Gowanus by Design Discusses Rezoning Framework Before Big Meeting

David Briggs leading the slideshow presentation

Gowanus by Design, a local non-profit urban design advocacy, made a presentation at Community Board 6’s Landmarks & Land Use committee meeting held on Jan. 24. Team leader David Briggs talked about some of the goals and impacts of NYC Department of City Planning (DCP)’s Gowanus Rezoning Framework.

“What we’re trying to do is give the community a tool and some information, so that when information comes to us we can evaluate it with some simple metrics,” he said.

“Gowanus: A Framework for a Sustainable, Inclusive, Mixed-Use Neighborhood,” which has seven chapters for different community priorities, was published by City Planning (DCP) in June 2018. It outlines the community’s and DCP’s goals and offers ideas about policies and investments to “achieve a thriving, more resilient neighborhood.”

Briggs began with the advocacy’s mission statement, which is: whatever urban growth happens in the community should be sustainable and inclusive. He noted that the pros to the framework were affordable housing, public open space, mixed use, increased resiliency and improved mobility. Some risks, however, included loss of the neighborhood’s historical character, overcrowding, and insufficient capacity to existing infrastructure (particularly transportation and schools).

Four schools were over capacity by 300 students as of Oct. 2017. Briggs determined that, if schools get built within the proposed framework, 6,000 and 7,600 seats will be needed, based on low-density and high-density dwelling unit predictions respectively. In terms of subway transportation, Gowanus by Design also projected that 12,300 additional riders could be expected.

“This is a starting point and we want to have more conversations about [the framework],” Briggs later added.

DCP, who was invited to this committee meeting by Briggs, did not attend.

The next chapter in this elongated planning process, which will end up with walls of 17 story luxury residential towers, will release the follow-up Draft Zoning Proposal at the “Next Steps in Planning for Gowanus” meeting this Wednesday, Feb. 6. It will be held at P.S. 32 (317 Hoyt Street), 6-8 pm. The public is invited.

 

 

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Comments are closed.

On Key

Related Posts

An ode to the bar at the edge of the world, theater review by Oscar Fock

It smells like harbor, I thought as I walked out to the end of the pier to which the barge now known as the Waterfront Museum was docked. Unmistakable were they, even for someone like me maybe particularly for someone like me, who’s always lived far enough from the ocean to never get used to its sensory impressions, but always

Millennial Life Hacking Late Stage Capitalism, by Giovanni M. Ravalli

Back in 2019, before COVID, there was this looming feeling of something impending. Not knowing exactly what it was, only that it was going to impact the economy for better or worse. Erring on the side of caution, I planned for the worst and hoped for the best. My mom had just lost her battle with a rare cancer (metastasized

Brooklyn Bridge Rotary Club returns to it’s roots, by Brian Abate

The first Brooklyn Rotary Club was founded in 1905 and met in Brooklyn Heights. Their successor club, the Brooklyn Bridge Rotary Club, is once again meeting in the Heights in a historic building at 21 Clark Street that first opened in 1928 as the exclusive Leverich Hotel. Rotary is an international organization that brings together persons dedicated to giving back