COURIER LIFE, OCTOBER 15-21, 2021 5
McIntyre, general counsel at
the Mayor’s Offi ce of Environmental
Remediation.
“We can have confi dence
that Gowanus Green, Public
Place, as well as other places
the rezoning would designate
for housing can be safely remediated,”
McIntyre said.
“All these properties where
housing is to be built will be
brought to safe residential
standards.”
National Grid is currently
cleaning up the “hotspots”
on the lot, where gas tanks
used to be stored, McIntyre
said, and DEP has applied to
the environmental conservation
department and the federal
Environmental Protection
Agency for a brownfi eld
cleanup. Developers will do
a second cleanup before construction
begins.
But the site, located at
Fifth and Smith streets, may
“If we get it right ... 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.”
be needed as a staging site
for the EPA’s ongoing Superfund
cleanup of the Gowanus
Canal. If the federal agency
doesn’t fi nd an alternate site,
Public Place could be used “for
years,” delaying the construction
of Gowanus Green.
Lander had some suggestions
for Gowanus Green and
Mercy Home, a 43-unit allaffordable
building planned
for Fourth Avenue and 12th
Street under the city’s Urban
Development Area Action Program.
He would like residents of
CB2 and CB7 to be prioritized
for affordable units at Gowanus
Green alongside residents
of CB6— a change likely
subject to “some litigation and
policy debate,” he said.
“The community welcomed
two family shelters just
a couple of blocks away from
Mercy Home on Fourth Avenue,”
he said. “And we’d like
to see families who have their
kids at the local public school,
PS 124, who are there, have a
priority option for the permanently
affordable housing created.”
“I’m not even going to ask
the administration about that,
because, they’re going to give
me, as much as they’re my
friends, word salad about it. So
I’m just going to ask my chairs
to help me push hard for it.”
Preserving the Gowanus
arts community
Behind-the-scenes, Lander
has been working alongside
local nonprofi t Arts Gowanus
on a Community Benefi ts
Agreement that would benefi t
local artists.
David Kutz, board president
of Arts Gowanus, criticized
DCP for not studying the
impact of the rezoning on artists
in the DEIS because they
classifi ed artists as “freelancers”
who don’t work full-time
in their studios.
“I wonder, how does the
DCP know what the business
circumstances are for the artists
in the neighborhood without
a study?” he said. “How do
they know that no mitigation
is required?”
Johnny Thornton, the art
organization’s executive director,
said that they’ve reached
a “preliminary agreement”
with a few developers involved
in the rezoning to provide at
least 200 subsidized studios
for artists.
“We’re hesitantly excited
for the future of Gowanus if
this should happen,” Thornton
told Brooklyn Paper ahead of
the hearing. “If Williamsburg
took care of all of their artists
20 years ago, I think Williamsburg
would be a much different
place.”
“If a signed, ironclad contract
is not completed by the
time of the fi nal vote, we believe
this will be a death blow
to the creative community in
Gowanus.”
Preparing for climate
change
Amy Motzny, watershed senior
planner at the Gowanus
Canal Conservancy, said the
city should commit to additional
measures regarding
climate change and the rezoning’s
impact on CSO output
given the outdated modeling
and inconsistent calculations
included in the environmental
impact statements — concerns
fl agged in a letter from
the EPA.
Those measures should include
a full hydrology study,
she said, as well as ensuring
that Gowanus is included in
“cloudburst” studies, which
would identify neighborhoods
most at risk from sudden intense
storms like Hurricane
Ida.
While not part of the rezoning,
Tuesday’s hearing also
addressed the Owls Head CSO
tank, a four-million-gallon water
retention tank planned for
the Salt Lot next to the Sixth
Street turning basin.
Owls Head and its sister
tank, Head End, are designed
to catch and store stormwater
that would otherwise fl ow into
the Gowanus Canal. Construction
delays on the tanks violate
federal Superfund orders, as
they’re not expected to be completed
until years after the EPA
completes their cleanup.
Alicia West of the DEP confi
rmed to Levin that the tanks
are scheduled to be completed
in 2030 and 2028.
Status quoh-no
As the hearing wound down,
Lander emphasized the way
the community has already
changed the project — increasing
the number of affordable
units at Gowanus Green, pushing
for new schools and transit
improvements.
“We know what the status
quo looks like,” he said. “If this
rezoning is rejected, we will not
get 3,000 units of genuinely affordable
housing. We won’t get
signifi cant investments in public
housing. I think we’ll miss
the opportunity to make some
new and signifi cant stormwater
investments alongside the
Superfund, which will continue
on its own.”
“We just really have to
grapple with that.”
The Council must make
a decision on the rezoning
within 50 days of receiving
the CPC decision, and are expected
to vote before Nov. 15.
The Gowanus Canal seen looking north from the Third Street Bridge. Photo by Kevin Duggan