Culver El Update

Our Councilmember Brad Lander emails a progress update on the Culver El Rezoning (an area bordering the green triangle where Church Avenue begins). We have written about it extensively.

The City Council's Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises voted to "approve with modifications," with a number of changes that I have been pushing for:

CHANGES TO ZONING

-- The Bergament block is proposed to be changed from C4-2A (which would allow more than 100 units of housing, as-of-right, without any affordability) to a C8-2 zone, which is appropriate for the Bergament, but would not allow any residential development. If a future developer wanted to propose a new housing development, they would have to come back and seek a rezoning, in which case we could work to achieve affordability, open space, or other community benefits.

-- The two buildings at the northwest & southwest corners of 14th Avenue & 38th Street, both of which have viable existing industrial uses, would remain zoned for manufacturing (rather than being rezoned to allow as-of-right residential uses, as was proposed by City Planning)

CHANGES TO THE SBCO PROJECT

The SBCO project was approved substantially as was proposed by Mayor Bloomberg & Councilmembers de Blasio & Felder back in 2005 (i.e. still 68 units of affordable homeownership housing, 50% for residents of CB12, affordable to families earning from 80% to 110% of area median income).

Two important changes were made, at my urging:

-- SCBO & HPD agreed to double the affordability period from 15 years to 30 years (this is not permanent, of course, as I would prefer; but I believe it is the first time that HPD's "New Foundations" program, which SBCO is developing under here, has gone out 30 years, so it is a significant achievement)

-- SBCO has agreed to allow Bergament to continue to use spaces for parking, where they will eventually build some of their units, for 18 months (i.e. they will build in two phases), which we believe will allow the Bergament owners and the store to continue to operate, and develop plans for once the buildings are built.

I am continuing to press on two other important, neighborhood-wide issues:

-- open space
-- public school seats

While these will not be accomplished on the Culver El site, I am working to make sure that we make progress on addressing these issues in the neighborhood in the coming years. I hope to have some progress to report before the full City Council takes up the rezoning for a vote at the end of the month.

The next steps are:

-- Thursday, 10/7, the Council's full Land Use Commmittee will vote on the recommendations of the Zoning Committee.
-- The City Planning Commission then has 10 days to weigh in on whether the changes outlined above are "in scope," i.e. permissible modifications to make at this point in time.
-- The full City Council will then take up the rezoning for a final vote on Wednesday, October 27th.

I'll keep you updated as the project moves forward.

Thanks to you and your readers for the valuable feedback on the project,

Brad