Senator Montgomery urges the NYC Planning Commission to stand with the community and reject the proposal to rezone 80 Flatbush Avenue

Senator Velmanette Montgomery

June 26, 2018

senator_montgomerys_testimony_to_city_planning_commission_on_80_flatbush_proposal.pdf

June 21, 2018

Marisa Lago

Chairwoman

New York City Department of City Planning

120 Broadway, 31st Fl.

New York, NY 10271

Re: Comments Regarding Alloy Development and the NYC Educational Construction Fund proposal for 80 Flatbush Avenue

Dear Chairwoman Lago,

I strongly urge the New York City Planning Commission stand with my constituents, Public Advocate Letitia James, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley, Community Board 2, Community Education Council District 15, the Boerum Hill Association, Rockwell Place Bears Community Garden, the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, the Society for Clinton Hill, the Fort Greene Association, and countless other community stakeholders in rejecting the proposal to rezone 80 Flatbush Avenue as proposed by Alloy Development and the New York City Educational Construction Fund.

Since the beginning of the ULURP process for the rezoning of 80 Flatbush Avenue, I have expressed my strong opposition to this project. I am unequivocally against taxpayers subsidizing private developers under the guise of public benefits. Our communities should not be forced to accept the larger structures, public subsidy giveaways, and myopic city planning that evaluates projects individually rather than within the context of community development.

New York City is in the midst of a housing crisis. Over the past few decades the impact of gentrification and socially irresponsible development has led not only to the displacement of countless longtime residents, but resulted in a record high of 60,000 New Yorkers currently homeless and cycling through shelters. Our communities have already lost too much. We cannot keep selling our land and air rights to developers in exchange for inadequate housing. All this contributes to the growing inequality in New York City.

The City’s plan to address the affordable housing shortage is to create and preserve 300,000 “affordable" apartments by the year 2026. This plan also involves shuttering the doors of all cluster sites by 2023, which includes the use of hotels as shelters. As of February of 2017, according to a report released by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office, the city spent $530,000 per day on hotel rooms to house the homeless. To date, that expenditure has only grown with the City spending close to $1 million a day on hotel rooms. As federal funding continues to decline, limited resources should be used to create permanent, affordable, and supportive housing for our communities.

Instead, our communities are bombarded with developments like 80 Flatbush Avenue that provide a small percentage of inadequate affordable housing compared to market rate units, tear apart the social fabric of our neighborhoods, and exacerbate overcrowding school districts. This is all done on the taxpayers’ dime.

I appreciate Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams recommendations to the City Planning Commission on the 80 Flatbush Avenue Rezoning. I agree with the Borough President that the affordable housing component of the project “lacks commitment to addressing the shortage of family-sized units as well as affordability for senior citizen households and the formerly homeless”. I also agree that the affordable housing lottery should be modified to include and give preference to local residents of Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens. With a lengthy waiting list for New York City Housing Authority apartments, giving preference to current NYCHA residents for the affordable housing lottery to make way for new tenants is smart housing policy. However, the recommendation of reducing the floor area ratio (FAR) from 18 to 15.8 is still well above the maximum permitted 12 FAR under the current C6-2 zoning. Alloy Development and the Educational Construction Authority should build as-of-right, pay their taxes, and not burden the community they plan to be a part of.

In conclusion, while I recognize the extensive capital needs of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the overstated public benefits do not outweigh the millions in public subsidies that will be needed to complete this project.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on the applications to rezone 80 Flatbush Avenue as proposed by the Alloy Development and the NYC Educational Construction Fund.

Sincerely,

Senator Velmanette Montgomery

25th Senate District

cc: NYC Planning Commission Members

Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon

Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley

Public Advocate Letitia James

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson

Brooklyn City Council Delegation

Community Board 2

Community Education Council 15