Urge Support From Officials in ULURP Process Citing Jobs, Affordable Housing
Compiled by Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
WILLIAMSBURG — Hundreds of parishioners from churches in the Williamsburg area joined in a procession for affordable housing and local jobs on Sunday, culminating in a rally at the former Domino Sugar factory complex on the Williamsburg waterfront.
Calling for support from community leaders and elected officials, rally leaders told a cheering crowd that plans for the 11.2-acre site has a goal of providing 30 percent affordable housing — or 660 of the planned 2,200 units — in the mixed-income community just north of the Williamsburg Bridge.
“It is absolutely essential that this project move forward, said Father Jim O’Shea of Churches United, organizer of the march. “We must create homes for the many families facing higher rents and threats of displacement. The New Domino also offers an opportunity to provide jobs and job training for local residents.”
For the past two years, Churches United, a local coalition of more than 20 North Brooklyn churches, has demanded a plan for the Domino site that would include at least 30 percent affordable housing (660 units) targeting low income families and seniors, as well as a jobs training program. The developer, Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), has agreed to these priorities, as well as to significant open space and other neighborhood benefits.
On Sunday, O’Shea and the marchers were calling upon community leaders and elected officials to support the project as it now undergoes the rigorous public approval process known as ULURP, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process involving the local community board, borough president’s office, planning commission, city council and mayor.
Of the 660 affordable units at the New Domino, 530 units will be rental apartments, distributed as follows:
• 100 units for families making up to $25,000.
• 330 for families making up to $40,000.
• 100 for seniors making up to 50 percent of the area median income.
The remaining 130 units will be available for sale by families making up to $90,000 annually.
Williamsburg resident Steven Baquerizo, a high school senior, called the plan, “a cause for hope.”
“The hope that when I am old enough to have a family and settle down, I will be able to find a home in the neighborhood I grew up in, Williamsburg,” he said.
Daisy Lopez, a social worker at P.S. 19 in Williamsburg, added that the long term service and construction jobs created by Domino will “bring opportunities for families who desperately want a chance to succeed and create a better life for themselves and their children.”
As reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle last week, CPC Resources Inc., the developer, received a green light from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to proceed with its revised plans to preserve the landmarked refinery complex at the center of the development, which will also contain approximately 220,000 square feet of new retail, commercial and community/cultural space, plus open space.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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