Community Board supports 72 -storey Fort Greene Tower, with conditions

Concern about the tower, planned to be the second highest in Brooklyn, include affordability and impact on Fort Greene Park.

A new tower planned for Fort Greene, which becomes the second highest in Brooklyn if built as proposed, has received conditional approval from Community Board 2.

During the entire board meeting in September, the board voted 26 for, five against and two remembered to support the development with 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension. The site, currently occupied by a seven -storey Black Glass Office Building Housing Verizon, is owned by the city.

The project, led by developers Rabina and Park Tower Group, would bring around 1,260 apartments with mixed income, with 25 percent reserved as permanently affordable as part of the mandatory inclusive housing program required with rezonings. Board members added a list of 10 conditions to their approval of the project, stating concern about affordability and unit sizes, and the impact on Fort Greene Park and on the surrounding community.

During the meeting, CB2 Land Use Committee chairman Daughtry Carstarphen said that the development team had said that the Mih option would use one, which means that there would be 325 apartments aimed at households that earned an average of 60 percent of the average income of the area. She said about this, the developers have committed themselves to 130 apartments with very low incomes.

Carstarphen said that the board had communicated concern with the developer about the size of the units, affordability and infrastructure issues, and the approval conditions were designed to tackle them. Although the conditions are not binding, they often inform the agreements for the benefits of the community that representatives of the city council run with developers through re -use processes.

“One is that constant conversations must be done through a community advice group, which must be formed and both Nycha -residents and what Legacy residents were called, or people who have long been called nearby,” she told the board members. The developers said they would finance Outreach to residents of Nycha around the use of Housing Connect, she said.

She said that the development team should also increase the number of permanently affordable units with two and three bedrooms, even if the result is generally fewer units, and the affordability is to deliver units to offer units at 30 and 40 percent of Ami.

Other conditions include having a percentage of the retail space with lower lease costs for inheritance and existing local companies, including a community facility for youth re -recreation and enrichment, and making a meaningful financial contribution to Fort Greene Park Conservancy for constant maintenance and activities (see the full list at the end of this article).

Yet some board members found that the proposal was inadequate. Maisha Morales said that the board should ask the city to contribute to financing (the project is currently not using city financing) to get more affordable units, since the project is being built on Land van de Stad.

“I am now very shocked with this plate,” she said. “This is Stadsland. This is our taxpayer. This is an opportunity.”

Morales said that the board had usually always requested a larger count of affordable units when it came to rezonings, and she said that, in view of this in the city company where the developer had to build 25 percent affordable housing without any city subsidy: “This is a chance to get that increase, this is where we usually do not have on private country.”

Another bottleneck was the potential impact of the building on Fort Greene Park. One member was worried that new shadows fall over one of the most used green spaces in one of the most used green spaces.

The concept of environmental statement for the environment that was drawn up for the re -use found no significant adverse effects for four seasonal test days. According to the document, Shadows would vary from 36 minutes during the winter solstice to an hour and 44 minutes during spring and autumn equinoxes.

A member of the land use committee said that the level of the shadow was not worth reducing the length of the building with different floors, “and our focus was a financial dedication to the conservancy instead [Fort Greene Conservancy] For maintenance for all new users. “The developers are in conversation with The Conservancy about providing financing, said Carstarphen.

Roselind Fletcher, the executive director of Fort Greene Conservancy, said to Brownstoner in a statement: “We are delighted that Community Board 2 has recognized the consequences that the project will have at Fort Greene Park and therefore, as a condition for the support of the project, we have been asked to make the developers of the ‘Meaningful Financial Contribution’ for the running financial contribution ‘for the running financial contribution’ for the running financial contribution ‘for the running financial contribution’ for the running financial contribution ‘.

The proposed re -use would enable a development of 1.1 million square meters of mixed use, including the new 72 -storey tower, room for community facilities and retail. The plan requires several approvals, including a destination card change, text change, access to urban property and changes to the Urban Renewal Plan of Brooklyn Center.

The building has been owned by the city since 1972 and has been rented to Rabina under an agreement that is currently running until 2042. A representative of Rabina and Park Tower Group told Brownstoner against “the Disposition authority granted via the Ulurp process will be used to lure the existing soil rental agreement to 2042 and an option to restructure until 30 years” to redstructure until 2042. “

The re -use also wraps in public benefits, including transit improvements, planned for the Dekalb Avenue Q and B metro station and the creation of a newly laid out squares of 4,700 square base with seats and seller space along Fulton Street.

Because the southern end of the site is about metro tunnels, only the north side can support an extensive new building. The existing office building along Fulton Street would be recladated and reused in brick and glass for retail and community facilities, with part of it reserved for the Ministry of Health and Mental Hygiene, the re -use documents say.

The new residential tower would get up from the northeastern corner and would include coworking spaces, recreational facilities and a dog run. The project would also be one of the first to meet the new 485x Zone B Labor standards, said Carstarphen.

With the conditional approval of Community Board 2, the project continues in the assessment process of the land use of the city. The proposal will now be assessed by the city chairman, City Planning Commission and the city council before the mayor of the mayor is reached. Along the way there will be extra public hearings where residents can weigh.

The 10 conditions as written by CB2 are:

1. Set up a Community Advisory Group (CAG) to participate meaningfully in the further development and refinement of this proposal. CAG to include Nycha and “Legacy” homes (those with decades long and/or multigenerational history of life in the district).
2. Increase the number of permanently affordable family units (2 and 3 bedrooms), even if this generally results in fewer units.
3. Deepen the affordability to deliver units at 30% and 40% AMI, whereby the Mih -weighted average is treated as a maximum, no target.
4. The double number of unit for applicants with mobility and hearing or visual impairments to 10% and 5% respectively.
5. Take a percentage of retail space with lower lease costs for inheritance and existing local companies.
6. Record a community facility for youth recreation and enrichment.
7. Give countdown clocks and bus care for all bus stops on the site and immediately adjacent.
8. Take a 20% aside for earlier homeless households in the next HPD development in Brooklyn Community District 2.
9. Take a 20% reserved for residents of Brooklyn Community District 2 (15% when the occupation starts after 2029; according to the law).
10. Offer a meaningful financial contribution to the Fort Greene Park Conservancy for constant maintenance and activities.

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