Always the busy bees, the Department of City Planning is moving along on several Brooklyn rezonings, and according to a spokeswoman, is considering landing their block-by-block troopers in East Greenpoint next. Brooklyn Office Director Purnima Kapur rolled out last week their draft proposal for 12 blocks in DUMBO — not quite the same as the DUMBO Neighborhood Association’s (DNA) proposal released to blogs and newspapers prior to the meeting without her knowledge, but similar, she points out. (
Read Dennis Holt’s story on this) According to sources, DNA’s “pre-emptive attack” ruffled some feathers, although Kapur handled herself “very diplomatically,” and “like a pro.” Community Board 2 District Manager Robert Perris more candidly said he was a little irritated when he first learned of DNA’s presentation by reading this paper. After all, a major part of the rezoning process involves community boards. Typically members and other volunteers labor over details for months, even years, before making recommendations, then labor over the draft for several more months before voting. For example, the department’s Williamsburg and Gowanus frameworks closely reflected the respective boards’ earlier studies.
From DNA’s perspective, they couldn’t have acted fast enough, already having seen so many historic gems sacrificed to the development gods. Doreen Gallo told the Eagle her group was concerned City Planning’s rezoning wouldn’t be comprehensive enough. Ultimately, City Planning’s draft does cover a smaller area and doesn’t include the controversial Dock Street project by Two Trees Management, which as proposed would block views of the Brooklyn Bridge. Kapur said she left out Dock Street partly because Two Trees would request a zoning variance anyway. And it opens up, like, a whole other can of worms. According to sources, DUMBO’s meeting last week was also a little weird because everybody came with a plus one, either an expensive attorney or consultant, making it hard for everyone to keep it real (express oneself uninhibited). Millions of dollars and neighborhood character, as usual, are at stake.
Concerned citizens of Gowanus held a meeting Monday to discuss possible issues surrounding the Toll Brothers’ request for a “spot” variation prior to City Planning’s expected rezoning of the neighborhood. Aside from the typical concerns related to adding 577 units of housing (sewage, schools, traffic, displacement), they fear Toll Brothers’ toxic site wouldn’t be adequately cleaned up, according to
Brownstoner. Toll Brothers Vice President David Von Spreckelsen responded that the firm doesn’t own the land outright — the purchase is pending City Planning approval — and added, “We wouldn’t be able to sell one condo at this site unless we properly remediated it.” Kapur told Gowanus Lounge her office would consider Toll Brothers’ request before deciding on the overall rezoning, and that she hopes to have the neighborhood draft done this spring or summer. Expect to see her giving presentations here next month.
Next week, Kapur will reveal the draft proposal for Sunset Park. Community Board 7 District Manager Jeremy Laufer said he doesn’t know what to expect since there was little consensus amongst residents on what the rezoning should look like, aside from agreeing there should be one. The whole movement, in typical Brooklyn fashion, was spurred by a building that would have blocked sacred Lady Liberty views from Sunset Park, where many convened to mourn Sept. 11. Atypically, the developer agreed to cut the height rather than upset a ton of perfectly nice people.
In other exciting neighborhood news, Laufer said the brownfield cleanup plan has been approved for the Bush Terminal Open Space, a 26-acre waterfront park planned within the namesake industrial yard. The long-awaited final plan should be presented in April along with a construction schedule. It almost sounded like he wanted to keep that information under the radar to avoid jinxing the project into Brooklyn Bridge Park-like purgatory. As a means of comparison, Brooklyn Bridge Park would fund its maintenance mainly through earmarked property taxes from onsite luxury condominiums. Bush Terminal Open Space would fund its maintenance through earmarked taxes from the manufacturing facilities within the yard, but nobody in Sunset Park has freaked out about it, yet.
City Planning spokeswoman Jennifer Torres said the department has done more rezoning during this administration than the last six combined. Other current Brooklyn projects include Carroll Gardens and Coney Island (staff will need to wear their helmets for these ones). So what were planning officials doing before Bloomberg? Responding to different concerns, she said. Right now, New York City is dealing with “luxury issues” while other cities are grappling with the depressing effects of population loss. Basically (she didn’t say this), we should be happy we’re fighting about height and density versus the increasing supply of abandoned buildings and a dwindling tax base like most cities.
— Compiled by Sarah Ryley
© 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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