Industry City Friends And Foes Gear Up For City Council Battle

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — With its first hearing at City Council looming, perhaps the only agreement between opponents and supporters of Industry City's massive rezoning plan is that the impending legislature's vote will be a tipping point for New York City.

What that precipice means, though, depends on who you ask.

In dueling press conferences Monday, advocates against the plan said approving it would be a point of no return for Sunset Park's gentrifying neighborhood, while the Industry City's leaders warned that not doing so would be a critical blunder in New York City's coronavirus rebound.

"If it doesn't pass...at this time of enormous unemployment, instead of figuring out every possible way to boost job creation, what the City Council would be saying is, 'We're going to slow down job creation'" Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball said Monday in a preview of his testimony.

"It would be a huge mistake to say no to a project like this at a time of crisis."

The hearing — set for 10 a.m. Tuesday in front of the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises — will be the first time the proposal will face the legislative body since it was officially submitted in October.

The plan to change zoning rules at Industry City to allow for more than 1 million square feet of development on the 35-acre campus has been in the works for seven years.

It most recently won the approval of the City Planning Commission.

Along with the complex's owners, the commission members and several City Council members who have spoken publicly about the plan, point to the 20,000 jobs Industry City has promised the transformation will bring.

The rezoning, Kimball contended again Monday, would bring a mix of retail, educational space and manufacturing to Industry City instead of current restrictions that only allow industrial or office uses.

"We live in 2020, we don’t live in 1960," Kimball said, referring to when the current zoning rules were written. "The opportunity to create a dynamic ecosystem with a variety of uses is what it is about."

But opponents, including local Council Member Carlos Menchaca, say the rezoning, instead of providing jobs for residents, will bring displacement to the largely working class, immigrant community.

"Many local community members and organizations see the rezoning as a tipping point that will open the floodgate to luxury development, resulting in a major loss of homes, jobs and community," said advocates with the group Sunset Park Organized Neighbors, who held their own press conference at City Hall Monday.

Menchaca, after much back and forth with Industry City developers, has vowed to vote against the rezoning. His vote would typically signal the end of the application, as City Council typically defers to the local elected official.

But several council members who support the proposal have urged members to buck that tradition.

Kimball made his own appeal to City Council members with a letter in August, arguing that he has agreed to Menchaca's demands, including eliminating a pair of hotels in the plan. He said data from Industry City's past job creation disproves theories that it would exclude local residents.

On Monday, Kimball also added a proposed mechanism to the rezoning plan that would legally bind Industry City to show a certain percent of new jobs created have gone to area residents before they can fully build or lease for the expansion.

Those who wish to testify in Tuesday's hearing can register here. The hearing can be live-streamed on the City Council website here.

Read more:

• SEE: Activists Confront De Blasio Over Industry City Rezoning
• Industry City Rezone In Their Own Words: A Sit-Down With The CEO
• City Council Hearing Set For Controversial Industry City Rezoning
• Industry City Might Pull Its Controversial Rezoning: Report