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Gowanus Residents Invited to Public Workshop on Possible Rezoning

By Leslie Albrecht | March 10, 2017 1:59pm | Updated on March 13, 2017 8:27am
 The Department of City Planning will host a public workshop on the possible rezoning of Gowanus on Saturday, March 25.
The Department of City Planning will host a public workshop on the possible rezoning of Gowanus on Saturday, March 25.
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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht; Lower Right: Rogers Partners

GOWANUS — Locals who want to help shape the future of the rapidly changing neighborhood are invited to a public workshop on the neighborhood's "land use and urban design," the Department of City Planning announced this week.

The March 25 workshop will be the latest in a series of gatherings city planners are hosting to create a "neighborhood plan" for Gowanus.

That plan could include rezoning the largely industrial neighborhood to allow for residential development, a possibility that worries many locals.

Attendees at the March 25 public workshop will participate in "mapping exercises" and "visioning activities" and will have a chance to tell city planners their ideas about the neighborhood's land use.

The Planning Department will also release the results from a series of smaller meetings held with locals on specific topics such as housing, arts and culture and sustainability.

City planners have said they want to take a slow, measured approach in studying a possible rezoning of Gowanus and have identified affordable housing, industrial jobs and arts and culture as some of their key priorities.

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But market forces have already cut a swath of change across the neighborhood, which was recently dubbed Brooklyn's next hot market for office space in a Commercial Observer story.

A recent city planning working group meeting for industrial business owners was attended by representatives for several of the developers who plan to build in the neighborhood, including Property Markets Group, LIVWRK, and Industrie Capital Partners.

The public workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 25, at P.S. 32 at 317 Hoyt St. Attendees can come to one of two identical sessions, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1:30 p.m.