Housing Not Highrises

The City Planning Commission (CPC) held a public hearing on the Arrow Linen rezoning on Wednesday, Nov 6. Our heartfelt thanks to our many supporters who came to the hearing and testified! The commissioners were engaged and asked great questions of the applicants and the folks who testified – 18 community members against the proposal, and 8, mostly from the Open New York lobbying group and not from the neighborhood in favor.

There is still time to send written testimony the CPC – we need everyone in our community to let them know where we stand! Please click the “Read more” link below for instructions.

Please read Brownstoner’s writeup of the hearing:

At the hearing, locals against the proposal said the number of luxury apartments included in the development and their likely high-income residents could push up prices in the area and that the rezoning of nearby houses created a displacement risk. They also said local infrastructure and resources can’t handle the development and that shade from the high-rises will shadow nearby senior housing and other properties, among other concerns.

They also accused Arrow Linen of lobbying local politicians with donations, of having undertaken no real community engagement, and said they didn’t trust the development team’s claims that they wouldn’t take advantage of City of Yes and build up to 19 stories.

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The City Planning Commission (CPC) has scheduled a public hearing on the Arrow Linen rezoning for Wednesday, Nov 6 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (click here to add to calendar) at 120 Broadway in Manhattan in the City Planning Commission Room in the Lower Concourse. We need everyone to send written testimony the CPC – and everyone who can to come and testify against the rezoning!

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Please join us at The Lonesome Club on Tuesday, October 22 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm for a special Housing Not High-Rises fundraiser!

• Complimentary appetizers
• Cash bar with a variety of drinks available for purchase
• Insider updates from the team
• Great company and a chance to support a meaningful cause!

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As important as it is to show up to the Borough President’s Land Use Hearing about Arrow Linen’s rezoning on Oct 9, it’s vitally important that you email Borough President Antonio Reynoso to share your testimony!

Please send email to testimony@brooklynbp.nyc.gov with the subject “Arrow Linen Rezoning”. Please make sure to include your name and street address so you can be heard. Include a statement that you recommend the Borough President rejects the rezoning proposal – we can do better for our community!

Here are emails you can send with one click:

• Limit Rezoning to Allow for 100% Affordable Housing: Our community has been working with nonprofit developers of affordable housing. If the rezoning is limited to 7 stories or less, they can make a strong market rate offer for the property to build over 200 units of 100% affordable housing at only 7 stories. This is a prime opportunity to reject speculative, profit-driven development and support zoning that enables community driven, 100% affordable housing. Click here to send this mail

• Renter Displacement: The block around Arrow Linen has 59 units of rent-stabilized housing, and Prospect Ave has the most affordable rents in the neighborhood. If Arrow is able to build 13-19 stories of luxury high-rises, this will encourage speculators and developers to buy everything around, and price our neighbors who rent in the area out of their homes. Arrow Linen is also proposing to rezone 11 privately-owned, multi-family buildings, and these owners have already been victims of predatory investor hawks. These buildings are at great risk of acquisition and tenant displacement due to this application. Following the rezoning of 4th Ave, thousands of residents were displaced, and we lost nearly 1500 units of affordable housing. Click here to send this mail
• Greed vs Need: This rezoning is a move by the owners of Arrow Linen to put hundreds of millions of dollars more in their pockets than if they built the 5-6 stories they’ll be able to build as of right after City of Yes. The scale of the benefit to the owners of Arrow Linen is so far out of proportion to the scale of any possible benefit to the community as to be an insult to the community. City of Yes – a little more housing in every neighborhood – is the way to move the needle on housing supply, not enriching a single landowner in exchange for scraps of mandatory inclusionary housing. Click here to send this mail

• Non-Democratic Process: It feels arbitrary that a land use decision of such impact for the future of our community can be made primarily by a landowner and a council member. There has been zero engagement with the community prior to ULURP despite repeated requests. We need you as Borough President, a pioneer in participatory budgeting when you were a council member, to support the overwhelming voice of the community to reject this outsized and greedy proposal. There are over 20,000 people in Windsor Terrace and over 20,000 people in South Slope, including families who have lived here since these houses were originally built over 100 years ago. How is it possible that this community, who has so much more at stake in our own future, has no say in that future? Click here to send this mail
• Trickle-Down Housing is Not Right for NYC: Developers would have us believe that the only way to pull ourselves out of our dire housing shortage is by building new construction.  For-profit new construction is overwhelmingly geared toward the luxury market. But it’s lower-income households who face the most severe affordable housing shortfalls. New construction takes decades to depreciate down to rents that are actually affordable to most renters and fuels displacement in the short term, even when no already existing housing is knocked down. Numerous studies show that market-rate housing development drives up rents and increases the burden on lower-income households. Many residents in communities transformed by gentrification can already attest to the connection between for-profit development, rising living costs, and the mass exodus of lower-income residents. This includes our own neighbors on Prospect Avenue who have been displaced from Greenpoint, Crown Heights, and other neighborhoods where luxury development has priced them out of their homes. Click here to send this mail
• Contextual Zoning and Neighborhood Character: I welcome new housing in the community, and I understand that we can build significant new housing at 7 stories or less that will be at the scale of our neighborhood. When 4th Ave was rezoned, an avenue as wide as Park Avenue in Manhattan was rezoned to build 12 story buildings. Prospect Ave is less than half as wide as 4th Ave, and cannot support 13-19 stories of luxury high-rises, with extensive community concerns about inadequate existing infrastructure. The tallest buildings in the neighborhood today are 7 stories tall, and we know from the development at the site of the former Grand Prospect Hall that significant new housing can be built, even at 5 to 7 stories. I value contextual zoning in my neighborhood, and want to welcome new neighbors to enjoy this community. Click here to send this mail

Please feel free to write whatever you like, but please write to the Borough President!

Make sure to include a statement that you recommend the Borough President rejects the rezoning proposal, because we can do much better for our community. Click here to write your own email