Gowanus Rezoning To Start Official Review By January: Report

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A battle over the city's plan to transform Gowanus with a rezoning — which has only grown amid the coronavirus crisis — is about to heat up yet again.

City officials have officially unveiled a timeline for their Gowanus Rezoning plan, saying this week that they hope to start the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure for the proposal by January, the Brooklyn Paper first reported.

“I’m delighted to confirm today, with the support of council members [Brad] Lander and [Stephen] Levin, that we plan to restart community engagement in the coming weeks and certify the Gowanus neighborhood rezoning by January of 2021,” said Deputy Mayor for housing and economic development Vicki Been at a City and State webinar on Sept. 29.

The new timeframe ends months of speculation about the rezoning's future given a coronavirus pause on most land use applications.

Amid the pandemic, opponents had ramped up calls to delay, or abandon, the rezoning, contending the coronavirus deepened their concerns surrounding racial justice and that they were worried a virtually-led ULURP process would leave out key players.

Supporters, including Council Member Brad Lander, had argued just the opposite. They contended delaying the proposal would only mean putting on hold the desperately-needed 3,000 or so units of affordable housing the project would bring to the neighborhood, a catalyst for, not against, racial equity.

The Gowanus Rezoning Plan, developed by the Department of City Planning over the last decade, aims to bring more affordable housing, climate-change protections and varied development to the once-industrial neighborhood, city officials have said.

Its critics have argued that the 22-story buildings and 20,000 new people it will bring will speed up gentrification and exacerbate environmental problems imminent at the polluted Gowanus Canal.