Brooklyn residents packed a community board meeting on Wednesday to confront the specter and promise of a new 72-story tower in Fort Greene, which, if built, could become the second tallest building in the borough.
City officials and a representative for the building’s developer, Rabina, presented the latest plan for 395 Flatbush Ext. at a land-use meeting at Community Board 2, which is set to vote on the rezoning of the development lot on Sept. 17.
The new building, where a former Verizon call center currently sits, would hold 1,263 apartments, of which 325 units will be affordable for very low- to moderate-income households.
“Those 325 units would be the largest delivery of affordable housing in a single project in this community board in a decade,” said Ian Klein, a Rabina executive.
Daughtry Carstarphen, chair of the land use committee, said the location is “underutilized.”
“I think many people, including me, feel like that is a ripe location for redevelopment,” she said.
Some residents said they supported the development as a symbol for the neighborhood's future.
“Thanks to the construction in this neighborhood, I finally feel like we have options [and] we actually were able to look at apartments nearby where we live in Boerum Hill,” said Jorge Romero, an operations manager at Amazon who brought his infant daughter to the public hearing. “If we continue saying no to building … you’re going to push out families from this neighborhood.”
The height of the tower created some anxiety, especially from frequent users of nearby Fort Greene Park.
“The impacts of the increased use will be compounded by the shadows being cast on the park [by the building] primarily during spring and fall afternoons, which are very popular times to play tennis, the shadows on the court make play more difficult,” said Alex Ording, who runs the Fort Green Tennis Association.
Lucy Koteen, a longtime Fort Greene resident, said there were plenty of towers that have already populated the area.
“We have a new forest of tall buildings that have sprung up on Fulton Street, on Flatbush Avenue, on Willoughby, on DeKalb and all around,” she said. “I call it a forest because [when] I go out there and look up, I can’t see the tops of those buildings.”
Anthony Howard, Director of Environmental Planning at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, tried to quell anxieties by playing a demonstration of the kinds of shadows that an even taller building would cast over the park. Despite this, Rosamond Fletcher, who runs the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, later told BK Reader that she found the city’s presentation hard to understand.
Fletcher said the group was not opposing the project and understands the city’s need to add more housing stock.
“We are asking the developers, as part of this rezoning process, to modify the design to lessen the impact of its shadows on the park without reducing affordable housing, whether that means a shorter, thicker building, or a taller and skinnier tower,” said Fletcher.
The conservancy circulated a petition surrounding the issue, among others, that accumulated nearly 1,300 signatures. Fletcher said the group is also hoping to land $300,000 in annual contributions from Rabina, citing the increased use of the park that will come with more people living in Fort Greene.
A spokesperson for the developer told BK Reader that "any shadows cast on the park would be narrow, fleeting and limited, lasting no longer than a few minutes in any given spot."
Community Board members focused on affordability of the apartments.
“We’ve been lied to,” said Ernest Augustus, a board member who recounted feeling deceived about upzoning efforts during the Bloomberg administration.
He was skeptical of the city and the developer’s promise that the units would be affordable to people who lived in Brooklyn. Plans from the developers outlined the affordable apartment to be priced for people making an average of 60% of the area’s medium income, or $87,480 for a family of three. In their recommendations, board members pushed to have those apartments priced for families making half that.
“Nobody can afford [the apartments] unless you’re, you know, in a certain market class,” said Augustus, a refrain that proved popular with board members.
