On October 30, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso published his recommendations regarding the Arrow Linen rezoning – “Approve with Modifications/Conditions”. We encourage you to read the whole letter, but please keep reading for a summary of his recommendations:
Events
Meetings
Public Comment to City Planning Commission
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!
Special Fundraising Event: Tue Oct 22 at The Lonesome Club
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!
Borough President’s Hearing – Report
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.
Brooklyn Borough President’s Hearing about Arrow’s Proposal
We said will let you know when Arrow Linen’s application officially starts the Land Use Review (ULURP) Process and we need your help. THAT TIME IS NOW!
BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT ANTONIO REYNOSO NEEDS YOUR WRITTEN TESTIMONY! PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR EMAILS YOU CAN SEND WITH ONE CLICK. Only some of us can speak at this meeting, but all of us can be heard!
Public Comment to Brooklyn Borough President
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
Community Board 7 Meetings about Arrow’s Proposal
We said will let you know when Arrow Linen’s application officially starts the Land Use Review (ULURP) Process. THAT TIME IS NOW!
THE COMMUNITY BOARD NEEDS YOUR WRITTEN TESTIMONY! PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR EMAILS YOU CAN SEND WITH ONE CLICK. Only some of us can speak at these meetings, but all of us can be heard!
See the links below for details about these meetings and a link to add the meeting to your calendar:
April 16th Community Meeting
Our latest Housing Not High-Rises Community Meeting was held on Tuesday, April 16 @ 7:00 pm at Holy Name Church on Prospect Park West. About 300 members of our community came to learn about and discuss Arrow Linen’s spot rezoning proposal.
We were privileged to host the following speakers:
- Brooklyn Community Board 7’s Land Use Committee Chair, Diana Gonzalez:
- Diana encouraged participation in the process, and acknowledged that CB7 is going to need a much bigger room when Arrow Linen’s proposal comes up for community review.
- New York State Assembly Member for the 44th District, Bobby Carroll:
- Bobby is a strong supporter of a compromise position that focuses on affordability and the needs of the community, and has consistently called Arrow Linen’s proposal “inappropriate.”
- While serving at the state level and not directly involved in the zoning process, Bobby is a tireless advocate for the community he represents and has been very supportive of our efforts.
- New York City Council Member for the 39th District, Shahana Hanif:
- The rezoning to 13 stories is not an issue for Shahana, despite the concerns of the community.
- Council Member Hanif acknowledged that we are not even negotiating in good faith with an actual developer, but rather with a landowner who wants to maximize profits as they sell their property, leaving the city and eliminating local jobs.
- Please visit our How To Help page and click the link to send Council Member Hanif an email to let her know that you oppose this 13-story cash grab and her lack of consideration for the people who have elected her to represent them.
The agenda of the meeting (view the slide presentation):
- Background & an overview of Arrow Linen’s proposal
- Updates since our last community meeting
- Information about the process and how new city-wide initiatives will affect it – City of Yes, a plan to add “a little more housing in every neighborhood”
- Guest speakers – our elected officials
- Q&A
Please see the press coverage:
- Brownstoner: Windsor Terrace Locals Want a Shorter, More Affordable Arrow Linen Project
- Brick Underground: A Brooklyn group says yes to affordable housing but no to 13-story towers
Many thanks to the hundreds of community members who came to this event, and to Father Ryan and the Holy Name community for making this meeting possible!
Urgent Community Meeting April 16, 2024
Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 16. We need you to come, to demonstrate to our elected officials that we care about housing and keeping it consistent with our neighborhood.
Our elected officials have been invited. Shahana Hanif’s office has confirmed their attendance, and her support is pivotal in this issue.
The only way our elected officials can help us get what we want is for us to let them know what we want. Your attendance is important to deliver this message.
Please join us on April 16 at 7:00pm at Shepherd’s Hall in the Holy Name of Jesus Church (enter by way of the parking lot at 245 Prospect Park West).
Agenda:
- Welcome and thanks to our community
- Background on Housing Not High-Rises (formerly Arrow Action)
- Updates on city-wide zoning efforts via the City of Yes initiative
- Reports from subcommittees, including recent meetings with our representatives
- Neighborhood outreach and request for more signatures on our petition
- Q&A
- Post-meeting committee sign-up
We are looking forward to seeing you on April 16!
Thanks,
– Chris, Jack, Jay, Julia, Kate, Marty, Phil and Steph
Add this event to your calendar or use the event link on our Calendar page.
72nd Precinct Build the Block Meeting
The 72nd Precinct’s Build The Block Meeting was held on Wednesday December 13th at Holy Name of Jesus Church on Prospect Park West.
Arrow Action spoke about our work and were covered by Brownstoner.
Many thanks to our Neighborhood Coordination Officers, Det. Daniel McGrath and Det. Francis Gainey for inviting us to speak!