BY COLIN MIXSON
A Kings County Supreme
Court judge slapped a controversial
mixed-use development
with a temporary restraining
order on April 17, after local
anti-gentrifi cation advocates
claimed the developer
used every trick in the book
to avoid having to perform a
state-mandated environmental
review process, while the
city let them get away with
it to pave the way for more
affordable housing.
“We fought the Department
of City Planning, and watched
our elected offi cials allow the
developer to lie on their applications,
so they did not have
to be held accountable for creating
the largest residential
complexes in Brooklyn,” said
Alicia Boyd, founder of antigentrifi
cation group Movement
to Protect the People.
The city awarded developers
Cornell Realty and Carmel
Partners the rights to
build two 16-story towers
near Franklin Avenue and
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
at 40 Crown St. and 931 Carroll
St. following a rezoning
process that capped off with a
December Council vote, where
Crown Heights Majority
Leader Laurie Cumbo wielded
her key vote as the area’s representative
to green-light the
project , in exchange for the
developer’s promise to expand
the project’s affordable-housing
component from 140 to
258 units.
But Boyd’s suit — which
names the Department of
City Planning and Cumbo
as co-defendants, in addition
to Cornell — alleges that the
developers lied on re-zoning
and building documents to
underplay the scope of their
proposed mixed-use project,
misstating the amount of new
residential units included in
the development and ignoring
vast swaths of affected land in
a preliminary assessment of
the project.
And fudging the numbers
allowed the developers to illegally
GOING UP: Developers Cornell Realty and Carmel Partners’ proposed 16-story towers near the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden.
thorough environmental review
the advocates claim would
have demonstrated a serious
strain on local sewers, roads,
and schools as a result of the
towers and the infl ux of new
Crown Heights residents they
would attract.
Lawyers for the city, meanwhile,
claim that their rezoning
process was conducted by
the books, and that the new
temporary restraining order
HEALTHY KIDS DAY
circumvent a much more
of the project, which
will not prevent the project
from moving forward.
“This suit seeks to block
over a hundred units of permanently
for the community. We
stand by the city’s review and
will thoroughly defend it in
court,” said Nick Paolucci, a
spokesman for the city’s Law
Department. “This very limited
TRO enjoins the pouring
of concrete, which is many
months away. Soil tests are
proceeding at the site.”
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affordable housing
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HEALTHY KIDS DAY
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Lawsuits alleging illegal or
inappropriate action amid the
city’s public review process
for rezoning applications are
not uncommon, and a similar
suit was fi led by the Legal Aid
Society in an effort to block
the extremely controversial
Bedford-Union Armory
development.
Boyd and the city are expected
to appear before Kings
County Supreme Court justice
Johnny Lee Baynes for a
hearing on May 5.
Judge halts controversial
C’Heights development
amid heated legal battle
/HealthyKids19
/HealthyKids19