Fort Greene Residents To Sue City Over High-Rise Plans

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN -- Fort Greene residents plan to sue the city over a new development planned to go up on South Portland Avenue.

Grassroots organization Preserve Our Brooklyn Neighborhoods will file suit against the New York City Planning Commission in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a 13-story high rise from going up at 142 South Portland Ave., organizer Sandy Reiburn told Patch.

"Our low-rise and historic communities are being appropriated by rapacious development," Reiburn said, "fueled by a mayor who asserts he’s configuring 300,000 new ‘affordable’ apartments, no matter how unaffordable nor how many generations of New Yorkers will be displaced."

The property belongs to the Hanson Place Seventh Day Adventist Church, which first sought community support for the 50-affordable-unit complex in November 2017 by arguing the building would bring much-needed affordable housing to the neighborhood.

"They want what the lord wants," developer Michael T. Rooney of MDG Design, the company commissioned to design the building, told residents in November. "They're pleading with the neighborhood to stand with them on this."

Developers initially presented plans that called for 75 percent of the units to be priced at or above the area median income, with rents for a three-bedroom apartment topping out at $3,150-per-month.

The City has since committed $50 million to subsidize the development under the mayor's controversial Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which allows developers to construct larger buildings if a percentage of the units are affordably priced, said the group's attorney Jack Lester.

Lester told Patch he will file an Article 78 later this week that argues the development "obliterates local zoning while not producing increased affordable housing as promised."

"The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of community members that want to prevent the destruction of their neighborhood by rampant high rise for profit development masquerading as affordable housing," Lester said.

"This is a $50 million public subsidy to benefit private investors while harming local residents."

The City Planning Commission press office did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Photos by Kathleen Culliton