BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Brooklyn Judge has lifted
a temporary restraining order
on the city’s Gowanus rezoning
on Monday, allowing the contested
neighborhood-wide land
use proposal to move ahead
after months of court battles
about the legality of virtual
public hearings amid the pandemic.
Supreme Court Justice
Katherine Levine agreed to let
the city launch the scheme into
public review on the condition
that offi cials offer an in-person
location for locals without
an internet connection to tune
into a virtual hearing about the
project organized by local community
boards 2 and 6, according
to an attorney in the case.
“The effort to prevent public
participation in the guise
of increasing public participation
has failed. The Judge properly
concluded that she could
not block a virtual hearing and
that she couldn’t hold the process
up any longer,” said Ken
Fisher, who previously fi led an
intervention in the lawsuit on
behalf of community groups
in favor of the rezoning. “She
will order the City to have an
‘in-person’ location in addition
for people who don’t have Internet
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service, but they are well on
their way to fi guring out the logistics.”
The in-person event will
take place at J.J. Byrne Playground
at Fifth Avenue and
Third Street in Park Slope,
where folks will be able to watch
the Zoom meeting and testify as
well, according to Fisher.
A spokesperson for the Department
of City Planning —
the agency in charge of the
rezoning — confi rmed in a
statement that the rezoning
will move into public review
Monday afternoon.
“After New York Supreme
Court Justice Levine lifted a
temporary stay earlier this afternoon,
the proposed Gowanus
Neighborhood Plan will be presented
to the City Planning
Commission to begin the City’s
public land use review process
today,” said Melissa Grace. “We
are grateful for the ongoing attention
to this case by Justice
Levine, and we will continue
to work with the Court and
the community to ensure that
the Plan, which has been in
the making for many years, is
widely reviewed.”
An attorney for the plaintiffs,
a group of opponents of
the rezoning known as Voice of
Gowanus, released a statement
in response Monday emphasizing
Judge Levine’s order being
conditional on requirements
which the city has not yet met
and that court proceedings continue.
“The lifting of the TRO was
provisional and is contingent
upon the City meeting certain
requirements, which it has not
yet done,” said Jason Zakai in
a statement. “The court proceeding
continues, and Voice
of Gowanus will not waver in
its fi ght on behalf of the community
to ensure there is increased
public participation,
access and transparency at
The Gowanus Canal. Photo by Kevin Duggan
any Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure public hearings on
the massive and controversial
Gowanus rezoning plan.”
The group sent out an adThe
city’s announcement angered
the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, chiefl y
the group Voice of Gowanus,
which opposes the rezoning
and slammed offi cials for disclosing
behind-the-scenes negotiations.
The neighborhood-wide
rezoning — which would allow
for some 8,000 new housing
units to be built along
the toxic canal over the next
decade-and-a-half, including
about 3,000 at below-marketrates
— has been stalled in
court since opponents of the
plan sued the city in January,
and the court granted a temporary
restraining order on
the proposal just days before
the city planned to launch it
into public review.
The plaintiffs claimed the
city’s plans to hold ULURP
hearings via Zoom was
against the City Charter.
But critics of the lawsuit
said the legal move was just
an attempt to delay the project
long enough so it wouldn’t
make it through the roughly
seven-month ULURP schedule
before the end of 2021, when
Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves offi
ce and elections shake up the
City Council, which has veto
power in the review process.
The City Planning Commission
on Friday scheduled
a hearing on the rezoning for
Monday afternoon.
PLEASE GO ON!
Judge lets Gowanus rezoning move forward
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