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The public relations piece of the fight over the Dock Street development proposed for Dumbo is in high gear, with protesters braving the cold temps to collect signatures against the mixed-use project. (Whether it’s any match for the postcard-mailing campaigns of Walentas & Co. remains to be seen.) What’s not to like? Some folks in the area, including the Dumbo Neighborhood Association and the Brooklyn Heights Association, think the proposed building is too big and too close to the Brooklyn Bridge and aren’t being won over by the inclusion of 80 affordable units of housing or the potential for a new public middle school. One of the guys with a placard and a noteboard told us they’d collected about 2,000 sigs to date out of the 10,000 they’re hoping to get before the ULURP hearings begin.
Dock Street Plans (Marina and All) Go 3D [Brownstoner]
Yassky and Walentas Square Off over Dock Street [Brownstoner]
Two Trees Plans Mixed Use Building Next to Bridge [Brownstoner]
DUMBO Controversy Spurs Petition Drive [Brooklyn Eagle]

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  1. There is no way these two parties are ever going to negotiate. They are like the Bush administration versus the axis of evil.

    The Fulton Ferry people are the worst, during my years working in land use at the city they were the biggest assholes in the boro. We would not even take their calls.
    our commissioner understood.
    Wallentas gets such a free pass because of these assholes, it is so ironic.

  2. “The process could yield goodies for the community if they were smart enough to engage” – Wow, that’s a heavy handed developer speaking if I ever heard one. Translation – play ball with me and I will “take care of you.”

    The only “goody” the community wants is appropriate development. The community’s objection is not to residential use, the objection is to an 18 story tower. Nobody would say boo about a tasteful residential development under the currently allowed density of about four stories across the entire site.

    Not what you had in mind though, is it?

  3. 4:15
    The zoning law makes allowances for the pursuit of waivers, either through the Landmarks Commission or the BSA or the CPC itself. That’s why people are living in the Eagle Warehouse and other buildings that are zoned manufacturing use only. Going through the process is hardly not following the law.
    Honestly, it really is all about NIMBY. There is a vacant lot and the folks nearby do not wish to see it developed and cannot understand why people all over the Boro do not feel the same way. Anything other than a factory would require waivers on that lot.
    The process could yield goodies for the community if they were smart enough to engage the process. Why not fight for the inclusion of a new middle school? Make it a condition of the approval. That’s the way to constructively improve the neighborhood.

  4. Fun fact – Walentas shares his precious kids on the mailer and Dock Street website with ConEdison’s recent mailer. You know, the devil came to Jesus in the form of a child. And Jesus smote him.

  5. I doubt these “pro-building” posts are by Two Trees employees. More likely a PR firm hired out of Walentas’s deep pockets. PR firms offer cross-media packages like this that include crafting messages like “It’s all about the kids!” and doing postcard mailings, website, blogs, press, etc.

    Anyway, I’ll discuss facts with anyone, be he Walentas funded or not.

    This is not a NIMBY argument. This is not an anti-development argument. This is a zoning and appropriateness argument.

    Zoning laws are there for reasons of legitimate public interest. For example, the city wouldn’t allow an 18 story tower to be built on Liberty Island for good reason. It is a significant national monument. The Brooklyn Bridge is no different.

    The city currently has zoned this lot not to allow an 18 story building. Walentas is seeking a major rezoning and variances to eliminate that restriction and triple the currently allowed density.

    Instead of building a scale appropriate building there in context to the surrounding landmarked historical buildings and the Brooklyn Bridge, Walentas wants to build a monstrous building giving him ownership of an extra several hundred thousand square feet with exclusive views of the Brooklyn Bridge in perpetuity.

    The city has zoning laws not to quash development, but to keep it respectful and in-scale. More than any other site in NYC, respectful and in-scale development is what is desperately needed at this site.

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