Botanic Garden Backers and Developers Face Off, Again, Over Shady Tower

This article was originally published on July 17 at 5:51 p.m. EDT by THE CITY

The developer of a controversial proposed high-rise housing development alongside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is making a second try at obtaining city approval — but still facing uproar, even after cutting the project down to less than half its former height.

The push by Continuum Company, a development firm with bases in New York and Florida, to develop the site of a former spice factory on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn met with a crowd of opponents at a Brooklyn Borough Hall hearing Tuesday night, many of them wearing black and yellow “fight for sunlight” T-shirts warning of harm to the garden even at the shrunken size.

Continuum’s project, now at 14 stories and 475 apartments in one tower — down from 32 floors and 1,600 units in two buildings — is going through a new land use review after the City Planning Commission made a rare rejection of its rezoning proposal in 2021, asserting that the developers had failed to minimize shadows the towers would be cast onto sensitive sections of the garden.

As required by the city’s mandatory inclusionary housing rules, one-quarter of the apartments would be set aside for low- and middle-income tenants.

The existing zoning on the site, dating back to 1991, allows up to seven stories and was introduced by city planners with the intention of limiting shadows on the garden, noted Adrian Benepe, the former city parks commissioner who now serves as the garden’s president. 

“The city made a specific decision to protect the city owned asset,” said Benepe in an interview with THE CITY. “And that decision should stand.”

The official environmental impact review for the project found it would cast shadows over portions of the garden for between about one and three hours a day, depending on season, and also darken the nearby Jackie Robinson Playground.

The land use review began in May, and last month Brooklyn Community Board 9 unanimously rejected Continuum’s proposal, citing “significant adverse environmental impacts, significant racial equity impacts, and fair housing violations,” claiming not enough has been done to study the project’s effect on the possible displacement of communities of color. 

Opponents at Borough Hall hearing were vocal in their testimony.

CB9’s chair Fred Baptiste testified that the tower would be “bad for CD9, bad for Brooklyn, bad for New York.”

Of special concern to those voicing objections were potential impacts on the garden’s conservatories, including desert and tropical plants and a nationally renowned orchid collection. 

“We must deny the proposed rezoning,” said Seana Moore, director of horticulture for the botanic garden, in her testimony. “Any garden, as you know, requires water, care, and sunlight. We can pipe in water, we can provide loving care through our hard work and dedication, but we have no choice but to rely on the exposure of the sky from natural sunlight.”

Others were more poetic in their testimony. “That is clearly unwise and definitely suicidal for plants, and the animals, and the human life which embodies the life of the garden” said Dorothy Griffiths, an archeologist and Brooklyn resident for the past 14 years, in her testimony. “The beauty that the garden emulates is just wonderful. To destroy it, to eliminate it, to diminish it, is a complete sin.” 

Supporters of the project offered a different perspective. Union workers backed the plan after the development firm said they would hire only union construction workers. 

“The project focuses on union jobs and local investment will help build community wealth,” said Fernando Gomez, business agent for Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 in Brooklyn, in his testimony.

Continuum representatives said in their testimony that their revised proposal and study show that the garden would lose minuscule amounts of sunlight. Presenter David Rosenberg also pointed out that, currently, there is shadow on the garden from a different source: trees.

“You can see here satellite images from different seasons and different years that show that there is a kind of perennial cloud cover, from shade cover, from existing trees along Washington Avenue,” he said.

The company also emphasized their project’s alignment with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso’s Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn, including his call to eliminate requirements for vehicle parking in new real estate developments. As proposed, their project would include 71 parking spaces, half of what is normally mandated.

Under the land use review timeline, Reynoso must provide an advisory recommendation by July 26. After that, the project will move on to the City Planning Commission and, if it passes this time, to the City Council.

THE CITY has reached out to local Councilmember Crystal Hudson for comment. Reynoso said his office will not comment on the proposal before July 26.

THE CITY is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker. DONATE to THE CITY

Related Stories

• Proposed Crown Heights Build Would Cast Harmful Shadows on Botanic Garden
• End Nears for Crown Heights Spice Factory as Developers Seek Demo Permit and New Rezoning
• With Light-Blocking Tower Plan Dead, Spice Factory Owners Plan Mid-Rise Building in Crown Heights

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.