TO GO, OR NOT TO GO?
Council holds hearing on Gowanus rezoning
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
The New York City Council
held its hearing on the Gowanus
INSIDE
Your entertainment
guide Page 47
Police Blotter ........................ 12
Health ...................................... 31
Opinion ...................................44
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 6 IFE, OCTOBER 15-21, 2021
Neighborhood Plan on
Tuesday, questioning developers
and heeding testimony
from neighbors and stakeholders
in a fi ve-hour meeting as
members prepared to take the
fi rst binding vote on the rezoning.
Activists, community
members, and local government
have been engaged in a
months-long Uniform Land
Use Review Procedure for the
82-block rezoning, headed by
the Department of City Planning,
with particular focus on
the more than 3,000 promised
units of affordable housing,
the impact more than 8,000
new housing units will have
on combined sewer overfl ow,
and funding for long-needed
improvements at two New
York City Housing Authority
complexes, Wyckoff Gardens
and Gowanus Houses.
Thus far, the project has
been voted down by Brooklyn
Community Board 2 and
approved with lengthy lists
of conditions by CB6 and Borough
President Eric Adams.
Both CB6 and the beep included
the three core demands
of the Gowanus Neighborhood
Coalition for Justice, including
the creation of an independent
task force to monitor
the city and developers to ensure
they’re carrying out commitments
made during the
ULURP process.
Karen Blondel, an organizer
with the Fifth Avenue
Committee, said during her
Oct. 12 testimony that past rezoning
and construction work
has proved the need for task
force “with some bite.”
“With construction comes
destruction, and in the case of
Community Board 6, we have
seen many trees cut down in
response to resiliency processes,”
she said.
Opponents of the city’s Gowanus rezoning rallied in January. File photo by Kevin Duggan
The City Planning Commission
voted nearly-unanimously
to approve the project
last month.
While Adams and CB6 are
in agreement about how and
why the rezoning needs to be
altered, their votes and conditions
are merely advisory, and
do not technically need to be
taken into account at the CPC,
in the Council, or in the mayor’s
offi ce.
But Councilmenbers Brad
Lander and Stephen Levin,
who represent the neighborhoods
included in the rezoning,
have said they will not
vote for the project unless it includes
GNCJ’s demands. The
Council most often votes with
the members who represent
the affected communities.
“I said at the time of the
release of Community Board
6’s thoughtful and extensive
recommendations when they
voted to approve with modifi -
cations that I would take them
as marching orders when the
proposal reached the council,”
Lander said at the start of
Tuesday’s hearing.
He understands why his
constituents are skeptical of
the rezoning, he said.
“But I continue to believe
that — if we get it right, and
there is still critical work to
do — the Gowanus rezoning
could be different, and could
genuinely deliver a more inclusive,
affordable, sustainable,
and economically vibrant
neighborhood, right at
the time we need it.”
Prioritizing NYCHA
Jonathan Keller, a senior
planner with DCP, said the
coronavirus pandemic further
highlighted the need for
what’s proposed in the rezoning
— more open spaces, more
housing, and environmental
justice.
“Our planning can give us
hope when it’s fl exible enough
to respond to the unforeseen
and permanent enough to
stand the test of time,” Keller
said. “And the Gowanus plan
does this in response to the
needs of today and the future.”
Francisco Moya, chair of
the Council’s Land Use Committee,
and Levin had the
same question for DCP — why,
after months of discussion on
the importance of fully funding
improvements at the NYCHA
complexes, isn’t there a
solid plan in place?
Keller said the department
has been meeting with tenant
groups, and that the administration
is working toward a
funding package.
“Was there ever any consideration
to incorporate investment
in NYCHA as part
of the neighborhood plan from
the early stages, or no?” Moya
asked.
They hadn’t, Keller said,
and the early-stage conversations
had been “humbling” for
the administration as community
activists pushed for the
plan to fund the complexes. He
confi rmed that the department
would be addressed in coming
weeks, before the Council
takes its vote.
Keller said that the department
is considering
holding regular check-in
meetings with NYCHA residents.
“I’m taking that as a yes on
the NYCHA-lead resident oversight
body on the NYCHA repairs,
and that we will be able
to codify that in the points of
agreement going forward,”
Lander said.
Cleaning up Public Place
Public Place, formerly the
site of a manufactured gas
plant and the future home of
Gowanus Green, will be fully
remediated and safe for tenants
when it opens, said Mark
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