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A coalition of Bushwick’s Community Board 4 and neighborhood groups is circulating a petition and calling on Council Member Diana Reyna to create a community benefits agreement with Bushwick developer Read Property Group. The list of demands includes an increase in the number of “permanently affordable” housing units based on Bushwick’s annual median income rather than the citywide number, a green roof and LEED building certification.

They also request that local manufacturing and businesses have priority in the retail space and to keep the M3 manufacturing zoning status of the Mademoiselle industrial building. Other requests are for community space “permanently devoted to mixed intergenerational needs” and community input and participatory budgeting on the programming for park and public space that is part of the development. Lastly, they also stated there should be no hotels in the complex.

The coalition includes a long list of local community groups, including North West Bushwick Community Group, Make The Road, Churches United For Fair Housing, St. Nicks Alliance, Bushwick Eco Action Network, Los Sures, performance space The Silent Barn, East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, South Side United HDFC and Rheingold Garden’s Homeowners Association, as well as Community Board Four.

The enormous development will consist of 10 buildings over more than five blocks at Flushing and Bushwick, above, and include 977 rental apartments and 54,000 square feet of retail. It has not yet broken ground but is expected to finish up in 2016.

What do you think of the group’s demands?

Rendering from Read Property Group via New York Daily News


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