BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city’s chief planner
will push to complete the vast
Gowanus rezoning before
Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves
offi ce and elections shake up
the City Council, she said on
Wednesday.
“There is so much potential
in Gowanus for creation
of housing and a signifi cant
amount of affordable housing,
for job generation, for improvements
to the public realm, for
enhancements to transit, it
can be a win all around,” Department
of City Planning director
Marisa Lago told the
head of the New York Building
Congress Carlo Scissura on
his virtual interview series
“Espresso with Carlo.”
With de Blasio leaving offi
ce at the beginning of 2022,
and 51 of 55 Council members
term-limited from seeking reelection
in 2021, the sprawling
rezoning faces an uncertain
future — but Lago said she
“would hope” to complete the
roughly seven-month Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure
for the project before a new
mayor is sworn in.
COURIER L 4 IFE, SEPT. 4–10, 2020
The planning honcho said
that DCP is currently fi nalizing
an environmental review
necessary for the project to get
certifi ed into the lengthy public
process, without providing
a specifi c date for when she anticipates
the procedure to formally
start.
ULURP includes purely advisory
recommendations from
the local community boards
and the borough president,
along with binding votes from
the 13-member City Planning
Commission — which Lago
also chairs — and the City
Council, which usually defers
to the area’s local legislators, in
this case councilmembers Brad
Lander and Steve Levin.
While ULURP applications
have been on hold since de Blasio
paused the proceedings in
March amid the pandemic, city
offi cials plan to restart those
processes on Sept. 14.
Scissura voiced his support
for the plan, saying that members
of the Building Congress
were eager for the city to move
the rezoning forward — which
would open up more jobs for developers
and builders, who are
looking to take on new projects
in years to come.
“Our members are not worried
about today, they feel like
they have enough work right
now to get them through it,” he
said. “But they’re a little worried
about 21’, 22’, 23’ — are we
planning for new things that
they can work on? And when
you talk about what Gowanus
rezoning could be, or what Industry
City or other things
across the city, the pipeline for
work in two or three years really
is exciting for our memberships,
and really for New Yorkers
in general.”
Lago’s comments echoed
Lander, who has urged the
city to move ahead on the
Gowanus rezoning, arguing
that more time will allow for
a more involved process between
city offi cials, residents,
and other local stakeholders
in the 16 months left in his
Council term.
The rezoning would allow
for more total development and
taller building projects of up to
30 stories in the low-rise industrial
and residential neighborhood,
which city planners have
estimated would bring around
8,200 new housing units to the
area by 2035, including some
3,000 below-market-rate homes.
DCP director Marisa Lago and
Building Congress president Carlo
Scissura speak at a webinar.
A sketch of development along the Gowanus with the neighborhood’s
rezoning. Department of City Planning
Go-go-go-wanus!
City planners push for Gowanus rezoning before mayor leaves offi ce
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