Category: Noted

Post-Sandy Rezoning at CB1

06/25/2013 | Comment

The agenda for Community Board 1’s Land Use Committee meeting tonight is a pretty sleepy affair – two BSA applications, both of which are retreads that the Board has heard in years past. However, there is one very important agenda item, which is a presentation by City Planning on the City’s proposed Flood Resilience Zoning Text Amendment, which modifies the zoning to allow new development to meet the new flood zone requirements.

I saw the presentation last week at CB2, and what the city is proposing is to modify the zoning to allow flood-resilient design with no (or minimal) impact on development rights. For those of you hoping that Sandy and the new FEMA flood zones will make development in Zone A impossible, this makes development possible. Actually, post-Sandy regulations don’t make development in Zone A impossible in the first place, in simple terms, they only restrict development and use at the base of buildings. These changes to the zoning will, in some case, permit taller development to compensate for the fact that ground floors now need to be flood-proofed in some manner and will no longer be usable floor area. Other modifications include not counting construction below the flood level as floor area and allowing greater amounts of rooftop mechanical area.

When: Tonight (June 25), 6:30 pm
Where: CB1 offices, 435 Graham Avenue

RIP, Pablo

04/13/2013 | 2 Comments

pablo


Very sad to report that Pablo, owner of Sweetwater, has passed away after a long illness. One of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.



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New new Domino Plans Revealed

03/03/2013 | Comment

Cheap sugar

Taller… and cheaper?


In case you missed it, the new new Domino plans went public late this evening. There is a lot to digest here, including taller buildings, a lot more architecture, more open space, a whole new street, a lot more commercial space, a little less residential space, the same amount of affordable housing. And, according to the Post headline writers, Two Trees has really figured out how to economize on construction costs.

Like I said, a lot to digest here. But in the end, it comes down to a question of: is it better?

Server Upgrade

01/27/2013 | Comment

I am switching hosting providers, which may result in some down here and will definitely put me out of email touch for a short while.



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More on the Sweater Factory Lofts

12/05/2012 | Comment

I linked briefly to the New York Times article on the ongoing Sweater Factory saga. Herewith, some more thoughts:

“It’s not crime and disinvestment that’s the enemy of the working-class jobs here anymore,” said Leah Archibald, the director of the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, a nonprofit entity that administers the Industrial Business Zone. “It’s gentrification that’s become the enemy.”

Leah is absolutely right, but what did we expect when the city carved out the Bushwick Inlet industrial zone in 2005? This small enclave of manufacturing is surrounded by new residential zones targeted for luxury housing, so is it really surprising to anyone that manufacturing is not really viable there? Despite calls from many in the community to provide better industrial retention policies, more truly mixed-use zoning and lower densities, this was simply not a priority for City Planning or the loudest voices on the community side. So now this 17-block area now sits isolated and vulnerable amid a sea of new housing. I had a lengthy interview with the Times reporter about the Sweater Factory (alas, no quote!), and made this very point to her. With residential uses unavailable (legally, at least), the highest and best use in this tiny triangle has shifted to bars, bowling alleys and hotels. All as-of-right, but uses that necessarily erode the viability of manufacturing.

When the City set up the Industrial Business Zones in 2005, they made a commitment to slow the flow of variances and rezonings in M zones. That approach has largely worked in East Williamsburg, where there is enough critical mass and enough distance from residential districts (though all bets are off when Bloomberg leaves office). Yes, there are plenty of loft conversions there, but percentage-wise, manufacturing remains the dominant use. Not so in Bushwick Inlet, where the gentrification is not the Sweater Factory lofts but the host of new as-of-right uses that command rents many times higher than manufacturing. About the only bright lining in this area is the rise of tech jobs.

“We take all this stuff very seriously. That’s why we’ve been out there numerous times,” said Ryan FitzGibbon, a department spokeswoman. If the owners of 239 Banker continued to flout the law, she said, it would be possible to take them to court. But with the application pending, she said, “The agency will work with the loft board on this situation to try to legalize the conditions.”

While the DOB tries to defend its embarrassing lack of enforcement, the fact is that they may have been out there numerous times, but they never did much to actually enforce their stop work orders. The DOB has been the prime enabler in this saga, and hiding behind the loft law (which I understand probably doesn’t even apply at this property), is insane.