A Hearing, a Lawsuit, a Many-Sided Triangle

The Battle for the Broadway Triangle Heats Up at the Planning Commission

Though the weather may be cooling down by the day as the summer winds to a close, Tuesday’s public hearing before the City Planning Commission on the controversial and hotly contested Broadway Triangle rezoning drew a crowd, and turned up the heat. The commission will have approximately 50 days to review the plan, before it goes before the City Council for final approval. And what’s more, after the meeting the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition—a conglomeration of more than 40 community groups that oppose the HPD rezoning plan—officially filed a lawsuit against Mayor Bloomberg, Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero and HPD itself, on the grounds of several alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act and the City and State Human Rights laws by employing racially and religiously discriminatory practices, and failure to comply with ULURP. According to the brief, the desired outcome of the lawsuit is a court order requiring the city to scrap the HPD plans, which are now being reviewed by the City Planning Commission, and start the process anew, this time including all members of the community.

“It’s illegal to exclude such broad aspects of the community in ways that have racial and ethnic impacts,” said Marty Needelman, Executive Director of Brooklyn Legal Services A, who is representing BTCC in court. “If the city selects a particular developer and there are racial impacts, the burden falls on them to prove that they are neutral. This is complicated by the fact that there is a long history of racial discrimination of HPD and housing authority in that area of Williamsburg. In addition, the current plan rezones a significant part of the Urban Renewal Area, which includes CB3, and yet there has been no contact with CB3 with respect to ULURP or the rezoning.”

Court proceedings will begin on October 9th, which is after the deadline for the city council verdict on the HPD plan. However, before anything more shakes down, the City Planning Commission must make its decision, and Tuesday’s marathon open hearing on the Broadway Triangle rezoning—discussion on this item alone lasted more than two hours—will certainly aid in that process.

The hearing was attended by members of both the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, who are opposed to the plan, and the Broadway Triangle Task Force, who are very much in favor.

HPD’s plan will yield approximately 900 units of affordable housing, and adheres to the limits of the recent Greenpoint/Williamsburg contextual rezoning, which enforces a heigh limit of eight stories. Conversely, BTCC’s alternative plan would potentially oversee the development of more than twice the number of affordable units offered in the original, in high-density high-rise buildings.

Drawing from a very diverse pool of neighborhood residents and community leaders, those who spoke in favor of HPD’s plan expressed the dire need for affordable housing immediately, and pledged their unflinching support for any plan that would accomplish it as quickly as possible.

“We reached out to local businesses and spoke with over 1,000 community members at our planning charet,” said Maria Viera, a representative of BTTF. “The community vision born out of these meetings includes open space, community facilities, business assistance, retail and jobs,”—a statement that was contested by the plan’s opponents, who claimed that HPD’s version of the rezoning was incomplete at best, leaving out any consideration for additional parks and open space, or a comprehensive relocation plan for businesses displaced as a side effect.

In addition, other BTTF members spoke out in support of the plan on the basis that developing such a blighted sight as quickly as possible would prove to be an invaluable benefit for all community members, regardless of religious or ethnic background. However, more than half of those who testified were opposed to the plan, for a host of reasons, not the least of which having to do with the belief that a higher-density alternative would, in fact, provide more units of affordable housing, and use the parcel to its fullest potential. Though most who testified in opposition to the plan citing the “closed-door” process—which fueled the flame for the alleged neglect and disenfranchisement of certain communities—as the main point of contention.

“Attempts by community-based organizations to develop an inclusive, open and transparent planning process for the development of a comprehensive plan for the Broadway Triangle began years ago when the area’s diverse set of well-respected community-based development organizations engaged the community, professional planning organizations, private consultants and graduate students in a multi-year planning process,” said Ron Schiffman, a Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment; School of Architecture professor and a consultant who has worked closely with BTCC in developing the alternative plan. “Unfortunately these efforts were ignored and eventually rebuffed by HPD despite repeated requests to the contrary.”

When the roughly 50-day review period expires, the City Planning Commission will pass the plan onto the city council, which will have the final say as to whether or not the plans will be approved.