Earlier this week, Mayor de Blasio stated that the Domino proposal does not sufficiently address affordable housing. Although we agree that the current plan is imperfect, we support the proposal as it reflects a multi-year process of community involvement which helped to shape the plan.
The plan requests a zoning change to permit construction up to 55 stories, and is up for City Planning Commission vote tomorrow. Following the increased media attention to Domino this past week, there are reports of a last-minute change to the affordable housing component of the proposal — an increase to 537,000 square feet (700 apartments). Up until this week, the developer’s plan included 660 units set aside for affordable housing.
Yesterday, prior to reports of the last-minute change, NAG board member Evan Thies commented:
“It’s still a flawed plan, but it’s superior in almost every way to what came before,” said Evan Thies, a board member of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. “It creates a neighborhood of its own that’s not walled off from the rest of the neighborhood, like so many of these other projects.”
He applauded Two Trees for crafting its plan in close consultation with the community over the past 18 months — a partnership City Hall seems to be ignoring.
“We want to ensure that the community-based process that happened is respected by City Hall,” Thies said.
Here’s NAG’s statement in full:
- “NAG applauds the de Blasio administration for its stance that major development projects should yield the maximum number of affordable units for our neighborhoods. NAG has always sought the goal of maximum affordability for all projects in North Brooklyn, and will continue to as new developments are considered. The Domino project is no different: NAG’s position is now, and always has been, that the project should include more affordable housing than proposed.
- We also believe there are other important aspects of the project that must be considered, such as open space, design and neighborhood impacts. That is why we undertook an extensive multi-year process to canvass our community in order to determine its priorities for the project, and then used that input to advocate on our neighbors’ behalf. The result was the plan submitted to the City, which we believe is imperfect, but we support as the result of the kind of community-based process we believe should shape any major development project.
- We ask that the de Blasio administration and our elected officials keep in mind the neighborhood process which has already taken place — and which considered all aspects of the plan, not just affordable housing — as it further negotiates the Domino project, so that our community and others see that their input is valued and so that they are encouraged to make their voices heard over future developments.
- We also ask that the de Blasio administration honor the unfulfilled promises of the earlier rezoning, which should have already created dozens of acres of parkland, hundreds of units of City-built affordable housing and other infrastructure that has yet to materialize and which will only be more needed after the Domino project is completed.”