GO AHEAD
City Council votes to approve
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
The New York City Council
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COURIER L 2 IFE, DECEMBER 3-9, 2021
voted nearly-unanimously
to approve the Gowanus
rezoning on Nov. 23,
officially setting the project
in motion after years of
planning and debate.
“It shows that many people
will accept growth within
their neighborhood if they
are a real part of the planning
process and see it as a
way to achieve shared values,”
said Councilmember
Brad Lander, who represents
the bulk of the district set to
be upzoned. “This rezoning
began nearly a decade ago in
grassroots community conversations.
It was strengthened
through robust conversation
in literally scores of
meetings. It was strengthened
through the advocacy
of the remarkable Gowanus
Neighborhood Coalition for
Justice, a diverse coalition
of public housing residents,
environmentalists, artists,
small businesses and community
leaders.”
Lander highlighted the
rezoning’s precedence — it’s
the fi rst rezoning to undergo
a racial impact study and the
fi rst rezoning in a “whiter,
wealthier neighborhood,”
after the implementation
of Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing, which will ensure
all new buildings have a
number of affordable apartments.
Earlier this month, Mayor
Bill de Blasio reached an
agreement on the rezoning
with Lander and Councilmember
Stephen Levin,
who represents part of Gowanus,
and community groups
including the Gowanus
Neighborhood Coalition for
Justice just ahead of the
Council’s Land Use Committee
vote. The agreement included
parts of the three core
demands laid out by GNCJ,
which Lander and Levin both
said needed to be included for
the project to win their approval.
Those agreements included
$200 million to fund improvements
and repairs at Gowanus
Houses and Wyckoff Gardens,
two New York City Housing
Authority complexes within
the boundaries of the 82-block
rezoning, and $174 million
to improve sewers along the
fl ood-prone Fourth Avenue,
as well as a vote of confi dence
that the United Stormwater
Rule will ensure that Combined
Sewer Overfl ow levels
do not increase even as tens of
thousands new residents move
into the neighborhood in coming
years.
The city will also work
with a third party to develop
and run a “Task Force,” who
will keep an eye on the city
and on private developers
over the course of the rezoning
to ensure promises made
during negotiations are met.
Levin noted the “unprecedented”
conditions of the
NYCHA improvements during
Tuesday’s meeting.
“Every single apartment
at Gowanus and Wyckoff
Gardens is going to be refurbished
by NYCHA, not
through the Rental Assistance
Demonstration program,
and not through
privatization of any kind of
any kind of private development
or infill,” he said. “But
just as an investment from
NYCHA, which is extraordinary
A drawing of what the Gowanus could look like post-rezoning. DCP
and unprecedented.”
While the $200 million
is less than the $274 million
NYCHA estimated is needed
to repair the buildings, the
agreement includes funding
to reopen the long-shuttered
community centers at the
NYCHA complexes, include
Gowanus and Red Hook in
“cloudburst” studies that
will analyze flooding and
storm events in the neighborhoods
and begin implementing
flood-mitigation
measures, and monitor water
quality and compliance
with the Unified Stormwater
Rule.
“These commitments include
new city-owned parks
and open space, strong policies
to mandate better waterfront
design and stormwater
management, support for sustainable
public space maintenance,
critical investments
in sewer infrastructure, and
long-term planning for fl ood
mitigation as the neighborhood
looks toward a changing
climate,” said Gowanus
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