March 24, 2008

Williamsburg Rezoning - Property Owners to Lose 25% of Property Value

Our local Community Board has rezoned 13 blocks along Grand Street in a fast-track process that has escaped the required public review. While these kind of initiatives typically take years to complete due to the required public hearings and analysis, this time the entire process has be compacted to a record-breaking 90 days. The Community Board claimed this lightening fast re-zoning was necessary to stop a 14-story development that was pending approval at the Department of Buildings. However that developer, Michael Lichtenstein, has already agreed to limit his project to six stories, which is allowable under the current zoning, and will sign a contract to that effect. Yet the Community Board continues to push forward without any thought or consideration for the residents as well as property owners of the Grand Street Neighborhood who will suffer tremendous consequences including severe financial repercussions, loss of vital community facilities (daycare, etc.) and diminished quality of life, as a result of this overzealous down zoning.

A group representing over 100 of the 254 property owners affected by this process; the overwhelming number did not know what was happening and no one had the opportunity to represent themselves. Many other property owners still do not know that their properties will potentially be stripped of hundreds of thousands of dollars of value if this re-zoning takes place. Additionally this re-zoning threatens to bankrupt many current development projects and could leave many blocks blighted by broken and bankrupted projects as a direct consequence. Many ask how could this happen and what can we do? Special interest groups in the community and on the Community Board are pushing this through without considering the community impact. We have the support of Assemblyman Vito Lopez but we need more help to stop this.
We want Williamsburg to keep moving forward and not backwards especially in this recessionary time. How do they pick 13 blocks in the whole of Brooklyn to attack and claim there is no opposition? How do they chop 25% off property values without explaining that to people…no wonder they think there is no opposition. The big buildings going up will survive the rezoning because they can afford to fight legally while the small guy gets punished. Imagine leveraging yourself to build, taking years to get plans approved only to have the rules changed….20 projects are in this circumstance that may lead to bankruptcies. Grand Street is the commercial street that is being slammed, not the residential areas we all want to preserve. What kind of message does this send to developers across the city when the public review process can be bypassed and neighborhoods targeted that are ill equipped to fight back? Will financing dry up for everyone with banks getting burned?
Grand Street Homeowners and Business Association

Posted in Forum by schlegel at 11:00 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Zoning