CB2 Recap: Navy Green, 470 Vanderbilt Green-lighted
Our Community Board 2 correspondent reports back on Wednesday night’s general meeting; the Local also has extensive coverage of the meeting. A Public hearing about Navy Green (previously reported) preceded the general meeting with a presentation by the developer. No one spoke in opposition but one person questioned the decision to include no on site…
Our Community Board 2 correspondent reports back on Wednesday night’s general meeting; the Local also has extensive coverage of the meeting.
A Public hearing about Navy Green (previously reported) preceded the general meeting with a presentation by the developer. No one spoke in opposition but one person questioned the decision to include no on site parking. A second public hearing was held concerning 470 Vanderbilt Avenue‘s rezoning (also previously reported) — the developer made a presentation (in which he mentioned that he was indeed still in discussions with Whole Foods) and there were no other speakers. The Public hearings were closed and the meeting began. Navy Green (at left) was approved as requested unanimously with one abstention. A second vote passed 23-12 requesting that some onsite parking be incorporated. 470 Vanderbilt (at right) was approved unanimously with no abstentions.
Eight new Board members were introduced. They are Kay Casanova, Thomas Conoscenti, Michael Epstein, Terrance Know, Kenn Lowy, Jesse Strauss Alejandro, Varela and Siobhan Watson. Two of eight have college degrees in City Planning. Rob Perris gave a shout out to Brownstoner.com in his presentation on the Community Board’s new web site — to be activated shortly. Rob was mentioned in a comment on the post about the Community Board rally at City Hall.
One of the things I love most about living in Wallabout is that everyone thinks it’s not near transportation. I think it’s hilarious that so called New Yorkers will go to a gym to run around like a gerbil on a treadmill for an hour but won’t walk 7 or 8 blocks to a subway. There are also 5 different buses here that take you door to door to every train you could possibly need but I LOVE that it will never be like Williamsburg…crowded, overpriced and unoriginal. This is a truly pure neighborhood with a perfect mix of true artists, the white collar crowd, lower income and people with true vision and a love for the history of the neighborhood.
streber – You are confusing the order of things. They need to tear down admirals’s row because those buildings are already dangerously dilapidated, there are no funds available to subsidise their rehabilitation, and there are no end uses that have been proposed that will provide a market rate return for the investment required. So given that the houses need to be torn down, the next question becomes, “what is the appropriate use here?” And clearly the Navy Yard is correct in saying that the appropriate uses would be additional industrial space and a supermarket. The much-maligned parking lot is actually required by zoning. Of course, you could always put it in the basement or on the roof, but that gets much more expensive. ANd it wouldn’t help you to save any of the houses anyway.
Anyway, my point is that it isn’t like anyone said “Hey we need to build a supermarket in this neighborhood, where should we put it? I can’t find any better sites, so let’s tear down these historic houses.”
There’s a big difference.
(They can’t put parking underground there because the water table is too high.)
Navy Green is 85% low-income and supportive housing. Even if they built parking, the vast majority of the residents wouldn’t use it. And there’s tons of free street parking in the vicinity. Given a choice between a beautiful landscaped courtyard and a mostly-empty parking lot, I choose the courtyard.
Wow. There’s room here for 223 rentals, 102 co-ops or Condo, 23 4-story 2-family townhomes and 95 supportive housing units… but they need to tear down Admirals Row to make space for a supermarket???
No need for on-site parking? In an area nowhere near a train?
With a major supermarket and all this new housing…
I guess we’ll just have to tear down a bunch more historical stuff to make room for parking garages.