Brewer O.K.’s housing on Eliz. Garden
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
It doesn’t come as a surprise, but
Borough President Gale Brewer has
offi cially approved the city’s Haven
Green project for the Elizabeth St. Garden.
However, Brewer’s recommendation
— released Tuesday — comes with
“modifi cations/conditions.”
Among her handful of caveats, the
borough president says she would like
the project to include at least 30 percent
more open space than it currently
does — although without reducing the
number of affordable housing units or
increasing the project’s height.
She also says the remaining green
space should be mapped as park space
and managed by the city’s Parks Department.
Brewer’s signing off on the project
completes her portion of the city’s Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure, or
ULURP, which can take half a year to
complete.
The Little Italy garden covers 20,110
square feet on a city-owned lot, spanning
from Elizabeth St. to Mott St., between
Spring and Prince Sts.
The development team includes Pennrose,
RiseBoro Community Partnership
and Habitat for Humanity NYC.
As currently planned, the building
would rise seven stories, or 75 feet tall,
and enclose 82,120 square feet. Of that
amount, 77,600 square feet would be
residential. There would also be 11,200
square feet for a community facility,
earmarked for offi ces for Habitat for
Humanity.
The building would include 123
studio apartments for seniors, all for
households earning 60 percent or less
of area median income (A.M.I.). Thirty
seven of those units would be slated
for formerly homeless persons earning
less than 30 percent of A.M.I.
The proposed project would include
6,700 square feet of open space that
would be owned by the developer.
Brewer’s request for 30 percent more
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.
open space would translate to roughly
8,000 square feet.
Community Board 2 led off the
ULURP review of the plan when it
voted last month to recommend “disapproval
with conditions” on the application,
in a vote of 30 to 7, with 4
abstentions.
The recommendations of both Brewer
and C.B. 2 are advisory only. However,
the upcoming stages of ULURP
are binding — including a vote by the
Department of City Planning, followed
by the City Council’s vote.
In her recommendation, Brewer
notes that, according to the City Environmental
Quality Review, or CEQR,
New York City’s “optimal open space
goal is 2.5 acres of open space per
1,000 residents.” However, she concedes,
“The area in which the development
is planned has been acknowledged
as being underserved by open
space, with…0.153 acres per 1,000
residents.
“The Elizabeth St. Garden, in the fi ve
years since the proposed development
was announced, has grown to become
FILE PHOTO
a cherished community resource as an
accessible open green space,” Brewer
writes. “However, there is a growing
need for affordable housing...and especially
within Community Board 2,
which has only seen 93 units of affordable
housing built since 2014.”
Brewer adds that the 6,700 square
feet of open space included in the project
— while less than what is there now
— is “still signifi cant.”
Habitat for Humanity’s involvement
in the garden-destroying scheme has
infuriated the garden’s supporters.
However, Brewer writes, “Habitat
NYC’s offi ce will also occupy 11,200
square feet in the building, more than
half of which will be located in the cellar…
. This is consistent with other affordable
housing developments within
the city where nonprofi ts occupy community
facility space for...operations.”
The B.P., in her recommendation,
notes she has met with the two main
garden groups — Elizabeth St. Garden
and Friends of Elizabeth St. Garden.
“I have received 3,097 e-mails regarding
the garden,” she notes.
As to shifting Haven Green to an alternative
site favored by opponents — a
city-owned lot at Hudson and Clarkson
Sts. — Brewer nixed the notion.
“Unfortunately, our housing crisis
and growing senior population do not
allow for an either/or scenario,” the
B.P.’s statement says. “We must build
permanently affordable housing wherever
feasible while also maximizing
open space on these sites... .”
The “Beep” also says the housing
should serve low-income and formerly
homeless persons “in perpetuity.”
Joseph Reiver, executive director of
Elizabeth St. Garden, said Brewer’s
position doesn’t come as a shock, after
garden leaders met with her Feb. 15.
“When we met with her, she kept
saying, ‘Would 8,000 square feet be
enough?’” for the garden, he said.
“It’s sad and telling that she’s visited
the garden — and at a Harvest Festival,
when there were 1,000 people coming
in and out of that garden — she’s seen
the outcry. I feel it’s the relationship between
her and Margaret and it’s just the
way this administration works.”
Brewer and Councilmember Margaret
Chin, the project’s main sponsor,
are close allies. Reiver said it’s unfortunate
his group — represented by attorney
Norman Siegel — must now sue
to stop the project.
Jeannine Kiely, founder of Friends of
Elizabeth St. Garden, said Brewer blew
the chance for a “win-win outcome.”
“Friends is taking steps to stop the
destruction of our desperately needed
open space by preparing to launch a
lawsuit led by prominent land-use attorney
Michael Gruen,” she said.
“Garden supporters should not be
surprised, despite Brewer’s long advocacy
for urban gardening and environmental
education,” Kiely pointed out.
“She never joined the long list of elected
offi cials who support saving the garden
and building up to fi ve times as much
housing on an alternative city-owned
site. Instead, our borough president has
forgone this win-win outcome.”
Child Victims Act fi nally signed into law
BY ROSE ADAMS
After 13 years of inertia, the New
York State Legislature passed
the Child Victims Act on Feb.
14, which will extend the statute of limitations
for child victims of sexual assault
to demand legal recourse.
“For years, survivors of child sexual
abuse looked to Albany for justice and
for years, their pleas went unanswered.
No longer,” said state Senator Brad
Hoylman, who sponsored the bill.
The law will allow victims to bring
criminal charges against their alleged
abusers until the victims turn age 28,
and fi le civil lawsuits until they turn 55.
Until now, victims could only fi le criminal
or civil complaints until age 23.
The law will also mandate a one-year
“look-back” window, during which victims
who were barred from suing under
the previous statute of limitations can
sue their abusers.
The legislation was fi rst introduced in
the state Assembly in 2006 by Margaret
Markey, a Queens assemblymember
who fought for the bill until she lost her
seat in 2016. Markey’s fervor for the
cause grew out of personal experience:
Her adult son had told her that their local
Catholic priest had abused him as a
child.
The bill passed seven times in the
Assembly, but opponents in the state
Senate made sure to quietly stifl e its
progress. The Catholic Church and the
Boy Scouts of America, along with a
smattering of insurance companies and
Orthodox Jewish groups, objected to the
bill’s one-year “look-back” window, arguing
that the ability to revive old civil
suits could drive institutions into bankruptcy.
But the fi ght raged on. After Markey
left the Assembly, Hoylman — whose
district stretches from the Upper West
Side to the West Village and East Village
— became one of the bill’s main proponents.
This January, Governor Andrew
Cuomo declared the Child Victims Act
a key part of his 2019 agenda, and on
Jan. 28, the state Senate passed the bill
unanimously.
“I’m so proud to be in this fi ght alongside
Governor Cuomo, who took the
courageous and historic step in supporting
this bill,” Hoylman said at the bill’s
signing on Feb. 14. “Today, in passing
the Child Victims Act, we are fi nally
telling survivors: The State of New York
and the full force of its law is behind
you, and you will not be turned away.”
8 February 28, 2019 TVG Schneps Media