Fort Greene Church Hopes To Build Affordable Housing

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A Hanson Place church wants to build lower-income housing but is facing pushback from residents wary of rezoning and the city’s affordable housing program.

The Hanson Place Seventh Day Adventist Church at 88 Hanson Place is seeking permission to rezone the block bordered by South Portland Avenue and South Elliot Place in order to build a 13-story apartment complex with 50 affordable units at 142-150 South Portland Ave.

“They want what the lord wants,” said developer Michael T. Rooney of MDG Design — the company commissioned to design the building— at a heated town hall meeting in the church on Thursday.

“They’re pleading with the neighborhood to stand with them on this.”

But town hall attendees balked at the proposed prices for the affordable units, 50 percent of which were reserved for people making 130 percent of the area median income.

“They’re not affordable,” lifelong Fort Greene resident Sandy Reiburn said of the units. Reiburn was one of several attendees to voice her objection to only 25 units being reserved for lower-income residents.

“This is so outrageous that a church is basically sponsoring, as far as I’m concerned, peanuts to be thrown.”

But residents who expressed support for the new building argued Hanson Place SDA was providing a solution to a longstanding problem.

“I am with this project as long as it continues to reflect our needs here locally, and that’s affordable housing,” said S. Eric Blackwell, a Fort Greene resident who works in real estate.

“Because, despite these number games I’m hearing, this is 100 percent affordable by today’s standards.”

MDG Design architect Jack Coogan presented his plans for the new 145-foot-tall building, which would hold 100 apartments, a 250-person capacity community space on the ground floor and a clinic run by Brooklyn Plaza Medical in the cellar.

The building would be built using brownstone, brick and light colored stone to mirror the design elements of the neighborhood and residents would have access to balconies and a rooftop terrace, Coogan said.

Current zoning laws restrict the church from building anything larger than 48,000 square feet or taller than 95 feet, which is why developers are asking for a new zoning designation that would allow for a 86,400 square-foot building with mandatory inclusionary housing, a height limit of 145 feet and 14 stories, and a 100-foot deep commercial inlay on Hanson Place between South Elliott Place and South Portland Avenue.

Representatives from the offices of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, City Comptroller Scott Stringer and City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo attended the meeting.

Update: A public hearing that was slated for Nov. 15 at the Metrotech Center has been cancelled, District Manager Robert Perris said in an email.

Photos by Kathleen Culliton