New Law Stamps Out Illegal Hotels

The law passed by the legislature is aimed more at SROs and apartment hotels in Manhattan, but should help enforcement of illegal “hotels” in Williamsburg.

Lentol Sponsors Legislation to Close Radiac

07/02/2010 | Comment

Joe Lentol is sponsoring legislation to outlaw the siting of radioactive storage facilities within 1,500′ of schools. This legislation – inspired by Luis Garden Acosta’s “toxic-free school zone” idea – would force Radiac, located at the corner of Kent and Grand, to cease radioactive waste storage. (As Luis says, if we can have drug-free school zones, why can’t we have toxic-free school zones?)

Lentol’s press release is reproduced in full, below:

Legislation to Close Radioactive Waste Site, RADIAC, Next to Elementary School Passes Both Houses

Legislation Forbids Radioactive Waste Facilities Within 1500 Feet of Any School
Assemblyman Lentol Urges the Governor to Sign the Legislation into Law

Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-North Brooklyn) is thrilled to announce that legislation he wrote and sponsored making it illegal for Radiac Research Inc., a radioactive waste storage facility, to continue to operate at its current location in North Brooklyn has passed both the Assembly and Senate. The legislation is on its way to Governor Patterson and Assemblyman Lentol urges the Governor to sign the legislation into law.

“This legislation would be a real victory for the North Brooklyn community and the safety of our children,” said Lentol. “I want to thank Senator Martin Malave Dilan for sponsoring it in the Senate and all of my colleagues in the legislature for helping me to take this important step towards ensuring that there is a plenty of space between our children and radioactive waste.”

At issue is the company’s close proximity to a local elementary school PS 84; so close it is actually in violation of NYC code. Despite the site typically storing medical low-grade radioactive waste that many experts see as relatively safe to store, Assemblyman Lentol refuses to gamble with the health of his constituents. This has been an especially worrisome because the City of New York has recently closed Fire Company 212 which was the engine company specially trained to deal with facilities such as RADIAC. Also, the Department of Justice has stated that such facilities are at high risk of terrorist attacks.

Lentol believes that any company storing radioactive waste should not be located in such a populated area. “No one wants to live next to a dump, let alone one that contains radioactive waste. It is only common sense that my constituents be safeguarded against potential health hazards that are completely avoidable. It is appalling that the students in this community are going to school next to radioactive waste, if the Governor signs this legislation it will be a real victory for the environment for health, for safety and for our children,” said Lentol.

Assemblyman Lentol teamed up with local students from the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice to create the legislation. The legislation prohibits any kind of radioactive waste facility within 1500 feet of the boundary of a school. In order to write the legislation Assemblyman Lentol needed to know exactly how many feet were between PS 84 and the toxic waste facility. So as a special project, the math class at El Puente went out in the community and measured the exact distance.

“El Puente’s over 20 year struggle, launched by our Toxic Avengers and, today, embraced by all, is poised to take a major step in reclaiming the safety and environment of our communities, especially, our school young. With Governor Patterson’s support we look forward to ‘Toxic Free School Zones’ across New York State, heralding our human right to clean air, green and open spaces as well as renewable, sustainable energy. Our schools can, now, teach another ‘R’ – the Right of North Brooklyn and all communities to peace and environmental justice,” said Luis Garden Acosta, the founder, president and CEO of El Puente Academy.

“El Puente has a long history of being involved in community and the environment and without them this legislation would not exist. This hands on project gave students the opportunity to learn not only math but also about the environment and government. I am grateful for their crucial role in this process,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol. “It is my hope that these students’ work will go the full length of the process and be signed into law by Governor Patterson,” he continued. “If it does, those students will have played a crucial role in protecting all of the students who come after them. They should be very proud,” said Lentol.



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Kedem Winery Soundstage

07/01/2010 | Comment

kedem.jpg

CineMagic’s Riverfront Studios will be located in the big red building with the brand-new windows.

Yesterday I mentioned that 420 Kent Avenue (part of the former Kedem Winery site) was undergoing a major rehab (something a bit more than the “interior renovation of storage garage” described on the Alt-2 application). My information was correct – the property is being converted into a massive soundstage facility for movie and video production. According to a listing of production facilities put together by the citystate, CineMagic’s Riverfront Studios at 420 Kent Avenue will include five stages (River Stage, Schaefer Stage, Rooftop Stage, Skyline Stage and Daylight Stage) totaling more than 60,000 square feet. The people behind this operation already operate a small stage on Elizabeth Street in Soho (the website for the Williamsburg facility isn’t live yet).

Given the investment required to put together a major facility like this (which I assume CineMagic wouldn’t do without some sort of long-term lease), I’m betting that owner Rector Hylan has no imminent plans to build residential here.



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Kedem Winery Site Wants More Time

06/30/2010 | Comment

Aaron Short just pointed out this RealDeal post to me – Rector Hylan, the owner of the former Kedem Winery site (south of Giando, north of Schaefer) has filed for an extension on the special permits it was awarded in 2006. The Kedem site was approved for a rezoning in 2006, and as part of that rezoning, the owner received special permits to reallocate height and density within the site (similar to the special permits that went along with the Domino and Rose Plaza rezonings). The zoning (when it is enacted) is forever, but special permits expire – in Kedem’s case, in about two weeks. The extension would run for three years.

