Sunset Park Rezone Plans Meet the Community
Last night an overflow crowd attended a Community Board 7 meeting to hear a presentation from the Department of City Planning about its draft proposal for rezoning Sunset Park. The area in question runs from 29th Street to 64th Street and 4th Avenue to the edge of 8th Avenue, and Planning’s draft proposal involves downzoning…
Last night an overflow crowd attended a Community Board 7 meeting to hear a presentation from the Department of City Planning about its draft proposal for rezoning Sunset Park. The area in question runs from 29th Street to 64th Street and 4th Avenue to the edge of 8th Avenue, and Planning’s draft proposal involves downzoning 75 percent of that to preserve the neighborhood’s low-rise character so it’s mostly R6B, which allows a max height of 40 feet or 50 feet after a setback. Some sections of the avenues covered in the draft rezoning plan will be upzoned to allow for areas of between six and eight stories with an inclusionary bonus for the construction of permanent affordable housing. According to Aaron Brashear of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, the presentation was generally well-received, though not without comment and criticism. Many people still had questions about how the plan would affect the creation/preservation of affordable housing. The next phase of the rezoning will involve generating an Environmental Impact Statement and then starting ULURP, and the actual rezoning may go through by the end of this year.
Sunset Park One Step Closer to Rezoning [Brownstoner]
I recently attended my first community board meeting in Sunset Park. I noticed that most of the discussions focused on Greenwood or Windsor Terrace. I also noticed that although Sunset Park is predominantly Hispanic, there are hardly any Hispanic board members and their certainly was not a large Hispanic presence at the meeting. I also noticed that the majority of the board members and people attending are of a much older generation. I felt like Sunset Park got the short end of the stick. The meeting went on for hours and not one major issue facing Sunset was addressed. Safety near Prospect Park was discussed, buildings in Greenwood were discussed and so on, the only reference to Sunset was regarding the liquor license suspension of the 39th street restaurant. The word needs to get out about this meetings so more residents of Sunset can attend and participate.
[More seriously now]
I know who “started this process”, did the fact-finding, first raised his voice to be heard, ran the risk of confronting those in authority, spoke to his neighbors and listened to what they said, and made allies of people from outside Sunset Park who cared.
I also know who rang the doorbells, handed out the fliers and got the petition signatures last spring. To say they were the ones “who voiced the strongest criticism” at the CB meeting is dishonest. As someone said in another post: the DCP bought into what the community has asked for in its re-zoning recommendations.
–Tom Murphy
Action Jackson: what was the date of that Brooklyn Eagle issue? Was there a picture of me?
–Tom Murphy
“Park Slopers, South South Slopers and Greenwood Height’s folks really need to defer, out of respect, to the people of Sunset Park.”
6:04pm, from my understanding, that is part of Community Board 7’s district. Shouldn’t Board members from the Northern end of the area also care about the Southern end? And should the Southern end care about the Northern end, where last time a drove/walked through has lots of “hard working people and families” like much of the area?
Regardless of th ongoing issues of the Northern part of the CB, including the new RPP crap I read about in the local papers, I would find it hard to believe that a Board would attempt to force feed a rezoning, done by Dept. of City Plaining, not a 197-a, to 2/3rds of their Board’s district. Especially since it seems from the posts here, and the article I mentioned, the Board is pretty well mixed between the Latino, Chinese and “other mix” in the community of white, non-Latino, white non-Asian members.
At the end of the day, and I feel this is universal to all the CBs I have visited, those who care about the community, regardless of race/ethnicity, should be on the Boards.
But, Polemicist and I can spar on that one, I’m sure, outside of this venue.
The rainbow represented was a direct result of the hard outreach work by the very people who signed-on to the earlier letter, the ones who started this process and who voiced the strongest criticism. The ones most effected.
Park Slopers, South South Slopers and Greenwood Height’s folks really need to defer, out of respect, to the people of Sunset Park.
They can take pride in the mess they created along Fourth Ave. in Park Slope and Greenwood with their luxury condos, and Minerva-blocked views. Screw that, we’re fighting for hard working people and families, not statues.
Sorry, meant Brooklyn Eagle (though I’ll bet the Brooklyn paper will cover this as well after the controversy).
5:45 PM, now, while I don’t mind being quoted, from the posts on this thread and having a copy of an article from the Brooklyn paper fwd’d to me by a friend who gets e-mails from a listserv in the area (and knows I love this blog), the “event” not only seemed like it was a rainbow of attendees, but also there was as much support form the crowd as criticism.
So I guess I can quote myself from above and state “Or something in between?”
“This rezoning, from the beginning at my understanding, came from the residents of Sunset Park, mostly grassroots, mainly Latino and Chinese Americans.” Your exact words Action Jackson on Mar. 14th. And you were/are absolutely correct.
Sadly, now the “powers that be” are trying to exclude the very same people. It’s a local, lethal and toxic form of Neoliberalism.
Boy, you have to love how a rezoning can bring a community together. This ought to be interesting as it moves forward.
Unity or division? Or something in between?