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City Council Hearing on Arrow Rezoning

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The City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the Arrow Linen rezoning on Thursday, Jan 9, from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (click here to add to calendar) at 250 Broadway in Manhattan in the Council Chambers in City Hall. We need everyone to send written testimony to the City Council – and everyone who can to come and testify against the rezoning!

If you can’t make it in person, you can participate remotely. Closer to the date of the hearing, instructions for how to participate will be posted on the City Council’s Planning & Land Use webpage. We will update this page with information when it becomes available. If there’s any way you can come to the meeting in person, that would be best!

As important as it is to show up to the City Council’s Franchising and Zoning committee’s public hearing, it’s vitally important that you submit written testimony to the City Council!

Please click here to send the following email:

To the NYC City Council:

I am opposed to the rezoning application at the Arrow Linen site at 441 & 467 Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn.

I welcome new housing in my neighborhood and am looking forward to seeing contextual housing built on the Arrow Linen site that works for the community. If you limit the rezoning to 7 stories and increase the percentage of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing from 25% to 40%, this will result in more affordable units than Arrow's proposal, and at a scale that does not threaten to displace existing renters.

I ask you to disapprove Arrow Linen's radical upzoning application for the following reasons:

Lack of Community Engagement:

This is a greedy move by Arrow Linen to massively profit from the facility they have owned for 40+ years, while operating off a 25-year tax abatement subsidized by city taxpayers. Arrow has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying elected officials, and did not spend any time or resources meeting with the community. Arrow stands to profit hundreds of millions of dollars from this application, and the community has had zero input on this transformational project. I ask the Council listen to Brooklyn CB7’s findings and uphold DCP’s stated mission “Work with neighborhoods to develop sound ground-up frameworks for growth”. 

Renter Displacement:

The block around Arrow Linen has 59 units of rent-stabilized housing, and Prospect Avenue has the most affordable rents in the neighborhood. If Arrow is allowed to build 15 stories of luxury high-rises, this will encourage speculators to price out our neighbors. Arrow Linen is also proposing to rezone 11 privately-owned, multi-family buildings, and these owners have already been victims of predatory speculators.  These buildings are at great risk of acquisition and tenant displacement due to this application. Please vote to limit this application to no more than 7 stories so we can treat housing as a public good rather than a vehicle for massive profit.

Environmental Impacts:

Stormwater issues and flooding are frequent occurrences across the neighborhood. There will be thousands of new fixtures flowing into the ancient, combined sewer system. Our sewer systems are beyond capacity and this project will exacerbate unsanitary flooding. Arrow is also kicking the can down the road for environmental contamination impacts from over 100 years of dumping hazardous waste. There is no plan and no experienced entity to address remediation.

Contextual Zoning and Neighborhood Character:

I welcome more housing at this site; however, Arrow’s proposal will irreversibly alter the character of the neighborhood and undo prior DCP and community-led rezoning efforts. Arrow claims that up to 15-story towers on a midblock amongst 2 to 3-story surroundings buildings would “match the residential context and character of the neighborhood”. This is an objectively negligent and reckless assessment. I ask for a revised, contextual zoning district based on a rational land use framework. Limiting the upzoning to 7 stories will bring more housing to the neighborhood without triggering a domino effect of developers converting the moderate apartment buildings in the neighborhood to luxury high-rises.

The Myth of Trickle-Down Affordable Housing:

Developers and lobbyists 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, which has the highest vacancy rates. But it’s lower-income households who face the most severe affordable housing shortfalls, and we have a crisis of affordability. Please vote to disapprove this application so we can treat housing as a public good rather than a vehicle for massive profit.

Limiting the rezoning to 7 stories and increasing the percentage of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing from 25% to 40% will result in more affordable units than Arrow's proposal, and at a scale the does not threaten to displace existing renters. Only the profits of Arrow Linen's owners will be reduced, and the community will be better served than by building 15 stories of luxury housing.

Send Email to Council Member Hanif

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We are disappointed to announce that on December 16, 2024 the City Planning Commission voted to approve Arrow Linen’s rezoning, at the requested zoning designation of R7-1. Now that City of Yes has passed, this now means 15 stories and almost 10% more buildable square feet than they even asked for. We now need your support more than ever as the application moves to its final phase with Council Member Hanif!

We Need You!

It is now vitally important for us to get the support of our Council Member Shahana Hanif to limit this rezoning. She decides what gets approved in this process, can dictate changes to the scale and scope of the rezoning, and the full Council generally votes with the local member on land use decisions.

We urge you to send email, call and send letters. Her email is district39@council.nyc.gov. Her phone number is (718) 499-1090. Her postal address is 197 Bond St, Brooklyn, NY 11217.

We have an email you can send to the Council Member with one click (feel free to edit as you like). Please click here to send an email to Council Member Hanif. If you have problems wtih the email link, please click here for a message you can copy and paste in your email.

After December 30, the land use review process (ULURP) moves on to Shahana Hanif and the City Council. We are keeping a close eye on the City Council’s calendar for 2025 to see when the hearing and vote will be scheduled. We will send you an email as we learn more. If you are not on our mailing list, please sign our Petition Against Rezoning of 441 and 467 Prospect Avenue and include your email address; we will add you to our mailing list.

