Councilwoman James Charges
City Fabricated Blight Study
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development heard two hours of testimony Monday opposing the use of eminent domain to seize Downtown Brooklyn properties so an underground parking garage, open space, arts and performance space, and housing could be built.
Homes allegedly once used as stops along the Underground Railroad, 40 families living in rent-stabilized apartments, a financial services firm with 100 employees, an arts and entertainment venue and surface parking lots are among those that would be displaced.
The hearing was the second involving the 21 properties on three blocks. HPD spokesman Seth Donlin said the department mistakenly did not enter a blight study into the public record during the first hearing last May, requiring the withdrawal of the findings and a new public hearing.
One half block, bounded by Duffield, Willoughby, Gold and Fulton streets, is occupied by the alleged Underground Railroad homes and 40 low-income families, and would be replaced by a one-acre public plaza and underground parking garage with room for 700 cars dubbed “Willoughby Square.”
Track Data Corporation and Amber Art & Music Space — scheduled to open this month before the three Brooklyn entrepreneurs were allegedly first notified that the property they’re leasing was up for eminent domain — are among the occupants on block within the BAM Cultural District. The property on the third block, also within BAM, is a surface parking lot. The city plans to recruit private developers to build high-rise mixed-income housing with ground floor performance and arts space there.
City Councilwoman Letitia James said after the hearing, which she called “just procedural in nature,” that she suspected the blight study was created recently as the result of a legal challenge to first ruling in favor of eminent domain. “I did not see a blighted study in 2003,” she said, referring to when City Council was given the opportunity to consider the Downtown Brooklyn plan, including the use of eminent domain to realize that vision.
James voted in favor of the plan, but said a study specifically deeming each individual property blighted is necessary to justify seizing the property.
The study, which Donlin said was published by environmental consulting firm AKRF in November 2003, has not yet been made public. Jack Hammer, HPD director of Brooklyn planning, said a formal Freedom of Information request would be required to view the study.
Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a non-profit tasked with expediting the development of Downtown Brooklyn, said in a statement supporting the acquisition of the properties, “Willoughby Square has always been the centerpiece of the plan, and is an important incentive to attract private investment. The city government’s commitment to create Willoughby Square has led to the planned development of 500 new hotel rooms, 1,000 units of mixed income housing, more than 500,000 square feet of retail space and at least 125,000 square feet of new office space. We expect nearly 3,000 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs as a result.”
The 500-room Aloft/Sheraton hotels, the 22-story Hotel Indigo, the 900-unit Albee Square development with office and retail space, and the 216,000 square-foot Conway Building are among the developments planned or under construction that would surround Willoughby Square.
“Acquisition of property is critical and necessary for Willoughby Square to move forward — and without Willoughby Square, much of this new investment, and therefore businesses, jobs and housing, will not happen,” said Chan.
Other property owners at the hearing complained of not being offered to sell their property first for market value, which they assumed would be more than what the city would offer once it seizes the property.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law.
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
Main Office 718 422 7400
