City fl eshes out plan to grow Gowanus
New details for rezoning scheme unveiled as input meetings begin
Saving a Life EVERY 11 MINUTES
HELPI’ve fallen and I can’t get up!®
with
GPS!
® Get HELP fast, 24/7,
anywhere with
For a FREE brochure call:
1-800-404-9776
COURIER L 14 IFE, FEB. 8–14, 2019 DT
$1,500
SAVINGS
BY JULIANNE CUBA
The city dropped more details
about its scheme to rezone
a chunk of Gowanus, which
would dramatically alter the
built character of the historically
industrial neighborhood
if enacted.
The refi nements to the socalled
“framework for a sustainable,
inclusive, mixeduse”
Gowanus, which the city
fi rst revealed last summer ,
refl ect the latest changes to
a plan offi cials fi nessed for
years, in order to provide the
most benefi ts to affected locals,
businesses, and other
area stakeholders as possible,
according to a local pol.
“Gowanus is one of the
most vital and diverse neighborhoods
in the city with a
long and rich history,” said
Councilman Stephen Levin
(D–Gowanus). “We want to
continue to work towards
using this opportunity to
strengthen our public housing,
provide economic opportunity,
create new open
spaces, and honor the historical
character of the neighborhood.
We need to continue to
engage all in the community
to ensure that everyone benefi
ts from this ambitious rezoning.”
The scheme still proposes
several site-specifi c rezonings
within a swath of land generally
bounded by Bond Street,
Baltic Street, Fourth Avenue,
and Huntington, Third, Seventh,
and 15th streets, in order
to pack more residents into
bigger buildings.
But the latest proposal
released on Jan. 30 further
breaks down the rezoning recommendations
into seven categories
that incorporate specifi
c blocks within the larger
area above, which include:
“Canal Corridor and Flood
Resiliency,” “Industrial and
Commercial,” “Mixed-Used,”
“Fourth Avenue Corridor,”
“Residential Areas,” “Waterfront
Access Plan,” and a
“Special Gowanus Mixed-Use
District.”
The new proposal, for instance,
recommends rezoning
plots along the fetid Gowanus
Canal that fall within
the Canal Corridor and Flood
Resiliency category to allow
for buildings that could rise
as high as 22 stories. And it
proposes upzoning a lot at
the corner of Huntington and
Smith streets, which also
falls within that category and
abuts the waterway still being
scrubbed by the Feds, to
allow for a structure as tall as
30 stories.
Land along the Fourth Avenue
Corridor, which includes
the avenue between Pacifi c
and 15th Streets, would be rezoned
to allow buildings as
high as 17 stories in exchange
for their developers participating
in the city’s Mandatory
Inclusionary Housing program,
which would require a
percentage of units in those
buildings be so-called affordable.
The proposal also recommends
changing parking
requirements along Fourth
Avenue in order to improve
safety on the busy thoroughfare.
A chunk of land surrounding
Thomas Greene Park —
where utility company National
Grid, under federal
supervision, must purge the
soil of toxins left behind by
a former gas plant on the
site now home to the beloved
Double-D pool — included in
the “Mixed-Used” category
would be zoned for projects
including below-market-rate
developments and commercial,
artist, civic, and cultural
spaces.
And the proposal’s “Residential
Areas” include the
First Street parking lot for
Gowanus senior home Mary
Star of the Sea, where the city
recommends erecting even
more permanently affordable
housing, some of which would
be set aside for low-income elders.
But other plots between
Third and Fourth avenues,
and near the intersection of
Fourth and Hoyt streets, that
fall within the “Industrial and
Commercial” category would
be strictly reserved for industrial,
commercial, and community
use, including as work
spaces for artists, with any
new buildings capped at 12-
stories tall, according to the
proposal.
The updated rezoning proposal
does not include the
Southwest Brooklyn Industrial
Zone the city in 2006 created
along the southern end of
the Gowanus Canal, despite
the requests of some local
leaders, who argued the enclave
should be included in the
scheme in order to strengthen
and protect its commercial operations.
“We want to see the IBZ
included, for manufacturers
to fi nd some growth in this
rezoning,” Paul Basile, who
heads community group the
Gowanus Alliance, told this
newspaper last month.
Locals got the chance to
weigh in on the latest propsal
at a Feb. 6 public meeting,
and the city plans to present
the scheme to Community
Board 6 in the coming weeks
to kick off its lengthy, required
journey through the
Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure.
GOWANUS TOMORROW: The city
on Jan. 30 released more details
about its a proposal to rezone the
swath of Gowanus within the loopy
black line on this map.
Department of City Planning