Public Comment to City Planning Commission

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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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Special Fundraising Event: Tue Oct 22 at The Lonesome Club

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Upcoming Events

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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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Brooklyn Borough President’s Hearing about Arrow’s Proposal

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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!

Upcoming Events

View Calendar

Public Comment to Brooklyn Borough President

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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

Public Comment to Community Board

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As important as it is to show up to the Community Board meetings on Sept 9 and Sept 12, it’s vitally important that you email Community Board 7 with your opinion about Arrow Linen’s rezoning proposal.

Please send email to bk07@cb.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 Community Board 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: We have 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. 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. Click here to send this mail
  • Private Profit over Public 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. 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. 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 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 120 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
  • Character of the Neighborhood: I welcome new housing in the community, and I think 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. Propsect Ave is less than half as wide as 4th Ave, and cannot support 13-19 stories of luxury high-rises. 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 stories. I value the feel of 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 Community Board!

Make sure to include a statement that you recommend the Community Board 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

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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:

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July Newsletter

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Housing Not High-Rises Community (formerly Arrow Action), July 2024 Update

We’ve been busy since our April community meeting, and we wanted to keep everyone up-to-date:

  • We have a real proposal for 100% affordable housing at 7 stories
  • Arrow Linen’s Rezoning application is now active with the city
  • Fundraising appeal

We Have a Real Alternative and We Need Your Help!

Instead of two 13 story luxury towers, we propose building two 7 story buildings providing 268 permanently affordable apartments. We have had several meetings with an established and respected non-profit affordable housing developer who is ready, willing, and able to make a competitive market-rate offer for the Arrow Linen site, and develop it as 100% affordable housing targeted at approximately 60% of area median income. This means that people would actually be able to afford to live there! This building would be the right size for the neighborhood, provide much-needed housing at affordable rates, and would not threaten to displace the existing tenants in the neighborhood who can afford their rents today.

This solution is real, and the developer is ready to act.

Arrow Linen’s owner, John Magliocco, will not consider selling to this non-profit, because he will make millions more if the City Council approves his zoning request. As our City Council Member, Shahana Hanif, made abundantly clear at our last community meeting in April, this decision will come down to her. She is the one person with the most influence in Arrow Linen’s application, in a process that’s supposed to be democratic.

Council Member Shahana Hanif can limit Arrow Linen’s rezoning to 7 stories, which would make 100% affordable housing possible in our neighborhood!

She has told Housing Not High-Rises that she does not want to limit the rezoning, preferring to approve 13 stories of luxury high-rises. This would result in somewhere between 244 – 352 apartments, 25% of which (61 – 87 units) would have to be offered at 80% of area median income. She says that she will try to negotiate for more affordable units with the developer after the rezoning is approved, but once their application is approved, they are under no obligation.

We brought 268 units of 100% affordable housing to the table, at a scale that works for our neighborhood. Council Member Shahana Hanif can limit the rezoning to 7 stories and make this a reality.

We want Council Member Hanif to stand with the constituents who elected her and stand up for the affordable housing our community wants and our City desperately needs.

Please click here to send a pre-written email to Council Member Hanif or use our communication template to send your own message. We are counting on you!

What Is Motivating Our Council Member?

Council Member Hanif co-chairs the Progressive Caucus, whose principles include creating permanent, deeply affordable housing. She met with the non-profit developer of affordable housing. She met with Housing Not High-Rises. She knows this is real, and she knows that she can bring the results that our community and her caucus want and that our City needs.

When we pointed out that this non-profit developer can provide 268 units of truly affordable housing vs perhaps 75 units of slightly discounted housing that the proposed rezoning offers, she told us that she wants housing on this site for “all income levels.” This is a position inconsistent with the caucus that she co-chairs.

When we pointed out that it’s within her power and mandate to make this happen, she told us that she can’t dictate to whom Arrow sells their property. We reminded her that she made it abundantly clear at our last community meeting that she has the power to determine if the proposal is approved and can limit the rezoning to 7 stories. At that level, the non-profit developer’s offer would be so generous as to be the best available option. She told us that we’re overly concerned about height.

She says she stands for affordability, and yet seems to support Arrow Linen increasing their profit by tens of millions in order to bring luxury high-rises to the most affordable part of our neighborhood, threatening existing renters with displacement.

Instead of supporting profit-seeking landowners and developers, we want Council Member Hanif to stand with the constituents who elected her and stand up for the affordable housing our community wants and our City desperately needs.

Arrow Linen’s Rezoning Application is Active!

Arrow Linen’s zoning application is currently under “Community Board Review” as part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). We expect there to be discussion and a vote on the application at the Community Board in the first weeks of September. We will keep a close eye on Brooklyn Community Board 7’s Calendar, and we will send out urgent emails to you when we know the specific dates and locations of these meetings. These meetings are a great opportunity to have your voice heard, along with the rest of Windsor Terrace and South Slope.

We will need a large turnout from our community for the Community Board’s review, we are counting on you!

Fundraising Appeal

We are entering a phase where we need to ask for financial support from our community. If you can, please make a donation (link uses PayPal). Every bit helps! If you would prefer to donate by cash or check, please send us an email to housingnothighrises@gmail.com and we will contact you to make arrangements.

Thank you for your support!

Chris, Jack, Jay, Julia, Kate, Luz, Marty, Phil and Steph