Bay Ridge board rejects affordable housing re-zoning plan

November 30, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Community Board 10 leaders expressed concern that future re-zoning will have a negative impact on the small town feel of Bay Ridge and its neighboring community, Dyker Heights. Eagle photo by Paula Katinas

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Joining a growing chorus of Brooklyn community boards that are not singing the praises of Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing plan, Community Board 10 voted to reject a key element of the mayor’s ambitious proposal.

Board 10, which covers Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, recently voted to reject Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), a key element of the plan.

To date, 12 of Brooklyn’s 18 community boards have given de Blasio a thumbs-down on his affordable housing plan. Many of the boards are voicing their objections over the mayor’s intention to change zoning laws in order to accommodate the new housing.

The de Blasio Administration is calling the plan “Housing New York.” The mayor is seeking to create 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

Board 10 cited concerns over a number of issues, including zoning changes the Department of City Planning (DCP) is seeking in order to get developers to build affordable housing units, whether the plan will create housing that is truly affordable, and what board members charged was a rushed process that did not allow enough time to study the plan and make an informed decision on its merits.

“Few would deny the need for a fair and comprehensive plan that would address the pressing need for affordable and senior housing in New York City. Certainly, Community Board 10 recognizes this need. Upon due consideration, within the review time allotted, CB10 concludes that the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) initiative, now before us, is not that plan,” the board said in a statement.

MIH would require developers seeking to rezone in certain neighborhoods to create affordable housing units as part of any new development.

Another portion of the Housing New York plan, Zoning for Quality and Affordability, would allow let developers to increase the height of buildings by five feet in some neighborhoods or add two stories to certain buildings if they agree to include units for senior citizens or below-market-rate housing units.

Board 10 members said they are concerned that any re-zoning would alter the density and scale of the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights communities in a negative way.

“CB10 has long recognized that, although made of bricks and mortar, the character of our neighborhood is nonetheless extremely delicate and can be easily eroded without vigilance,” the board said in its statement.

Ann Falutico, chairman of Board 10’s Zoning and Land Use Committee, told the board at a recent meeting that any change in the density of the neighborhood’s housing stock could have far reaching effects.

“Density in the built environment requires balance — balance within the capacities of mass transit, balance in the number school seats in safe and well-constructed schools, balance within the capacity of the vehicular streets and pedestrian sidewalks, balance in the containment and removal of garbage, balance within the manpower of the city agencies charged with enforcement and compliance and balance with many other increasingly overburdened aspects of the neighborhood infrastructure, aspects which need to be in place prior to considering increased density,” Falutico said.

Other Board 10 members expressed skepticism over whether the mayor’s plan will result in housing units that are truly affordable.

There are large numbers of families in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights who have middle class incomes, but are still struggling financially because of high rents. These residents are “truly rent-burdened by the market rate housing made available to them,” Board 10 said in its statement.

The board also charged that the timetable established by the city for community boards to provide input was inadequate.

“The schedule for this review process was rushed, given the broadness and complexity of the amendments. These text amendments were first summarized in the spring with the official plans not realized until the end of September, giving two months for review,” the statement read.

The Board 10 vote, like other votes taken by community boards around Brooklyn, is non-binding. Community boards serve in an advisory capacity only.

On the Dept. of City Planning website, a description of MIH states that it would the new affordable housing would be permanent.

“Developed in close consultation with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and informed by extensive policy and financial feasibility analysis, this proposal marks a new approach to ensuring neighborhood economic diversity as we plan for growth,” according to the description on the website.

Another plus, according to DCP, is that affordable housing would be mandatory, not voluntary.

Building affordable housing would be a condition of development when developers construct units in a neighborhood zoned for MIH.