The controversial proposal to develop a lot formerly owned by Pfizer took another step towards full approval from the city today, as the City Planning Commission signed off on the rezoning that the multi-building proposal by the Rabsky Group needs in order to get built.
The Real Deal reports that the commission gave the go-ahead to the rezoning that would allow for the construction of 1,146 apartments (287 of which would be affordable) on the lots bounded by Harrison Avenue, Gerry Street, Union Avenue and Wallabout Street. It's now up to the City Council to give final approval.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has called for the Williamsburg development to come with both more square footage set aside for affordable housing that would include tenants making an average of 60 percent of the city's area median income and a guarantee in writing that a certain percentage of the housing would come in the form of two-, three- and four-bedroom units to help out rent-burdened families who would need larger units to live comfortably.
For years, activists have contended that proposed developments at the so-called Broadway Triangle would favor the area's Hasidic Jewish population, an argument that has continued as the Rabsky Group has not laid out how the affordable housing in the Pfizer site development would be divvied up.
Protestors have interrupted multiple city meetings that were supposed to determine the fate of the Pfizer development since last year. However, with this vote, the development now only has to get City Council approval for the rezoning to go ahead.
Council Member Stephen Levin, who represents the district where the project would be located, told The Real Deal that the CPC approval was "a positive step" for a development that would bring affordable housing to South Williamsburg. (Council Members traditionally defer to the member whose district the vote impacts.) Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who represents a neighboring district containing parts of Bushwick and Williamsburg and has been a vocal opponent of the project, panned the commission's approval and vowed to oppose the plan when it came before the City Council.
"I stand with the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, which represents low-income residents of color in Williamsburg, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Bushwick, in opposition to this proposal," Reynoso said in a statement. "The over 800 units of market-rate housing planned for this site will exacerbate gentrification and displacement of our already threatened communities, and what’s worse, we have no guarantee that the planned affordable housing units will meet the existing community’s needs."
Reynoso also said the Rabsky Group has proven to be unaccountable when it comes to providing affordable housing at other developments in Brooklyn. At one Bushwick development, the Rabsky Group refused to disclose how much affordable housing they would include, and then insisted on turning only 20 percent of the units into affordable ones.
