Landersville: Important Scoping Meeting On Proposed Gowanus Rezoning Coming Up On April 25

Combined Sewer Overflow floating on the surface of the Gowanus Canal
at 363 Bond Street building.
Photo taken April 15, 2019.

Leave it to NY City Department of City Planning (DCP) to schedule an important meeting regarding the up-zoning of the Gowanus Canal area during a school vacation week, when many families may be out of town. Let us try to stay involved despite the City's effort to make it harder for us to have our voices heard.

The proposed up-zoning of the Gowanus Canal area is moving along quickly.
Here is the next step in the massive re-zoning, and it is an important one.

The Department of City Planning is holding a very important meeting on Thursday, April 25th, 2019, at Middle School (M.S.) 51 at 350 5th Avenue starting at 4 pm to start the Environmental Review Process for the proposed Gowanus Rezoning. The meeting will go through the evening hours.

This meeting will give local residents an opportunity to identify potential effects that the proposed change in zoning will have on the area's infrastructure and the environment.

Here is the opportunity, for example,  to ask how the City aims to deal with the additional sewage produced by 20,000 new residents in around 8,000 units since it has not managed to address  the ouflow of Combined Sewage Overflow into the canal under current conditions.

Or how about asking the City if it is prepared to shelter all new Gowanus residents in the case of flooding since most of the rezoning footprint is in a FEMA Flood Zone A with mandatory evacuation.

According to DCP:
"The first step in the Gowanus environmental review process is to get community input on the Draft Scope of Work (DSOW), a technical document that lays out proposed methodologies and assumptions and that identifies the project and the types of environmental analyses that may be performed. The DSOW helps the public understand and participate in the CEQR review from the start and a necessary precursor to preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The DSOW and other documents are on our website."

DCP will also accept written comments until the close of business on Monday, May 27th, 2019, but it is better to show up at the meeting on April 25th, so please make sure to attend.

Further reading:

Behold Landersville!: What Gowanus May Soon Look Like If The Neighborhood Rezoning Becomes Reality

Dear Brad Lander: Give Us A Democratic Vote On the Gowanus Rezoning

Same As It Ever Was In Gowanus: It Is Clear That New York City Plans To Allow New Housing First, Deal With Extra Sewage Later. 

Feel Betrayed By Councilman Brad Lander Yet Regarding The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning? We Do!

Read more

Gowanus Rezoning: These Are The CB6 Members Who Will Vote' Yay' Or 'Nay' On Landersville

3D model of a fully built-out Gowanus after rezoning

by New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) students

Dear Neighbors, 

As the South Brooklyn community is wrapping its collective head around what New York City Department of City Planning's proposed Gowanus up-zoning will mean to an environmentally challenged neighborhood,  Pardon Me For Asking thought it worthwhile to take a look at the members of  Community Board 6, who will cast their vote on either approving or disapproving the plan.

What is proposed in Gowanus is the largest of the recent rezonings on the smallest footprint in the City and will alter this low-rise industrial neighborhood forever by allowing 22-30 story residential buildings along the banks of its iconic canal. It would not be an overstatement to say that this issue is one of the most important many of our board members have ever voted on.

Though the Community Boards of New York City are strictly advisory, some wield more power than others on matters of importance to their community. They are our "local non-partisan interface to the many offices and agencies of City government." In the case of Gowanus, we need to make sure that CB6 members thoroughly understand the environmental issues in Gowanus, are free of conflicts of interest, and truly represent the voice of the community, and will cast a vote free from pressure from the Councilmembers who put them on the board.

In all, there are 50 members of CB6, representing Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, the Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope, and Red Hook.  The Board's  members are appointed by the Brooklyn Borough President, with our Councilmembers Brad Lander, Carlos Menchaca and  Stephen Levin, making recommendations.

As part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the public review process any New York City rezoning needs to go through,  members of CB6's Landmark/Landuse Committee will first cast their vote and make a recommendation.

The current Members of the Landmarks/ Land Use Committee are:

Landmark Chair - David Briggs

Land Use Chair - Mark Shames

Jerry Armer

Paul Basile

Pauline Blake

Lyn Hill

Glenn Kelly

Ariel Krasnow

Daniel M. Kummer

Robert Levine

Marvin Michel

Tom Miskel

Madeline Murphy

Charles Pigott

Allison Reeves

Debra Scotto

Roy Sloane 

Joanna Oltman Smith

Judith Thompson

Suzanne Turet

The full board will then cast a vote on the matter.

Here is a list of current Community Board 6 members

Numbers behind the names represent appointments by  Councilmen Stephen Levin (33), Carlos Menchaca (38), Brad Lander (39), and Brooklyn Borough President (BP)

Term expiring March 31, 2020 

1. Pauline Blake (BP)

2. David Briggs (BP) 

3. Frances Brown(BP) 

4. Jason Reischel(BP) 

5. Eladia Causil-Rodriguez(BP) 

6. Hasoni Pratts(BP) 

7. Ariel Krasnow (BP) 

8. Robert Levine (BP) 

9. Richard Luftglass (BP) 

10. Elena Santogade (BP) 

11. Judith Thompson (BP) 

12. Kiamesha Smalls (BP) 

13. Howard Graubard (33) 

14. Victoria Alexander (38) 

15.J ulian Morales (38) 

