Cost cutting on the canal
Gowanus Green project will be fully below-market rate housing
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
City housing gurus reaffi
rmed that the Gowanus
Green project along Smith and
Fifth streets will be 100 percent
below-market rate housing,
according to a Thursday
release.
“Gowanus Green helps realize
the City’s commitment
to fair housing and equitable
growth at a moment when safe,
affordable housing and public
open space is more important
than ever,” said Deputy Mayor
for Housing and Economic
Development Vicki Been in a
Nov. 19 statement.
The massive mixed-use
campus is part of the impending
Gowanus rezoning and
will add almost 1,000 housing
units to a historically-polluted
lot along the noxious canal,
with prices tagged to different
income levels of the federally
designated Area Median
Income, or AMI, something
the city already committed to
back in March.
The Department of Housing
Preservation and Development
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COURIER L 14 IFE, NOV. 27-DEC. 3, 2020
— the city’s lead agency
for the project — and their
cadre of private development
partners unveiled the pricing
levels for the 950 units, 883 of
which will be rentals and 67
will be co-ops.
Half of the apartments,
or 475 units, will be priced at
up to 50 percent AMI, which
equates to a salary of $51,200
for a family of three. Within
this tranche, 15 percent of
rentals will be earmarked
for formerly-homeless households.
One in 10 apartments, or
95 units, will be targeted at
households making a “moderate
income” between 51-80
percent AMI, topping out at
$81,920 for a family of three.
The remaining 40 percent
of units will go to the highest
income brackets in the project,
which includes both rentals
and all of the co-ops. The
rentals will be tagged at up to
120 percent AMI, or $122,880
for a family of three, while the
homeownership apartments
will be priced at up to 130 percent
AMI, or $133,120 for the
same size household.
Some 115 units of the campus,
or just above 12 percent,
will be set aside for seniors
aged 62-years or older.
While some of the higherpriced
units stretch the
meaning of the word “affordable,”
advocates of the project
said it will provide hundreds
of much-needed apartments
below market rate right next
to public transit and near the
wealthy brownstone neighborhoods
of Carroll Gardens,
Cobble Hill, and Park Slope.
“950 units of affordable I
think can make an incredible
difference in the lives
of thousands of people and
I’m so excited to welcome so
many new people into this
neighborhood,” said Ankur
Dalal at a virtual presentation
Thursday evening about
the project to Community
Board 6.
But opponents of the plan
have voiced concern about
risks of building housing
above the polluted site.
“The community has really
serious health and safety concerns
about this development
plan,” said Jack Riccobono of
the group Voice of Gowanus,
a coalition of activists which
also opposes to the larger rezoning
of the neighborhood.
A rendering of the Gowanus Green proposal at Public Place along Smith
and Fifth streets. Department of Housing Preservation and Development
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