The real story here is the work that has been going on at the site over the past six months. According to DOB, the recent work at 420 Kent Avenue involves “interior renovation of storage garage” with no change of use. The work is somewhat more substantial than that – involving the refacing of the building, the paving of the adjacent parking lot and a ton of interior work. From what I have heard, the building is being rehabbed as some sort of soundstage. Up the block, the blocked up windows of 420 Kent Avenue have been opened up and new aluminum windows installed. None of this is the kind of work that one does to prep buildings for demolition, so I’m going long and betting that this site will be looking for another special permit extension in three years.

In the meantime, a site that was to be rezoned for residential use (with 20% affordable housing and publicly-accessible open space) remains anything but.

Previously:
Kedem: Spring Cleaning
Kedem – Spring Cleaning or Signs of Life?



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Analysis: Domino Approved

06/30/2010 | Comment

The City Council approved the New Domino rezoning yesterday, making some modifications along the way. The final rezoning can now be summed up in three words:

It’s still big.

For anyone who supports a progressive approach to land use and planning, yesterday’s Domino vote was nothing short of a disappointment. (And judging by the large number of people who submitted testimony to the City Council and City Planning Commission against the Domino proposal – they easily outnumbered supporters – there are a lot of disappointed people in Williamsburg today.) Despite very strong community support for a better plan, the rezoning that the Council passed is essentially the rezoning that the developer asked for. There will still be at least 2,200 residential units, and there will still be hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail and office space. And yes, those impacts are still offset by the developer’s pledge for 660 units of affordable housing (a maximum of 30% of the project) and a new 4-acre waterfront esplanade.

The changes that were made to the development side of the project really amount to rearranging deck chairs. They certainly don’t address any of the core objections raised by Community Board 1 or Borough President Marty Markowitz (who still has issues with the project). The height of the two tallest towers are reduced by 60′ each (to 34 stories), but that floor area is just reallocated within the development site. And one of the few changes made by City Planning – reducing the height of one of the office towers – is undone by the Council. The net effect is no reduction in density, no offsetting of the per capita reduction in open space for Williamsburg (a “statistical fractional decrease” in the words of the developer – an actual reduction in available open space to you and me), no mitigation of shadow impacts on Grand Ferry Park or neighboring row houses, and no improvements to an overburdened transit system (other than a shuttle bus to make it easier for Domino residents to get to the overburdened transit system).

In short, the New Domino continues to employ a new math – one that says that 5,000 to 6,000 market-rate (i.e., luxury) tenants somehow won’t permanently change the character of a working class Latino neighborhood (prediction – it will). At 2,200 units (minimum), Domino will increase the local population by about 20%. And that assumes that all 330 of the affordable housing units set aside for residents of Community Board 1 go to residents of the immediate neighborhood (prediction – less than half that number will).

There are some truly positive changes that came out of the Council negotiations, all of them courtesy of the city (and your tax dollars).

First off, there is the city’s commitment to continue funding the Tenant Anti-harassment Fund. One of the effects of the gentrification of Greenpoint and Williamsburg has been increased harassment of tenants, particularly those in rent stabilized or rent controlled apartments. The addition of 1,540 new market-rate units is only going to make the problem worse on the Southside. A consortium of community groups has been fighting this trend – with very tangible results – for a few years now. Now that initiative will continue. The question is, will the initiative continue through the development of the entire Domino project (a ten-year horizon), or is the City just going add a year or two onto the project?

The other big win for the community is the funding of a district-wide transportation study. Again, pretty dry stuff, but this is something the community has been asking for for over 7 years (since well before the 2005 rezoning). We’ve seen the results of ad hoc transportation planning, and they aren’t pretty. Done right, a district-wide transportation study might even lead to a comprehensive transportation and transit plan that will address some of the burdens that projects like Domino (and many, many others) will bring to this transit-poor neighborhood.

There are other benefits for the community at large, including additional capital funding for parks and a capital contribution to a community cultural center (Northside Town Hall, I believe). Of course these promises get added to the long list of promises from the 2005 rezoning (many of which remain unfulfilled). And the big thing that the City could have done to mitigate the reduction in open space Domino is bringing to the neighborhood – creating new parkland – remains a dream.



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Year After Evacuation, Brooklyn Tenants Still Aren’t Back Home

The Times has an update on the saga of 172 North 8th Street, whose residents were evacuated last June by DOB, let back in, and then evacuated again.

Among other things, the tenants and the landlord are now fighting over who did the most recent work in the cellar that led to the latest vacate order. The tenants say the landlord was trying to excavate the basement to create retail space. The landlord suggests the tenants are culpable. The landlord’s lawyer says “eh, maybe it just happened”.

Wythe Still ‘Kent’ Do It!

DOT met with the Community Board last night about the Kent Avenue bike lanes and traffic on Wythe. Highlights included the news that Kent Avenue is now the second busiest bike route, traffic on Wythe is up 600%, and DOT is planning on installing traffic lights along Wythe at North 6th, North 4th, Grand and South 4th (no news about lights on Kent, though, which surely needs them).