A Brooklyn community board on Wednesday approved a developer’s plan for a 72-story apartment building near Fort Greene Park, which would become the borough’s second-tallest tower once completed.
Two weeks after city officials and Rabina, the building’s developer, presented the plans during a somewhat testy public meeting, Community Board 2 voted 27-5, with two abstentions, to upzone the lot at 395 Flatbush Ext. The new building would hold 1,263 apartments, of which 325 units will be affordable for very low-to moderate-income households.
“It is currently occupied by a very well-known seven-story, very dark black building, which has been there for about forty years,” said Daughtry Carstarphen, chair of the land use committee.
The board’s approval was conditioned on the developer agreeing to price more affordable units at 30% and 40% of the area median income and to “increase the number of permanently affordable family units even if it results in fewer units overall.”
The lot sits on the edge of the district covered by City Council Member Crystal Hudson, who will decide, among others, if the project will move forward.
In a statement, a representative from Hudson’s office said the council member looked “forward to working closely with the developer and stakeholders.”
Despite the board’s approval, there were plenty of residents that were opposed to the height of the proposed tower.
Over 1,400 people signed a petition, circulated by the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, requesting developers “modify the height and design of the building to greatly lessen the additional shadow impacts.”
Board members, however, appeared unmoved. “It was only an hour and a half, max, of [additional] shade and I would rather have that then for them to cut out, like, twenty stories in the building,” Casey Peterson, a board member, told BK Reader.
Daniel Bersohn, another board member, agreed.
“A more realistic level of impact would probably be quite minimal,” he said.
Rosamond Fletcher, executive director of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, told BK Reader that the group’s concerns were partially assayed by the recommendation developers provide a “meaningful financial contribution” to the conservancy.
“We continue to meet with the developers and are optimistic regarding our negotiations,” she said in a statement after Wednesday's vote.
Opponents of the project say that 325 affordable apartments aren’t enough.
“That’s where gentrification comes from,” longtime Fort Greene resident Lucy Koteen told BK Reader. “The 25% is nothing. It’s the 75% percent that changes the community. And they never talk about that. That’s what is important and what changes the whole demographics. It changes the kinds of shops and restaurant prices.”
Maisha Morales, a longtime community board member, echoed the view. She was among the few to vote against the development.
“Is there a possibility to make a recommendation that would increase the amount of the affordable apartments from 25% to a higher amount?” asked Morales before the vote.
Morales said she’s pushing for the city to force the building to rent 40% of its units at affordable rates.
“This is our land. This is an opportunity to ask for more. What is stopping us from asking?” Morales told BK Reader. “I’m a little bit disappointed as someone who has been on the board at least 10 years. I’m not accusing [CB2] of being anti-afforable units, but I think they go by the word of whatever was presented to them, of what we can and cannot do, and I don’t think that they fully understand that we can still ask for more.”
