Moments after the City Planning Commission voted to approve a rezoning application by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society that would allow the construction of four 12- to 20-story towers to be built on the eastern edge of DUMBO’s lower-scale warehouse district, DUMBO Neighborhood Association director Nancy Webster cornered a representative from Brooklyn’s City Planning office.

Feeling threatened by the prospect of such massive towers looming around her, she inquired about her group’s push for a comprehensive contextual rezoning of the area.

“We’d really love to be testifying on something positive at this point,” Webster told the agency rep, who told her such an idea was moving along — slowly.

Marcia Hillis, a DNA member and member of the Community Board 2 land use committee, said plans for a DUMBO rezoning had been in the works since 1997, when board members and residents met for months to develop a plan to limit zoning in certain areas.

“Even back then people saw that there was a problem with non-conforming uses in the neighborhood,” Hillis said. “It asked for a mixed-use zoning that brings residential use into conformity.” But the plan never made it past CB2.

“With the precedent of 85 Jay St. it’s creating a vulture effect — a lot of developers will swoop in,” she said, referring to the Watchtower plan.

But, said Hillis, other large-scale projects set an equally daunting precedent. In January 2002, the city approved plans for an 18-story luxury condominium complex next to the Manhattan Bridge overpass at Jay and York streets. The 375,000-square-foot Light Bridges at Jay Street passed the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure well before the current housing and office conversion boom.

“That went through because quite honestly there was a sort of naivete of the community members involved,” Hillis said of Light Bridges, also noting that CB2 got the application for review just a month after Sept. 11, 2001.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get any design restrictions [imposed on the developer],” said Hillis.

Light Bridges has not been built, but developer Shaya Boymelgreen is building two high-rises in DUMBO, an 11-story luxury condominium at 84 Front St. and a 23-story residence at 85 Adams St., almost on the direct opposite side of the Manhattan Bridge overpass from the Light Bridges site.

And DUMBO developer David Walentas, known for converting existing industrial buildings rather than tearing them down, was shot down last month in city review of his plan to build a high-rise next to the Brooklyn Bridge overpass at 38 Water St., which currently houses the St. Ann’s Warehouse performance space.

“We’d like to push for a contextual rezoning for the neighborhood so we’re not having older buildings torn down and high rises going up everywhere, but also because it will have better results,” Hillis said.

“It’s something City Planning has been doing work on for a while,” she said Hillis.

Meanwhile, a contextual zoning plan for similarly industrial Greenpoint-Williamsburg has just been certified and is now “in the midst of a public review process,” said Regina Myer, City Planning’s Brooklyn director. Myer said the DUMBO plan was in consideration.

A City Planning source said that developers looking to build in warehouse-DUMBO have sought site-specific zoning variances, for the most part.

“Private developers have been coming in to us with applications, and individually request zoning map changes,” the source said. “Instead of it happening piecemeal, the community has asked us to look at the neighborhood, and found it appropriate for a rezoning.”

Any large-scale rezoning, though, would require an Environmental Impact Statement, and a year of review before a proposal could be certified.

“It’s very long-term,” said the source, who added that City Planning officials were only having “preliminary meetings at this point” with the DNA.

Borough President Marty Markowitz has emerged as a protector against the land “vultures,” as Hillis termed opportunistic developers.

In his role in the ULURP process, the borough president recommended a drastically shorter set of Watchtower residence towers, something the City Planning Commission chose to ignore in approving the plan last week. Markowitz also laid down the gauntlet with respect to Walentas and 38 Water St., saying that any structure that blocked views of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge had no chance of being approved.

“Any proposed development must be complementary to the historic DUMBO and Vinegar Hill neighborhoods,” Markowitz wrote in his report on 85 Jay St. report.

“A combination of contextual zoning districts that restrict height to approximately 120 feet along Jay Street and 70 feet for the remainder of the site would mitigate concerns. [It would] reflect the lower-density scale of the neighborhood and balances responsible development of DUMBO and Vinegar Hill with community preservation,” the recommendation continued.

When 85 Jay St. comes before the City Council, sometime next month, the lobbying efforts of local council members Letitia James and David Yassky will likely have the greatest impact on the land use committee and then the full council.

Both Yassky and James have been reticent to weigh in heavily one way or the other since the City Planning vote but have indicated that they want to see the towers lowered.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group