WILLIAMSBURG — The Brooklyn borough president gave his stamp of approval for a rezoning along the Williamsburg waterfront that stands to bring many more office towers to the neighborhood.
Eric Adams said the city should use the taxes it collects from the eight-story 480,000 square foot office, manufacturing and retail building at 25 Kent Ave. to directly commit to a financing plan to buy the rest of the land it needs to finish Bushwick Inlet Park.
The 30-acre waterfront park was promised to North Brooklyn residents during a 2005, though the city still needs to by an 11-acre parcel of land that it says it has no budget for.
Developers at 25 Kent Ave. along with the Department of City Planning are working to rezone a 14-block area between North 9th and North 15th streets so that property owners within that area could apply for permits to double the size of their buildings without having to reserve space for medical facilities, which is what the zoning currently demands.
In exchange, developers would have to reserve some floor area for light manufacturing uses.
Adams agreed with the assessment.
"The proposal for 25 Kent Avenue has enormous potential to facilitate the creation of quality blue-collar and high-tech jobs that are accessible to the residents of Greenpoint and Williamsburg," Adams said.
Despite his approval, Adams recommendations reflected many of the community concerns voiced throughout the city's complex land use process.
Adams urged better oversight of the manufacturing space, a more clearly defined list of what kinds of businesses would qualify as manufacturing and encouraged nonprofit ownership of those spaces.
Adams also suggested transportation options to the waterfront be bolstered with better ferry and Citi Bike services.
The borough president's recommendations, whose office had earlier critiqued the city's "lack of analysis," of the impact that rezoning the 14 block radius, now go to the City Planning Commission for approval.
