Gowanus rezoning approved but critics remain
NEW YORK - Comptroller-elect Brad Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn, has been a champion of a massive rezoning plan for Gowanus that recently passed the City Council.
"This plan has the most aggressive affordability and sustainability requirements on developers of any rezoning we have ever passed,' Lander said. "I really think it represents the way forward."
The rezoning would span 80 blocks and create about 8,000 new housing units — 3,000 of them permanently affordable. Mixed reactions are coming from people who live around here.
"I think it's really bad — I think the first thing they have to do is take care of the canal first," one neighbor told us.
"I think anything that reduces homelessness is a good thing and if these apartments really are affordable to the lower-income people I think it's a great thing," said another neighbor.
Martin Bisi is a member of the coalition Voice of Gowanus, which is critical of the plan.
"We have Manhattan moving here, Soho moving here, Chelsea — that kind of wealth coming in and that essentially has ramifications," Bisi said. "It has ramifications for affordability, for future affordability not just for the few units."
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His group also believes the land in the area and the Gowanus Canal, which the federal government recognized as a Superfund site in 2010, are very toxic and that the rezoning would worsen pollution there.
But Lander said that developers will have to clean up the land to the standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"We made sure that there's the strongest stormwater runoff rules, so there won't be any additional sewage that goes into the canal," Lander said. "In fact, sites will detain their rainwater on site so when there is heavy rain we will actually see less sewage going into the canal after development takes place."
The rezoning also includes 150 affordable artist studios and a big area for commercial retail. In addition, $200 million from the city will go towards renovations at local public housing complexes.