from the Department of
City Planning, a rep for hizzoner
claimed that the city
would not provide the type of
fi scal support Menchaca demanded
in support of a private
development through
the city’s Neighborhood Development
Fund, a $1 billion
funding pool used to support
neighborhoods earmarked for
city-backed rezoning efforts,
such as the Gowanus Neighborhood
Plan being pushed by
the Department of City Planning.
“NDF cannot fund any investments
related to private
applications or non-residential
rezonings,” wrote Anita
Laremont, executive director
of the Department of City
Planning.
But Menchaca claims that,
whether public or private, the
Industry City rezoning would
have profound consequences
on the surrounding neighborhood
and that the city must
extend its support to Sunset
Park.
“This is not any run-of-themill
private application. It is
the largest private application
to rezone an industrial waterfront
property ever in New
York City’s history,” he said in
a statement. “It proposes the
most signifi cant change to an
Industrial Business Zone ever
contemplated — areas this
administration has vowed to
protect.”
The letter comes nearly two
months after Industry City executive
Andrew Kimball submitted
the rezoning proposal
to the city, which kickstarted
the city’s seven-month land
use review procedure.
Prior to the application’s
submission to the city,
Menchaca announced his
conditional support of the rezoning
application, as long as
Kimball bent to his demands.
Menchaca requested that
Kimball eliminate hotels from
the application, limit retail
space, and hold off on submitting
the application to the city
until the mayor had promised
funding for local initiatives
and a group of residents had
formed a legally-binding community
benefi ts agreement,
among other asks.
Kimball initially said he
would bend to Menchaca’s demands,
only to submit an application
to the city on Oct.
28 that ignored many of the
lawmakers requests, prompting
the councilman to say he
would vote down the rezoning
when it arrived to the city
council for a vote.
But in the past two months,
Menchaca and residents have
seemed to be searching for a
compromise. Residents have
formed a group to create a
community benefi ts agreement,
and Menchaca has tried
to meet with the Mayor’s offi
ce to try to get their funding
and support for community
benefi ts.
Still, progress has moved
slowly. No community benefi
ts agreements have been
formed, and according to one
of the group’s members on
Dec. 9, the residents have not
decided “if a community benefi
ts agreement is even feasible
given that the city council
will vote on this proposal next
June.”
The letter, which the city
sent in response to Menchaca
and Community Board 7 Chair
Cesar Zuniga’s Nov. 4 request
to meet with the mayor, only
further convinced Menchaca
that the land use review process
is ill-equipped to effectively
handle the rezoning, according
to his top aide.
“He was starting at a no
because he didn’t feel that
the process is correct,” said
Chiarito. “This is only entrenching
that position further.”
City pushes Sunset Park councilman towards
‘no’ vote on Industry City rezoning: Aide
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