From City Limits: Seven Months After Contested Atlantic Ave. Upzonings, Details Finally Emerge

The 1034-1042 Atlantic Ave. site

I have an article in City Limits today about the still-murky aftermath to two prominent rezonings along Atlantic Avenue, Seven Months After Contested Atlantic Ave. Upzonings, Details Finally Emerge.

From the lead:

In April, Central Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson surprised some observers when she triumphantly announced a “paradigm shift” for securing affordable housing at two proposed 17-story developments in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, after earlier suggesting the applicants wait for a more comprehensive plan for the under-built Atlantic Avenue corridor.

The developers would get their spot upzonings, after agreeing to making 35 percent of the 438 units affordable to low-income renters, thanks to a separate agreement outside the Council rezoning process. Developers, Hudson said, “can do more than MIH.” Indeed, the share under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, or MIH, rules is 30 percent affordability, and at higher average rents than Hudson secured.

But seven months after Hudson signed off on the residential towers at 870-888 Atlantic Ave. and 1034-1042 Atlantic Ave., questions over official documentation and enforcement mechanisms linger, even as Hudson and the Department of City Planning (DCP) embark on a comprehensive rezoning along the corridor, also announced in April.

The 870-888 Atlantic Ave. site

I had interviewed Hudson on April 26, two days before the final Council vote (and her subsequent press release), and was left with the impression that the key documents that memorialized the affordable housing promise, including the counter-parties, would be released shortly.

That didn't happen. So my article, which tries address the general pattern of rezonings on or near the Atlantic Avenue corridor in what's known as the M-CROWN district, was put on hold.

And, as explained in the City Limits article, her office only released more details when told of a deadline for my article.

The full documents have not surfaced in the city's ACRIS system, and I couldn't get an explanation--from Hudson's office, the nonprofit counter-parties, the developers--as to why.

But we do know--not disclosed in the press release after the Council vote--that the Fifth Avenue Committee and IMPACCT Brooklyn signed the agreements with the developers, and will be the recipients of the $100,000 in anti-displacement funds, in two tranches, at least after the new developments get built.

It seems like a relatively basic information to share, so it's confusing and confounding that it wasn't made public--and that no one has seemingly pushed. 

The issue of transparency did come up at recent meetings of Community Board 8's Land Use Committee, as described in the article, as yet another proposed spot rezoning is on the table, represented by the same land-use lawyer who represented the two developers in the rezonings passed in April, as well as some other rezonings in the area.

For the rest of the article, go here.