Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan Community Planning workshop rescheduled for April 16, in Prospect Heights.

The meeting on the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP) originally scheduled for March 12 has been rescheduled to April 16.

From the Department of City Planning's AAMUP overview page:

Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP) Community Planning Workshop 2

Sunday, April 16, 2023 | 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Location: Brooklyn PS 9 Gym | 80 Underhill Ave., Brooklyn NY 11236

This is the same location as the three workshops during the week of Feb. 13. I attended one, and was hoping to get copies of the digital presentations, but they have not been made available. 

Nor are the names of the Steering Committee members available on the AAMUP page, though they were part of a slideshow shared with Community Board 8. (Did anyone official answer my tweet asking why the names weren't posted? Not yet.)

The Land Use discussions were notably vague, as I wrote, at least compared to the more specific arguments--regarding trade-offs around scale, density, affordability, and job-creating space--in previous spot rezonings debated at Community Board 8 and, eventually, green-lighted by Council Members Laurie Cumbo and, more recently, Crystal Hudson.

Walking tour and workshop

From the announcement:

Join a walking tour and open house workshop to share ideas and draft recommendations on the future of Atlantic Avenue alongside elected officials, city agencies, and facilitator WXY.

--Walking Tours (2:00-3:00 PM)
--Open House (3:00-5:30 PM)
All members of the public are encouraged to participate. Optional walking tours will start at the venue. Open house attendees are welcome to drop-in or leave at their convenience and are not required to attend from the start.

You can register here.

The workshops in this case likely will wind up as less "group interactive" than the previous ones, since the drop-in aspect suggests more direct interaction with the elected officials, agencies, and facilitator.

Again, I'll keep watch to see if the walking tours and workshop address the prior spot rezonings, which, as I wrote, were ignored at the first Community Planning Workshop, and got a very brief mention at the  workshop focused on Land Use.

About the location

It's likely easier logistics for the Department of City Planning, but it's notable that these meetings are being held in Prospect Heights, close to the Vanderbilt Avenue western border of the plan map, near the area where the city has already approved several spot rezonings in what was known as the "M-CROWN" area. (Ditto with the meeting this Saturday on land-use priorities in District 35.)

There's an argument for holding such meetings further east in Crown Heights/Bedford-Stuyvesant, say, at Classon Avenue or toward the east, where there are far more parcels with potential for redevelopment. 

(Indeed, as I wrote, a proposal for a 13-story building along Atlantic Avenue has surfaced well east of the Nostrand Avenue eastern border of the AAMUP study.)

The location means it's somewhat easier for Prospect Heights residents to attend, rather than those closer to (what likely will be) the majority of future changes.

From my coverage of the Land Use workshop

As I noted, the same flaws I identified have persisted:

• the history of the project's genesis was too neat
• the history of past and pending spot rezonings--crucial to questions about potential bulk and potential affordability in future buildings-- was barely touched on 
• the key tradeoffs between height/bulk and affordability--such as allowing 17 stories for 35% affordability on two spot rezonings--were neither specified nor debated

That meant the public recommendations were relatively vague--preferences rather than specifics. The map below, unofficially produced by urban planner Kaja Kühl, a member of the Steering Committee, hasn't been shared, though it should be.

That leaves it up to the Steering Committee, appointed by Hudson, with some general guidelines to implement the rezoning and likely the ability to work in concert with the "City of Yes" preferences expressed by Mayor Eric Adams' Department of City Planning.

Map by Kaja Kühl. Rezoning in light blue pending. Potential apartment counts are from
Environmental Assessment Statements and include areas beyond the parcels owned by applicants.

Who was there--and wasn't

It's unclear how many of the participants were from in Community Board 8 or Community Board 3. They're not the only stakeholders. Future residents, by definition, can't be represented directly, though arguably the clear presence of YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) activists partly advocate for them, as do tenant activists.

The study area, plus quarter-mile and half-mile buffers. From DCP

Also note: while one significant impetus for the rezoning is to ensure housing and jobs for those most vulnerable to displacement, especially the declining Black population, most attendees were white. 

That, I suspect, reflects to the fact that advocacy, as one activist put it in another context, is a "luxury product," given the pressures on people's time, as well as the workshop's location in the western end of the proposed area, far more affluent than the eastern end.

The report back

As I wrote, after the roundtable sessions, representatives of each roundtable reported back on the topics discussed, which also touched on issues slated for the other two workshops.

There was an unsurprising general sentiment that that bigger buildings could help bring affordability, and that the city should push for more deeply affordable housing, geared to those most vulnerable to displacement.

The first table to report back was represented by Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee and a member of the AAMUP Steering Committee, who said the group wanted to see affordable housing in multiple lolcations, widened sidewalks, and a mix of ground floor uses.

She said participants wanted to go beyond the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requirements whenever possible. Indeed, that was achieved in the private rezonings announced last April.

The second table was represented by Irsa Weatherspoon, CB 8 Chair and Steering Committee member, who said the affordable housing calculation should be adjusted to leave out the wealthier subsurbs and that affordable housing should be permanent. She said that, while tablemates weren't all in agreement, deeply affordable housing may require residents "to give a little in terms of height."

Some at other tables were concerned that new density could fuel displacement, that parking mandates should be dropped, that streets should become more pedestrian friendly, the buildings should be more sustainable, and that mixed-use buildings could sustain jobs.

Sarah Lazur, a CB 8 member in the Crown Heights Tenant Union, stressed the impact of rising rents on tenant stability, saying that oversight agencies don't do their job, and that "you can't just push the density button" to solve affordability. 

Her table didn't want any potential redevelopment of the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, a key city asset, turned over to a private developer, which reflects a fierce debate over the Bedford-Union Armory during the tenure of previous Council Member Laurie Cumbo.

In his wrap-up, facilitator Bahij Chancey said, "I'll just reiterate we are at the beginning of what is a several months-long process before a set of recommendations is finalized." So he encouraged attendees to remain engaged.