16. Vilma Heramia (39) 

17. Sayar Lonial (39) 

18. Eric McClure (39) 

19. Thomas Miskel (39) 

20. Debra Scotto (39) 

21. Josh Skaller (39) 

22. Dolly Williams(39) 

23. Jean Fritzner (39) 

24. Paul Basile (39) 

25. Kathy Park Price (39) 

Expiring March 31, 2019 

1. Jerry Armer (39) 

2. VACANT (39)

3. Leroy Branch (38) 

4. Karen Broughton (BP) 

5. Joe Ann Brown (39) 

6. Marilyn Carter (33) 

7. Reginald Ferguson (BP)

8. Peter Fleming (39) Chairperson

9. Kara Gurl (BP) 

10. John Heyer II (BP) 

11. Glenn Kelly (BP) 

12. Jasmeet Krause-Vilmar( 39) 

13. Daniel Kummer (39) 

14. Bridget Anne Rein (39)

15. Hildegaard Link (BP) 

16. Charles Pigott (BP) 

17. Rachel Freeman (BP) 

18. Angelica Ramdhari (BP) 

19. Roger Rigolli (39) 

20. Mark Shames (BP) 

21. Vacant (BP)

22. Joanna Smith (39) 

23. Suzanne Turet (39) 

24. Neal Zephyrin (BP) 

There are so many unresolved issues concerning the Gowanus rezoning:

-the area is a FEMA Flood zone A with mandatory evacuation.

-the actual EPA Superfund clean-up of toxic material at the bottom of the Gowanus Canal has yet to start.

-The City still has to build two EPA-mandated Combined Sewer Overflow tanks to capture raw sewage that it currently dumps into the canal.

-the infrastructure in Gowanus is currently insufficient or crumbling.

In addition, despite the participation of local residents in Councilman Brad Lander's Bridging Gowanus visioning process, this re-zoning plan guarantees few of the things that the community really cared about: artists lofts, maker spaces and parks.

How exactly the area will accommodate thousands of new residents when our sewer treatment plants, schools and subways are already near or over capacity remains a question that needs to be answered honestly first.

Please take a look at the list of board members. if you know any of them, please engage them (respectfully) in conversation on the matter. If not, take the time to get to know a few.

Help identify those who may own land in Gowanus, are developers or  those who work for developers in Gowanus and may have a conflict of interest.

This is simply too important of an issue. Let us all enter into this rezoning with knowledge, integrity and honesty.

***For full disclosure, my husband Glenn Kelly is a board member.

Read more

Gowanus Politics: A Panel Discussion On Landersville You May Want To Attend

A reader just made me aware of a panel discussion held by School of Constructed Environments at Parsons School of Design this coming Thursday in Manhattan entitled Gowanus Politics; Community Approaches To Designing Sustainable and Equitable Cities .

We are posting it here to encourage Gowanus residents to attend. It behooves all  of us to make sure that such discussions on the proposed up-zoning do not get highjacked by Councilman Brad Lander and by organizations that claim to speak for the community, especially because some of them receive money from New York City and from developers. 

Here is a description of the event:
The pressure is on – massive population displacement is forcing cities to develop areas that are scarred by 19th and 20th century industry, have insufficient infrastructure, or are at risk with the rapid environmental changes wrought by global warming. If we want to create sustainable and equitable development amongst these conditions, Designers must get political. An Architect, a Lighting Designer, an Activist, an Environmental Steward, and a Politician, present ongoing work, both realized and theoretical, happening in Gowanus Brooklyn, showing the potential for community-based and cross-disciplinary approaches to design and planning.

Speakers: Andrea Parker (Executive Director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy), Catherine Zinnel Deputy Chief of Staff, New York City Council Member Brad Lander,  David Briggs (Founder Gowanus By Design / Principal at Loci Architecture), Zac Martin (Founder of Trellis), Alexandra Pappas-Kalber (Part-time Faculty MFA Lighting Design / Principal at Sighte Studio)

Host: Francesca Bastianini (Part Time faculty, MFA Lighting Design / Principal at Sighte Studio)

Could Councilmember Lander and the organizations mentioned above still argue that the upzoning "offers a potential community-based approach to design and planning? "

Those in the community, who spent hours at Lander's Bridging Gowanus sessions, may beg to differ.

Bridging Gowanus was advertised as "a community planning process to shape a sustainable, livable, and inclusive future for the Gowanus neighborhood-in the face of ongoing change, the Superfund clean-up, and real estate pressure."

Instead, it has now become clear that New York City's Gowanus Draft Zoning Proposal, which claims to have incorporated the community's wishes into account, is a big fat lie and a give-away to developers.

Nothing in the proposed upzoning guarantees us new schools, better infrastructure,  studios for artists,  or, most importantly, environmental remediation that would adequately address the fact that the City has no plans to capture the additional Combined Sewer Overflow that will  continue to flow into the Gowanus Canal after the rezoning.

Neither does the plan address the ever worsening floods due to climate change  which have caused billion dollar disasters in coastal cities  like New York.

Gowanus Politics; Community Approaches To Designing Sustainable and Equitable Cities 

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 AT 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM 

2 West 13th Street, Sky Room, L12012 West 13th Street, 10011, 12th floor

Additional reading:

Feel Betrayed By Councilman Brad Lander Yet Regarding The Proposed Gowanus Rezoning? We Do!

Behold Landersville!: What Gowanus May Soon Look Like If The Neighborhood Rezoning Becomes Reality

Same As It Ever Was In Gowanus: It Is Clear That New York City Plans To Allow New Housing First, Deal With Extra Sewage Later. 

Read more