Important Online Meeting On Gowanus Rezoning Coming Up. Please Tune In!

The Department of City Planning (DCP) will make a presentation at Community Board 6's Landmarks/Land Use meeting on Thursday, October 22 at 6pm. According to CB6, "the presentation will outline their timeline in advance of the Gowanus rezoning being certified (the first stage of the ULURP) in January 2021."
To register for the online meeting, please click here. I would encourage everyone in the community to sign up, to send in your questions and comments here, but better yet, to demand to make a statement.

Why The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning Is All Wrong And Why We Should All Care!

As Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Brad Lander target Gowanus for one of the largest upzonings during this administration, local residents demand a plan that offers safety, sustainability, transparency and respect for our residential neighborhood and our businesses. Currently, De Blasio and Lander's vision offers none of the above.

The Truth About Gowanus

-The Gowanus neighborhood is a very fragile ecological environment and coastal estuary that has been abused for more than a century. 

-Brownfield remediations are toxic containment measures and not actual cleanups. Much of the highly toxic material in the canal and adjacent land will remain in the soil even after EPA Superfund and Brownfield remediation efforts have been completed. And because of the real risks that come from living on land that remains polluted in perpetuity, NY State mandates these sites be monitored for exposure risks every year.

-New York City is one of the main polluters of the Gowanus Canal because it dumps both toxic materials and organic pathogens into the canal during rain fall events. EPA will restrict CSO toxic materials, but what of the pathogens?

-New York State allows the city to use a loophole in the Clean Water Act for industrial waterways. In most city waterways Combined Sewer discharges must be restricted to maintain low levels of pathogen present in the water, as mandated by NY State water standards. This is not so in Gowanus, where the industrial water-quality classification sets no limits to the levels of pathogens allowed to flow in this canal.

-Gowanus is prone to flooding, from both urban drainage during rainfall and coastal storm surges as with Hurricane Sandy. Flooding will become more severe due to climate change and ensuing sea levels rise.Resilience measures that elevate the banks of the canal can be expectedtoexacerbate flooding and ground water levels in surrounding upland areas.

-As one of the City's first industrial areas, Gowanus is home to many vital businesses for New Yorkers. Manufacturing jobs pay much more than service industry jobs. These businesses want to stay, thrive, and grow in Gowanus. We need them here.

-Gowanus has provides spaces for small business where new ideas can grow. Gowanus is home to many new recreational and arts enterprises because of it' unique location, buildings, and community.

-The Gowanus/Brooklyn area needs more green, open space. Gowanus and adjacent communities are substantially underserved by public open space and have been since Dept. of City Planning stated in 1978, and the Parks Department re-affirmed most recently.

-Gowanus has been targeted by developers since 2006 and land speculation has displaced many residents and businesses during this time.

-During Brad Lander's 11 years as our representatives in the Council, the proposed original 2008 rezoning has almost doubled in density and height.

In light of all these facts, the Gowanus Community needs to demand:

-an immediate moratorium on the Gowanus rezoning until such time that in-person public meetings can resume and offer Gowanus residents the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) they are entitled to by law.

-an urban planning process that is driven by community needs and respectful of the environmental realities in Gowanus, not developer profits.

-a racial impact study ahead of any ULURP action.

-that the EPA Superfund clean-up of the canal be completed first.

-that the City comply with the Clean Water Act. NYC DEP must correctly size and complete the two Combined Sewer Overflow tanks mandated by EPA so that zero sewage discharges into the canal.

-that NYS DEC reclassify the Gowanus canal waterway to a standard appropriate for adjacent residential use, and so place mandatory limits on pathogen levels in the water, before permitting residential development along the banks of the canal.

-that only land that can be remediated 100% to support healthy human habitation receive residential use-designation.

-a commitment that the entire 5.8 acre former MGP site known as Public Place be set aside under its current restrictive 'recreational use' and be made available to the community as open parkland.

-that no new Gowanus buildings be included in the ~25 year 421-A tax abatement program. Every building should pay a fair share for our infrastructure and city services.

-that Gowanus developers not shift liability for building onto toxic land on taxpayers through the Brownfield program.

-Transparency in decision making by our electeds and the City. We demand to know who received campaign contributions or was targeted by lobbyist in regards to the rezoning.

-Resistance to climate change and other environmental principles should be made a priority in any land-use decision

-All land-use changes must be carbon-neutral.

-Everyone deserves to live on land that is safe and resilient to climate change; no one should be expected to live on land that poses any danger to human health, or is susceptible to loss from climate change.

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Lazy Or Just Careless? Brooklyn Community Board 6's District Office Fails To Post Meeting Minutes In A Timely Manner On Web Site And Why It Matters

Community Board 6  Chair Peter Fleming

Mike Racioppo District Manager of CB6

According to its web site, one of the functions of our Community Board 6  district office, located at 250 Baltic Street in Cobble Hill, is "maintains all the public records of the activities of the Community Board."

One would think that function would include posting the approved meeting minutes in a timely manner on its site. After all, there is a dedicated page to those minutes on the site and it would be the most logical place to make them accessible to the community.

However, that does not seem to be the case.

When I recently found myself looking for some CB6 information, I was surprised to find that the meeting minutes had not been updated for months.

For example,  the 2019 minutes for the Permits and Licenses Committee meeting only showed those for the monthly meetings in  January and February 2019. The ones for the Land Use/ Landmark Committee only included those for January, February and March 2019.

The other committees did not fare any better.

Even more curious, only minutes for the  January 8, February 13 and March 13 2019  general meetings of the Full Board appear on the web site. 

(The January 2019 meeting is mislabeled 2018)

There is almost no excuse for the fact that minutes for the year 2018 remain incomplete on the web site as well. (See photo above)

Almost every CB6 General and Committee meeting usually begin with the approval of the previous  meeting minutes.  So why aren't they posted on the site shortly afterwards? A delay of a month or two would be understandable, but not providing the community with timely minutes is unacceptable.

Curious as to what Community Board 6  by-laws state regarding minutes, we looked it up. They were last updated in 2009  and say that the "minutes shall be kept in the district office and forwarded to all public libraries within Community District #6 and shall be available to any person or organization requesting same."

We called the Carroll Gardens Library on Clinton Street, which would be the closest to the Community Board office to check. We were told that no CB6 committee or general minutes were kept there.

We are aware of the fact that Brooklyn CB6 was selected to participate in the Live-Streaming Program, through the City Council's Digital Inclusion and Literacy Initiative and that indeed, some meetings have been taped and are still  accessible on You Tube.

There are no links to the live-stream videos anywhere on the CB6 page. It is important to note that only general meetings have been videotaped, none of the committee meetings.

Considering that many important discussions and votes happen during those committee meetings, those minutes should have been posted. 

In our opinion, the approved meetings of ALL Brooklyn CB6 meetings should always be posted.

Why does this matter? CB6 represents the neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook.  There have been many issues being discussed in the past few months,  none more important than the massive proposed rezoning of the Gowanus Canal area, which will bring more than 20,000 new residents to the area and will undoubtedly affect many within the Community Board boundary.

Presentations on the rezoning have been given by city agencies and comments made by the public at the general and committee meetings.  In their advisory capacity, members of Community Board 6 will cast their vote to either approve or disapprove the plan. 

It is therefore important that a complete, timely meeting record and complete minutes be made available to the community. 

It is not too much to ask for. CB6 and its district office need to do better.

If you are wondering how quickly other community board web sites post meeting minutes here is a link to Community Board 6 in Manhattan. THAT board seems to be pretty up to date on that front. 

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