BY BEN VERDE
Sunset Park’s Community
Board 7 voted to approve
a hotly-debated rezoning on
Fourth Avenue on Wednesday,
paving the way for a 14-story,
135-unit apartment building between
24th and 25th streets.
The civic panel’s advisory
25-to-16 vote comes after a series
of contentious public meetings
and protests over the project,
where some members pushed
the board to reject the development
for including just 35 units
as “below market rate.”
Totem, the developer behind
the project, included the affordable
housing units under the
city’s Mandatory Inclusionary
Housing program, which sets
standards for the amount and
the price of discounted units
included in any building seeking
a rezoning — leading some
board members to approve the
proposal for fear of losing the
affordable units altogether.
“This is not a perfect project,
but what I believe is that affordable
housing is a protective factor
to families,” said the board’s
chairman, César Zúñiga.
“While it’s a really hard pill to
swallow, I would rather see 35
families with permanent affordable
COURIER L 14 IFE, NOV. 27-DEC. 3, 2020
housing.”
Despite the developers adhering
to city-mandated standards,
some CB7 members
pushed the builders to earmark
all 135 units “affordable,” using
the area’s median income as a
guide for determining rental
prices.
“Looking at the number of
proposed affordable units, it’s
incredibly small, particularly
when looking at this large-sized
luxury building,” said board
member Justin Collins. “The
negative impacts of this building
will greatly outweigh the
few affordable units that are
there.”
Representatives for the company
countered that constructing
a building with 100 percent
discounted apartments was fi -
nancially unreasonable without
government subsidies, especially
after paying market price
for the land.
“There is literally no public
program that exists to bridge
the gap required to build 100
percent affordable unless the
land is close to free,” said Vivan
Liao, a co-founder of Totem. “In
this case, it was not.”
While Liao argued for creating
such a citywide program to
address New York’s housing crisis,
the community should not
expect private entities to absorb
a fi nancial hit for nothing in return
— and the lack of a government
plan is not worth losing
out on 35 affordable homes in
the neighborhood.
“We agree that this is a
missed opportunity and that a
more comprehensive approach
to creating housing should be
looked at citywide,” she said.
“However those major comprehensive
reforms will take time
and in the absence of that reform,
taking an all-or-nothing
stance to this project as a matter
The rezoning will allow a 14-story, 135 unit building. Dencityworks
of principle also seems to be
a missed opportunity to create
affordable housing now.”
The discounted units will
be targeted for families making
between 30-and-60 percent of
the city’s area median income
— with 30 percent representing
roughly $34,110 per year for a
family of four.
The next public hearing on
the proposal will be held virtually
at Borough Hall on Nov. 30.
After Borough President Eric
Adams weighs in, it will move
through the process until it
goes to the City Council, where
Sunset Park Councilman Carlos
Menchaca will have outsized
say over the matter as the
area’s representative.
Menchaca has not yet declared
how he intends to vote on
the matter, but told Brooklyn
Paper earlier this month that
he will take the concerns of the
community into account when
he makes his determination.
“I have consistently stated
my concerns with MIH and
Sunset Park’s need for deeply
affordable housing, but will
prioritize what I hear directly
from the community,” he said.
GREEN LIGHT!
Civic gurus OK contested 4th Ave rezoning
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Commissioner