Gowanus Rezone Can't Leave Businesses Behind, Locals Tell City

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A new survey is asking Gowanus businesses to help city officials figure out the best way to ensure they are helped, not harmed, by the imminent rezoning of the neighborhood.

The Department of City Planning, elected officials and local organizations gathered business owners from Gowanus' Industrial Business Zone on Tuesday for the second time this month, hoping to gauge what the manufacturing area needs and how the city can help.

The meetings were part of a larger "visioning study" DCP is working on to complement its rezoning proposal that will reshape the northern part of the neighborhood. The study also invites businesses to share their thoughts in an online survey that will go toward an IBZ plan, likely developed by the fall.

Business owners are hoping that plan will be proactive enough to stave off harm to their businesses that the rezoning, and its estimated 22,000 new residents, might bring, Paul Basile, founder of Gowanus Alliance said.

"We don’t want to be reactive and then down the road have to be in a situation with more hardship," said Basile, whose organization was one of the groups hosting the meetings. "If we can face those challenges and address them before we can be much better prepared."

Basile said so far both meetings have brought a good variety of people from the IBZ to share their feedback. The first meeting brought in a lot of new businesses and the second attracted more property owners and owners from older businesses in the area.

One of the biggest things those business owners and the Gowanus Alliance is asking for, Basile said, is for the city's planners to take note of other rezonings throughout the city and how industrial areas in those were, or in some cases weren't, best protected.

"This is not the first time we've had a rezoning," Basile said. "We think there's a lot of look-back opportunities...but the onus of that shouldn't be on the property owners or business owners. The city has the availability to let us know what we face and act accordingly. There are a lot of lessons we can take and then customize it to issues that face Gowanus."

Those issues that face Gowanus include outdated zoning rules that haven't been updated as the manufacturing industry changes.

Gowanus' IBZ, which roughly extends from the Third Street Bridge down to the Gowanus Expressway, is also uniquely positioned between dense residential zones.

Being surrounded by bustling residential areas, which will only increase with the rezoning's 8,200 new units of housing, creates challenges for the manufacturing area, which was once more separated from where people live. Trucks needed for business have trouble accessing the IBZ and things like noise or air quality start to become more of a concern given new neighbors, Basile said.

The city's study of the IBZ in Gowanus will look at its land use requirements, — like density, height and loading — its workforce development and where infrastructure investments are needed, according to information from DCP.

"While the IBZ portion is not subject to (the rezoning), the city recognizes the area as a vital center of industrial and commercial employment near public transit, and seeks to develop a framework to guide future growth and identify specific improvements that can strengthen the IBZ," DCP officials said.