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City to Study Bed-Stuy's Atlantic Avenue for Possible Land Use Changes

 The Department of City Planning is studying a manufacturing district along Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant to develop a land use framework for the area.
The Department of City Planning is studying a manufacturing district along Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant to develop a land use framework for the area.
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Department of City Planning

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Changes could be coming to a part of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Atlantic Avenue with a city study that could alter the strip now mostly occupied by auto shops and storage warehouses.

Department of City Planning officials presented their plans to Brooklyn Community Board 3 members Wednesday, detailing a study affecting approximately three blocks between Classon and Nostrand avenues along Atlantic Avenue.

The analysis comes after a push from neighboring Community Board 8 — which covers Prospect Heights and northern Crown Heights — for the city to study a possible rezoning in their neighborhood, roughly from Grand and Franklin avenues to Atlantic Avenue and Bergen Street.

Atlantic Avenue serves as the dividing line for the two community districts. Initially, the study was concentrated on Crown Heights, but city officials recently expanded their focus to include a portion of Bedford-Stuyvesant across the street, they said.

The area in question is zoned as M1-1, a manufacturing district with mostly industrial, open storage, auto shops and commercial properties.

CB8 members are proposing a new zoning tool for a mixed-use district that would include residential properties and maintain manufacturing to create jobs and development in the area.

“They’ve given us the task of making sure there’s an increase in jobs as well as affordable housing,” Alex Sommer, deputy director of DCP's Brooklyn office told CB3 housing and land use committee members Wednesday.

“At this point we are not planning to do a rezoning study. It is possible that a rezoning could come out of this, but currently the study would lead to a set of recommendations on the most appropriate land uses for this area,” added DCP representative Sanmati Naik.

"We don’t want to recommend something that is not really practical or viable."

The M1-1 district extends across Atlantic Avenue, which led officials to include a few blocks of Bed-Stuy in their analysis, they said.

“I think that there is a realization that our M1 zone is not as significant as CB8, so we don’t want to be swept up into what someone else wants,” said Michael McCaw, housing and land use committee vice chair for CB3.

“So that’s what we have to be mindful about.”

The study will look at the region from a land use, urban design and transportation context to understand what types of properties can be developed, officials said.

During their analysis, DCP will consider both community board’s feedback and vision for the area, though no immediate plans are set in stone, officials said.

“We honestly don’t know if this will actually end up as a zoning proposal,” Sommer said.

“Because it depends on a lot of factors, and where this falls into the priorities of both community boards, or a community board, as well as where this falls into our work plan as we look across the entire city.”

DCP plans on engaging with both boards and elected officials as they conduct the study over the course of the next year, they said.