The city will host a public meeting on Feb. 6 to update Gowanusaurs on the latest rezoning plans for their neighborhood, more than six months after officials first released an upzoning scheme that calls for packing more residents into bigger building on some of Gowanus’s busiest streets.
The session follows a series of city-led meetings over the summer, where locals could weigh in on the so-called “framework for a sustainable, inclusive, mixed-use” Gowanus released last June, which called for rezoning swathes of the neighborhood — including Fourth Avenue between Pacific and 15th streets, in order to make way for buildings as tall as 17 stories on the stretch, five higher than the 12-story cap that current law allows.
But the first draft of the scheme, which Mayor DeBlasio initially floated back in 2016, did not incorporate the already in place Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Zone along the southern end of the Gowanus Canal, which the city designated in 2006 to preserve the area’s industrial roots.
And that commercial enclave could benefit from the rezoning the city claims will help stimulate economic growth in the larger neighborhood, according to a local leader, who hopes officials will consider including it within the boundaries of their proposed upzoning before starting its journey through the lengthy Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
“We want to see the IBZ included, for manufacturers to find some growth in this rezoning,” said Paul Basile, who heads community group the Gowanus Alliance. “We will continue to advocate for the creation of more jobs along with this rezoning.”
Draft Zoning Proposal and Framework Updates at PS 32 (317 Hoyt St. at Union Street in Gowanus) on Feb. 6 from 6 pm to 8 pm.
