DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The Department of City Planning is rushing to rezone a 14-block area of Williamsburg — in what could be a template for future development across the city — without properly studying the issue, the Borough President's representative said Monday night.
"It's real estate and real estate does not equal economic development," said Deputy BP Diana Reyna, following a public hearing on the rezoning Monday night. "[It] will set the stage for a 14 block [rezoning] without any analysis."
Working with two developers, the planning department is seeking to rezone a 14-block area near the Williamsburg waterfront between North 9th and North 15th streets.
If the changes go through, land and building owners in that area could apply for special permits that would allow them to more than double the size of their buildings and not have to reserve space for community facilities like medical offices which is what the zoning currently requires.
Instead of community spaces, a fraction of the total building area would have to be set aside for light manufacturing uses.
This could be framework for similar industrial areas across the city, according an environmental assessment study published last year.
But community advocates, city planners and business groups have expressed concerns about the changes for a number of reasons: from how much manufacturing space needs to be set aside and who will make sure that the space is being used how it's intended, to the affordability of those spaces.
"It is so deeply flawed that we believe it will have the reverse effect, and if replicated it will destabilize other industrial areas," wrote Adam Friedman, the director of the Pratt Center for Community Development.
City planning is currently conducting a comprehensive study of another North Brooklyn industrial business zone and will outline policy recommendations at the end of the year.
So why, before this analysis is released, would the department seek to push through a zoning change without fully understanding the impact it might have, Reyna wondered.
"If they waited three years what's the rush now?" Reyna said, highlighting the fact that the developers started talking about a change in zoning years back with the city. "This is going to impact citywide policy."
Anna Slatinsky, the Deputy Director of Brooklyn Office at the Department of City Planning, defended the city's plan saying they hoped it would provide an alternative for developers to building the hotels, bars, nightclubs and music venues that have proliferated under the current zoning.
"The Department of City Planning does not consider this proposal to be a comprehensive answer," to zoning concerns in the area, she said.
Though it's one little piece of a larger effort to address them, she said, highlighting the study the department is currently undergoing.
"This provides an alternative to developing a hotel, one that will be compelling."
Once the Borough President's office writes their recommendations on the zoning changes, they head to the City Planning Commission for review.
