IN GOWANUS!
Gowanus rezoning after years of debate
COURIER LIFE, DECEMBER 3-9, 2021 3
Canal Conservancy executive
director Andrea Parker, in a
release.
The rezoning is expected
to bring more than 3,000 units
of affordable housing to Gowanus,
including the 950 affordable
apartments slated
for Gowanus Green, a cityowned
site currently known
as Public Place, after remediation
of the lot is completed
and 43 units at Mercy Home,
which is planned for Fourth
Avenue. Just ahead of the
Land Use vote, Lander and local
arts collective Arts Gowanus
reached an agreement
with a number of developers
to enter a Community Benefi
ts Agreement, which will
see more than 150 new, affordable
artist studios in new developments.
A second arts group in
Gowanus — Gowanus Artists
In Alliance — raised the
alarm about a 30-story tower
set to be built within Old
American Can Factory complex,
parts of which were landmarked
in 2019 to ensure it is
not demolished in the rezoning.
The tower had previously
been slashed from conversations
about the rezoning, they
said, and the tower’s inclusion
came as a “shock.”
“The Can Factory has 80
organizations and studios
with 300 workers, and construction
on this scale would
mean displacement, for some
while the construction is underway,
but permanently for
others like music recording
studio BC Studio,” GAIA said
in a release.
BC Studio owner Martin
Bisi told Brooklyn Paper that
the development would displace
his recording studio,
which sits in the footprint of
the planned construction.
“If I get displaced, I’m displaced
into a much less affordable
neighborhood, particularly
for commercial space,”
he said. “So the chances of my
recording studio staying in
Gowanus, or even Brooklyn,
or even New York City, become
lessened.”
Councilmember Carlos
Menchaca, who represents
the neighboring District 39,
including Red Hook and Sunset
Park, was the lone “no”
vote.
While he was the only
member to vote against the
rezoning, Menchaca was not
the only member who was
opposed to the project. Councilmember
Kalman Yeger,
who represents parts of South
Brooklyn, said he was voting
with Lander and Levin to
honor the informal Council
tradition of “member deference,”
or voting with the desires
of the councilmember
who represents the district
a project is planned for — a
sentiment he expressed while
explaining that he would be
voting “no” on the contentious
rezoning of the Blood
Center in Manhattan alongside
Councilmember Ben Kallos,
despite the majority of the
Council choosing to approve
it.
“For the same reason that
I’m going to vote with Councilman
Lander on the Gowanus,
which I don’t think is
actually a very good project,”
he said during the meeting.
“But I respect his work and I
respect Councilman Levin’s
work, even when I disagree
with both of you, which is
as frequent as you can imagine.”
The rezoning has been met
with opposition from local
elected offi cials and community
groups alike – in September,
Rep. Nydia Velázquez and
Assemblymember Jo Anne
Simon called on de Blasio to
halt the rezoning after the federal
Environmental Protection
Agency raised concerns
about the project’s Draft Environmental
Impact Statement.
The DEIS used outdated data
and inconsistent modeling to
predict the impact the rezoning
would have on fl ooding
and combined sewer overfl
ow, the EPA said in a letter,
and the two lawmakers said
a new statement should be
issued before the rezoning
moved ahead.
That didn’t happen, and
the fi nal statement did not
use updated modeling.
Last month, advocacy
group Voice of Gowanus announced
that they had hired
lawyer Richard Lippes as legal
counsel as they prepared
to oppose the rezoning. Following
the vote, the group
said they are planning to follow
through with their legal
plans.
“As Brad Lander celebrates
a massive violation of
state and federal law today —
one that endangers the safety
of our community and the environment,
and bends to the
interests of big real estate, we
note that a certain lady has
not yet sung when it comes to
the Gowanus rezoning,” they
said in a release. “See you in
court.”
The Council vote is the last
formal step in the city’s Uniform
Land Use Review Process
— Mayor de Blasio can
step in, but only if he were going
to veto the Council’s decision
in the fi ve days following
the vote.
“Rezoning Gowanus —
and unlocking a high-opportunity,
transit-rich neighborhood
in the heart of Brooklyn
for new generations of New
Yorkers — is a transformative
step toward building a
recovery for all of us,” he
said in a release following
the vote. “Thanks to years of
hard work from city agencies,
elected offi cials, advocates,
and Gowanus residents, we’re
fi nally bringing this neighborhood
the jobs, housing,
and open space it deserves.”
“This is exactly the kind of
thing we came here to do. And
it’s such a great pleasure to do
this right as we’re fi nishing
these eight years together.”
Linda Mariano celebrated the Old
American Can Factory being landmarked.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
A potential rendering of what the rezoning would allow near the Carroll
Street bridge. Gowanus Forward