BY BEN BRACHFELD
Following vocal opposition
from community members, the
city has nixed its plans to build
a pesticide storage facility on
Ralph Avenue in Canarsie.
The rezoning application to
build the facility at 1427 Ralph
Ave. — which would house offi
ces, labs, and storage space
for pesticides — was approved
by Community Board 18 in
March, but faced opposition by
area pols, including Borough
President Eric Adams and
Councilmember Farah Louis.
The proposed 48,000 square
foot facility, which the city
fi rst applied for in September
of last year, would have stored
numerous chemicals to exterminate
pests, including ticks,
mosquitoes, and rodents.
Adams, in a letter recommending
disapproval of the
project’s Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure (ULURP),
noted that the facility was located
600 feet from a residential
district and a public park
and was located across the
street from a B47 bus stop.
Community residents gathered
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Michael G. Rizzotto, Manager
COURIER L 22 IFE, MAY 28-JUNE 3, 2021
at the site last week to protest
the proposal, concerned
about its potential impact on
air and water quality.
The Beep, who is also running
for mayor, cited concerns
from community members
about the presence of hazardous
chemicals, the risks of
which they weren’t fully appraised
of, and argued that the
siting raised “environmental
justice concerns” in a largely
Black community.
Matthew Pitt, Deputy Chief
of Staff for Louis, told Brooklyn
Paper that DOHMH hadn’t
done enough community outreach
for the project, reaching
out to the community board
but not to local neighborhood
associations.
“It wasn’t very effective,”
Pitt said. “We were more or
less unaware of what types
of chemicals were going to be
used. And how toxic or dangerous
they were.”
In a statement, the Health
Department ceded that it had
not done enough community
outreach for the project.
“The Health Department
withdrew the ULURP application
for the planned Ralph
Avenue project,” a DOHMH
spokesperson told Brooklyn
Paper. “We aim to be responsive
to community concerns
and make sure there is ample
time for community awareness
and education.”
The pesticide facility was,
curiously, approved almost
unanimously by Community
Board 18 back in March; 35
yes votes and one abstention
were recorded. At the May 19
The site for the proposed pesticide storage facility at 1427 Ralph Ave. in
Canarsie. Photo by Ariama C. Long
meeting, where the board offi
cially changed its position
to be against the project (after
learning that the project had
been pulled), several members
said they had been confused
by the mechanics of the vote,
and thought they had been
voting against the measure.
New CB18 chair Michael
Ien disputed the notion that
board members didn’t know
what they were voting for.
“The community board, basically
100 percent of the time, we
take the side of the community,”
Ien told Brooklyn Paper. “No
one said they were opposed to it.
They asked certain questions,
but there was no opposition.”
The city last month passed
a bill to ban the use of pesticides
on city property in most
instances; Mayor Bill de Blasio
hasn’t yet signed the legislation,
but it automatically
passed the weekend of May 22
without a veto.
EXTERMINATED
City nixes proposal to build embattled
pesticide facility in Canarsie
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