CB1 Committee Not Digging Plans for Huge Burg Project
Last week Community Board 1’s land-use committee voted 8-1 against approving a zoning change on the South Williamsburg waterfront for a humongous development that’s on the drawing board, according to The Brooklyn Paper. The project slated for Kent and Division, which is known as Rose Plaza on the River, is supposed to consist of three…
Last week Community Board 1’s land-use committee voted 8-1 against approving a zoning change on the South Williamsburg waterfront for a humongous development that’s on the drawing board, according to The Brooklyn Paper. The project slated for Kent and Division, which is known as Rose Plaza on the River, is supposed to consist of three residential towers with 801 units between them. Board members spoke out against the development mainly on the grounds that only 20 percent of its units will be designated affordable housing, and because its proposed unit mix is mostly studios and 1-bedrooms. Is this what you think our community needs? asked Rabbi David Niederman, a committee member and president of the United Jewish Organization. It’s another development that gentrifies a community that is suffering already from a lack of housing. For their part, the development team argued that Rose Plaza would add construction jobs, affordable housing and open space to the neighborhood, and despite Williamsburg’s inventory glut they’re banking on it being a cinch to sell because they anticipate a market rebound.
This ‘Rose’ Has Thorns! [Brooklyn Paper] GMAP
Big in the Burg: Rose Plaza on the River [Brownstoner]
Rendering from The Brooklyn Paper
this might be the first case where a developer will have to later thank the local cb for saving his a$$ by rejection a project.
banking on a rebound? sure, but wouldn’t you like to at least see a firm bottom in local apt prices? with all the inventory sitting and currently underdevelopment, this seems idiotic.
i’d love to watch the application cross the lending officer’s desk.
haha benson – what was i thinking!?!?! 😉
DH;
Are you insinuating that affordable housing set-asides are tribute that developers must pay to play, and that this booty is then distributed via the ethnic/racial spoils system that passes for politics in NYC????
Disgraceful thoughts!! Wash your mind free from such rubbish, or you will be banished from Brownstoner island for a week.
” that only 20 percent of its units will be designated affordable housing”
and 19.9% of that affordable housing will magically be inhabited by the south williamsburg hasids – just like shaeffer landing.
“It’s another development that gentrifies a community that is suffering already from a lack of housing.”
Unbelievable statement, unbelievable logic. Do these hacks even think a minute before the words come out of their mouth?
I won’t even pretend to know much about the area, or what’s there now, which doesn’t seem to be much, but this sound way too big for the state of affairs in housing now. Why build more when what you’ve got built already is sitting there empty, or being turned into rental units in order to recoup some money on the project?
I really hate it, and immediately get suspicious when a developer touts jobs as a reason for building. It’s crap. Construction jobs are temporary. The only jobs continuing from beginning to end of a project are in management. Each trade does their thing and are gone, some in only a month. Unless a contractor hires locals to general labor, like picking up trash or rubble, the majority of the workers are from out of the neighborhood, way out of the neighborhood, and if the project is union, it’s a closed shop. If non-union, it’s just as closed in a different way. To say building this huge complex will provide jobs, implying that those jobs will help the unemployed in that community, is just an out and out lie. The same can be said for AY, too. Ok, some local restaurant owners and shops may see an uptick in business, but that still is too small a benefit to claim “we’re providing needed jobs for the community.”
quote:
“It’s another development that gentrifies a community that is suffering already from a lack of housing
WAAAAAAAAH. 1.) it IS providing housing and 2.) it’s providing some “affordable housing”
boo hoo that they aren’t catering to families with children with this development, there are plent of other developments that do.
*rob*
and there will be swimming too! judging by the beautiful clarity of the water in the rendering…
Their objection to constructing new housing is that their community suffers from – a lack of housing! Brilliant.