The City Council approved the Culver El Rezoning yesterday, with changes suggested by community members (and we all get thanked for it!)! Thank you, councilmember Lander, for listening and speaking up on behalf of your constituents, and sharing with us information every step of the way. Councilman Lander's full statement , excerpts here:
The Culver El Rezoning maps low- and mid-rise, mixed-use, contextual zoning districts on seven blocks in Brooklyn Community District 12 (bounded by 36th Street on the north, 14th Avenue to the east, 39th Street to the south, and 12th Avenue to the west). It also facilitates the disposition of two tracts of City-owned land along 37th Street to the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization (SBCO) for the development of 68 units of affordable housing under the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s New Foundations Program.
Key features of the Culver El Rezoning, as passed yesterday, include (emphasis mine):
•⇥Creates 68 new affordable homeownership units for low-to-moderate-income families. .. [F]amilies living in Community Board 12 will have priority for 50% of the units. While the project will be developed through HPD’s New Foundations Program, it will improve on this program in two ways:
o⇥ SBCO has agreed to achieve a deeper level of affordability, so that the units will be affordable to families earning 80%-110% of area median income (approximately $50,000 to $90,000 annually).
o⇥The affordability period has been doubled from 15 to 30 years through an agreement that I reached with HPD and SBCO,
•⇥Retains manufacturing and commercial uses on three key sites in the rezoning area, preserving space for over 200 jobs. Modifications made by the City Council will enable the Bergament department store to continue operating by making it a conforming use and retaining necessary parking. Without these changes, many of these jobs would likely have been lost, and the block could have been converted, as-of-right, to a 7-story, 100+ unit, market-rate housing development.
•⇥Sets a path to addressing open space issues in the neighborhood. I am very pleased to have allocated $600,000, along with an additional $300,000 from Borough President Marty Markowitz, to begin the renovation of Dome Playground (the nearest City park). We look forward to working with diverse community members to plan a comprehensive, multi-phase renovation that will retain and improve current popular uses and offer new recreation uses in underutilized areas. In addition, I am working with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation toward the goal of creating new open spaces in the area (potentially including the acquisition of new parkland, unused street space, and reclaiming and improving the school playground at PS 179 for recreational use by students and the community). I am also pleased to report that Borough President Markowitz secured a commitment from the Parks Department for new tree-planting in the rezoning area and nearby.
• Addresses the impacts of school overcrowding. While the rezoning will add only modestly to the population in the area, the nearby schools are already near capacity and will face overcrowding issues in the years to come. I am pleased to report that the School Construction Authority last week notified the City Council that they will be moving forward with a K-8 public school at Coney Island Avenue and Turner Place in Community School District 22 in Councilmember Eugene’s district, which will address some overcrowding issues in eastern Kensington and Prospect Park South. The SCA has also confirmed to me that they are working actively to site an additional K-8 school in the southern half of Community District 15 (Sunset Park, Borough Park, Kensington), and that capital funding remains in their capital plan for this purpose. I look forward to working with them to identify an appropriate site and moving forward to build a new school to address overcrowding in these areas.