Debate Over 80 Flatbush Development Continues at Borough President's Public Hearing

The lively debate started before the official proceedings had even begun.

As the crowds began to swarm into Borough Hall Monday night for a public hearing hosted by Borough President Eric Adams on controversial development 80 Flatbush, many of those in attendance who are against the project took immediate offense to a slideshow of the project looped on a series of monitors.

Adams assured the audience that there was no favoritism being displayed.

“I don’t come to meetings with my mind made up,” said Adams. “I come to hearings to hear from the public.” He reminded the crowd that he had voted against the Brooklyn Heights Public Library at 280 Cadman Plaza West “because I thought it wasn’t the right fit for the neighborhood.”

The development at 80 Flatbush, which will occupy a whole block, calls for two towers, 900 apartments — including 200 affordable units — and two schools. It is being developed by Alloy Development in collaboration with the city’s Educational Construction Fund and community nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee.

At the end of March, there was a tense public hearing about the project in front of the community board. Their land-use committee voted against the project on April 19.

Adams’ vote will follow the community board’s official decision, which will happen on May 9.

Many of the same people who provided testimony Monday night — a mix of local residents who oppose the project and a growing list who speak in favor — have been engaged in the complicated debates about the merits of the development over the last year.

The arguments have not changed. There are those who argue against the size and density of the proposed towers, the tallest of which will reach 74 stories and 920 feet if the rezoning is approved. (To put that in perspective, Brooklyn’s coming supertall at 9 Dekalb will rise 1,066 feet.)

Others condemn the building’s creation of shadows, which they claim will stretch all the way to Fort Greene Park. (Brent Porter, an architecture professor at Pratt who did shadow studies with his students, said it will stretch even further). Some worry about bringing more schoolchildren to a busy and dangerous stretch of Flatbush Avenue.

On the other side, there are those who argue that the benefit of the schools — the new one and the revamp of Khalil Gibran — outweigh concerns about height and shadows — and that the need for affordable housing trumps all.

Immigrant nonprofit Arab American Family Support Center sent out a press release Friday saying it planned to deliver “more than 600 petitions” in favor of the project to Adams.

Groups like the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum all voiced strong support for the project at Monday’s hearing. (The groups have partnered before: The museum’s Dumbo outpost is located in Alloy’s building at 1 John Street in Brooklyn Bridge Park, which was until recently headed by Regina Myer, now president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.)

A number of affordable housing advocates spoke in support of the project, one of whom elicited laughs when she referred to the neighborhood as “Carroll Hill.” (She had previously admitted that she recently moved to Brooklyn from Ohio.)

Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s Regina Myer praised the location and use of the proposed development in an op-ed published by Crain’s Monday.

“The project would set a new standard for the type of development we need — in a location that couldn’t make more sense — to alleviate the housing crisis and address other important needs,” she wrote.

It followed on the heels of two op-eds — here and here — on the pro-development website New York YIMBY, which criticized those against the project as acting in bad faith.

“This is not a fight between the YIMBYs and the NIMBYs,” said Victoria Cambranes, who ran for city council last year, at the hearing. “This is a fight over the soul of Brooklyn.” She accused Alloy of using the students of Khalil Gibran as “pawns” and blamed the Department of Education for the current conditions of the school’s building. (They were placed in their current space after facing a backlash over their original location, a shared building with P.S. 282 in Park Slope).

She argued, as did others, that to have one thing you don’t need to accept it all. Without a rezoning, the developers can build “as of right” up to 400 feet. At previous hearings, the developers cited the affordable housing crisis as a reason to build taller buildings than allowed under the current zoning, and said they would not consider trimming the heights of the towers.

Public Advocate Letitia James, who arrived more than two hours into the hearing, sang a familiar tune.

“It’s not a question of affordable housing versus everything else, it’s not a Hobson’s choice,” she said. “We can have affordable housing, we can have responsible development, the gardens can breathe and we can see sunlight.”

Related Stories

• CB 2 Land Use Committee Votes Against Proposed Development at 80 Flatbush
• Residents Voice Concern Over Controversial 80 Flatbush Development in Tense Public Hearing
• Locals Say Alloy’s Downtown Brooklyn Mega-Project Is Too Tall, Blocks Historic Tower

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