BY JESSICA PARKS
City planning honchos recommended
the City Council
approve the controversial rezoning
application to expand
Sunset Park’s Industry City on
Wednesday — citing a need for
jobs within city limits.
“We know that for our city
to function, we need both warehousing
space and space for
job-dense uses close to where
New Yorkers live,” said City
Planning Commission Chair
Marisa Lago in a statement.
“The Industry City proposal
can provide both – without public
subsidies or public capital
investments on the underutilized,
privately-owned 30-acre
facility — but only if we update
our long-outdated zoning.”
The Planning Commission
voted 11-to-1 in favor of the $1
billion redevelopment of the 35-
acre facility that, if approved,
would add more retail, academic
COURIER L 6 IFE, AUG. 28-SEPT. 3, 2020
space, and offi ces over
the next 12 years.
Just weeks before the Planning
Commission issued its
advisory opinion to the Council,
news broke that developers
were considering scrapping
the rezoning plans altogether
after Sunset Park Councilman
Carlos Menchaca vowed to vote
down the proposal on July 28.
The pol, who holds outsized
power over the application’s
passage in the Council as the
district’s representative, made
the pledge after he said developers
failed to meet his long list of
conditions.
“I made it very clear that
I would not support Industry
City’s rezoning unless certain
conditions were met. These
conditions were not met,”
Menchaca said in a statement.
“I strongly oppose this application
and will vote no if it comes
before the City Council.”
Critics like Menchaca claim
Industry City’s development of
Sunset Park’s waterfront will
price out the neighborhood’s
heavily immigrant, workingclass
population in favor of luxury
condos and large corporate
retailers. The pol’s conditions
would eliminate hotels from
the plans and include the construction
of a public technical
high school.
“This racist rezoning seeks
to replace opportunities for our
working-class communities of
color on the industrial waterfront
with consumers of inessential
luxury retail and corporate
offi ce space.” said Jorge
Muñiz, a Sunset Park resident.
But while an area’s local
Council member has historically
had essential veto power
over any big rezoning in their
districts, a group of legislators
have challenged that precedent
in the Industry City case — including
Industry City. Photo courtesy of Industry City
Council members Robert
Cornegy of Crown Heights,
Donovan Richards of Queens,
and Ritchie Torres of the
Bronx.
Those proponents of the rezoning
effort contend that the
expansion could help the city recover
from a growing economic
crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Industry City executives
— who claim approval of
the plan would bring more than
20,000 jobs to Brooklyn and net
around $100 million a year new
tax revenue — say they’re committed
to making their case
before the Council in the fi nal
phase of their approval process.
“After considering the
facts, including that the proposal
will lead to the creation
of 20,000 good paying jobs and
generate $100 million in annual
tax revenue, the City
Planning Commission has
now recommended that the
plan be approved,” said Andrew
Kimball, chief executive
offi cer of Industry City.
MAKING PLANS
City’s Planning Commission recommends
approval of Industry City rezoning