Borough President Marty Markowitz
Councilmember Brad Lander
Harry Schwartz
John C. Muir
At yesterday's Baruch College - Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute
Forum on the Future Of Gowanus Canal Area
Real estate developers, business and civic leaders and elected officials gathered on a Wednesday morning at Brooklyn Borough Hall to "reconsider the Gowanus", now that the Environmental Protection Agency has placed the long neglected, highly polluted waterway on its list of Superfund sites.
Those who cried foul or tried to derail the nomination, because it meant that development along the Gowanus would have to wait until the EPA's clean up of the toxic canal was completed, now seem to have at least moderated their view.
More than once, speakers at the Forum mentioned that the delay is an opportunity to rethink the future in the area. There is no doubt though, that most of the attendees at the forum were envisioning that future to include housing developments and lots of them.
To developers and realtors, the shores of the Gowanus represent a huge underused tract of land, ideally located between some of Brownstone Brooklyn's most desirable neighborhoods.
The area has "huge potential" and "offered excellent opportunities" according to many speakers. Harry Schwartz, a planning and development consultant, felt that revitalization of the Gowanus would allow for about 3,000 new dwellings and would increase housing in the area by 30%, "without displacing people".
Many of the speakers remarked on the Gowanus area's good transit and road connections to the rest of the city and the region. They commented on its strong economic and social connection to New York City's major business districts.
Borough President Markowitz stated that "Gowanus is already poised to be Brooklyn's newest hip address, but we need to be extra vigilant about making sure that the new Gowanus is home to everyone". He is urging any new development to set aside 30 % affordable housing units as opposed to the more common 20%. He also addressed the issue of height limits, saying that "no building along the canal should exceed eight stories and no buildings in the neighborhood should exceed twelve".
Our Councilman Brad Lander was thankful for the extra time created by the EPA's Superfund designation so that the original plan, which was conceived during the heat of the real estate market, could be improved upon. He called for a genuine mix of uses for the Gowanus area, and felt that in order to achieve such a mixed-used district, new zoning tools will be needed by the office of City Planning. In current M1 zoning districts, he said, hotels and big boxes all too often replace manufacturing after a time and in current mixed use zones, usage usually goes to the highest bidder: residential development.
The call for affordable housing was heard quite a few times during the morning. Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the 5th Avenue Committee spoke of the Gowanus Green project on Public Place and the 774 units that are planned there.
Of those units, 70% are slated to be affordable.
But de la Uz was quick to add that any plan to revitalize the Gowanus area would need to protect the existing affordable housing. Citing new development along recently rezoned 4th Avenue, she commented that "Brooklyn Boulevard" (as our Borough President prefers) now has less affordable housing than before the rezoning. Occupants of older buildings that were slated to make room for luxury condos were harassed, threats were made to call immigration, they had their heat turned off, fires were set and drug dealing activity actively allowed in their buildings.
One speaker reminded everyone of an important fact: The Gowanus area is a filled-in swamp and as such, will always be prone to flooding. The speaker was John C. Muir, Vice Chairman of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, though he was quick to point out that he was representing his own views at this event and was not representing the Conservancy.
It is important, he stated, to remember that with the increased rise in sea levels due to global warming, flooding will increase. He said: "the Baruch College study makes presumptions - Question those presumptions!".
There were very few members of the Gowanus community present at the meeting. Not surprising. The 8:30 Am timing of the forum was an assurance that mostly 'suits' would be in attendance.
The one member who had been invited to represent local residents on one of the panel discussions by Baruch College was Maria Pagano, the president of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association. However, Ms. Pagano failed to clearly communicate how the community envisions the future of the area. She spent most of her allotted time explaining that her organization prefers to let organizations such as CORD( Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development) and FROGG (Friends And Residents Of Greater Gowanus) take on the hard issues and advocacy.
In the end, no glossy brochures, plans or speeches about the future of the Gowanus Canal area will matter much if it is impossible to adequately clean the land surrounding the canal and to insure the safety of any new residents on that land.
Also not resolved is the danger of the rise in sea level and how it will affect this fragile lowland area.
And then there is the problem of the Combined Sewer Overflow (C.S.O.). New York City still dumps raw sewage into the canal every time it rains and has no immediate plans to stop doing so.
While great ideas and a desire to "get this right" were expressed at this forum, there is concern that the theme of the forum was development and that much more than lip service is needed here. This was, after all, an event organized by Baruch's Real Estate Institute and sponsored by National Grid (formerly known as Brooklyn Union Gas), one of the largest polluters of the Gowanus Area.
We must be vigilant so that the people will ultimately decide the future of the Gowanus corridor, not the developers and the polluters.
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