Hearing Statement
My name is Peter Gillespie. I am the executive director of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. We’re a volunteer-based community planning and environmental justice organization. Since we formed in 1994, a large part of our mission has been to recapture the North Brooklyn waterfront and encourage a waterfront development that supports a stable, healthy, mixed-use community. We believe that creating public waterfront parkland, building affordable housing, preserving viable industrial and artisanal jobs, and trying to maintain the neighborhood’s character are all essential to any waterfront development.
This is the largest project in our community’s history. If approved, CPC’s proposal will have a profound impact on the community. It is essential for CPC to take a very close look at these impacts. We recommend that CPC include some additional information in their scope of work and address our suggestions and concerns.
CPC must examine the residential displacement that their project will cause. CPC should expand their analysis of secondary displacement to include residents of stabilized and rent controlled units. Our experience has shown that through harassment, buyouts, and illegal evictions significant numbers of existing affordable units are being lost in the neighborhood. The enormous scale of the CPC’s proposal will only increase the problem. Also, we encourage CPC to analyze the extent to which ethnic groups will be displaced. The Southside of Williamsburg has historically been a Latino community and with the neighborhood’s ever-increasing development, portions of the Latino community have and may continue to be displaced.
We also would like CPC to extensively research the impact that their proposal would have on existing local commerce. CPC’s proposal designates 120,000 square feet of space for retail and commercial use. This space could fit two and a half, three-story Whole Foods like the one at Union Square. It is enough space to create an entirely new commercial strip and the deleterious effects it will have on local commerce must be thoroughly analyzed.
CPC’s proposal also downzones part of the M3-1 district to M1-2. This downzoning would directly displace heavy-manufacturing in the rezoned area. CPC’s analysis should carefully study how to aid these displaced businesses as well as how to alleviate the negative impacts on the remaining light-manufacturing business.
Despite the acceleration of residential construction and development over the past decade, unemployment numbers have not significantly improved. Recent rezoning has not generated jobs for people in the neighborhood. With this in mind, we encourage CPC to hire locally. There are many qualified architects, contractors, construction firms, marketing groups, crafts persons, and building material supply companies in the community. Recruiting locally would generate local jobs and act as a great means of economic development.
We also have concerns regarding the effects of CPC’s proposal on neighborhood transportation. The L-line is already one of the most over-burdened subway lines in the city and the JMZ line is gaining passengers by the day. We understand that CPC’s proposal could create shuttle bus service. If it does, we would like CPC to make this transportation inclusive to the entire community. It’s also important to mention that Kent Avenue is the neighborhood’s main truck route and one of the major truck routes in Brooklyn. Residential towers would create added traffic on this important avenue and could divert trucks and traffic upland. These transportation concerns must be heavily researched since unsafe and overburdened transportation affects the quality of life for the entire community.
As part of CPC’s proposal, they plan to dedicate 100,000 square feet of space to community facility use. While this could allow for some exciting community facilities, it is an immense amount of space. It’s enough space to fit 5 Madison Square Garden Arenas. Therefore, we would like CPC to provide more information about this community facility space, such as its proposed uses and its impact on the community.
Lastly, we would like CPC to include two lesser build alternatives in their scope of work. The alternatives should restrict the height and density of the project’s waterfront and upland portions to conform to the City’s approved Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning plan. We believe that a lesser build alternative would accomplish the CPC stated goals and would minimize the project’s negative impacts. The alternatives should also increase the amount of affordability to accord with Community Board #1’s ULURP response to the City’s rezoning proposal.
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