By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The city last week withdrew eminent domain findings concerning three blocks in Downtown Brooklyn, which include homes allegedly once involved in the Underground Railroad, a financial firm with 150 employees, a rent-stabilized apartment building that houses 40 families, a handful of parking lots and an arts venue.
It’s unclear exactly why the city withdrew its findings issued late August. But several parties involved said it was only a temporary reprieve for the residents and employees occupying the 21 lots on a half-block sandwiched between Metro Tech and the Fulton Mall, and on two blocks within the BAM Cultural District.
“The city’s position is, ‘we just have to make some corrections to our records,’ but my position is, this opens up the door for further negotiations,” said City Councilwoman Letitia James. She said a new public hearing would be held, after which the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) has 90 days to issue a new determination.
Officials from HPD were unavailable for comment by press time, and officials from the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership declined to comment.
Jennifer Levy, who is representing a rent-stabilized tenant, and Joy Chatel, the partial owner of a home thought by many to have been involved in the Underground Railroad, said she received the notice from the city last week after she filed a records request. Levy speculated that the city either didn’t make a significant enough blight finding, or failed to serve the property owners proper notification.
Levy said the original urban renewal plan for Downtown Brooklyn had blight findings on very specific properties, but was later expanded to include a general area deemed blighted, which may not be substantive enough, in the eyes of the court, to justify the seizure of personal property. Perhaps “they couldn’t produce a response to that allegation,” she said.
The city wants to construct a one-acre park and an underground parking garage on Duffield Street, which would serve the growing commercial, residential and office community in the area. Financial services firm Track Data and Amber Art and Music Space would be cleared to make way for projects planned as part of the BAM Cultural District, which include luxury and affordable housing and performance space.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
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