On Wednesday, October 9, Brooklyn Borough President Antino Reynoso held a public Land Use hearing for Arrow Linen’s rezoning proposal.
The Housing Not High-Rises community came out in impressive numbers to help us oppose Arrow Linen’s rezoning! Our most sincere thanks to everyone who came and to everyone who testified.
Highlights from the meeting:
- There were about 50 people in the room, about 80% were against the rezoning. We showed a lot of “Housing Not High-Rises” signs!
- 22 community members and allies testified against the rezoning. 9 members of Open New York testified in favor, only one of whom lives in the community.
- Borough President Antonio Reynoso was unwell and attended remotely.
- Antonio Reynoso asked some very thoughtful and probing probing questions of Arrow Linen’s attorney:
- Did Arrow Linen hire an HPD consultant to work with HPD on affordability, and are they taking affordability seriously?
- Was there anything specifically that had you go to this height – is there anything contextual in the area that is like this?
- Did anyone in the community say that height and massing was important to them?
- Are you investigating other building heights and massing options?
- Why was Apex chosen as the developer?
- Council Member Shahana Hanif and Mia Perez, her land use director, were in the room.
- Jukie Tsai, the NYC Dept of City Planning liaison for Brooklyn Community Board 7, was in the room.
- …we’ve clearly got everyone’s attention!
The Borough President has until October 30 to make his recommendations to the City Planning Council. Please subscribe for updates to keep up with developments!
A great turnout!
