Mayor DeBlasio’s plan to upzone the city in the hopes of making new developments more affordable and less ugly is a dud, say the majority of Brooklyn’s community boards.
Almost all of the borough’s panels have now rendered their decisions on City Hall’s so-called Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal to relax height, design, and parking restrictions on new construction — especially when they involve below-market or senior housing — with 13 of 17 voting against it.
The boards were almost united in their condemnation, but not in their rationales — Sheepshead Bay’s Community Board 15 members were worried about losing parking, Community Board 7 thought it would actually result in developers knocking down existing affordable housing in Sunset Park, the Downtown area’s Community Board 2 just didn’t think it would work, and members of Community Board 10 in Bay Ridge had so many issues with the 600-page plan they simply stopped dissecting it and voted no.
The majority of boards also voted against a separate but related proposal to force developers to create below-market housing when building on rezoned land — nine said no, two didn’t render a decision either way, and five approved it.
The only board that has not voted is Community Board 1, covering Greenpoint and Williamsburg, which pushed its vote off to Dec. 1.
The Borough Board — comprising Borough President Adams, the community boards’ chair people, and Brooklyn Council members — will vote on the plans on Dec. 1. Kings County Council people have so far remained resolutely mum on the topic, though their counterparts in Queens and the Bronx have already voted against it.
In the mean time, check out a breakdown of how the various panels voted — in both graph form (above) and map form (below).
