Packed House Kicks Off Next Phase of Gowanus Community Planning Project

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The first public meeting of the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study was welcomed by a large crowd at P.S. 32 on Thursday night, as residents packed the school's gym and auditorium, conversing with city staffers and listening to a briefing on how the process will progress.

According to the Department of City Planning (DCP), the study will incorporate local feedback and priorities into the work of administration agencies as a development plan for Gowanus is formulated.

Between 2013 and 2015, the Bridging Gowanus process laid down a list of key principals that residents wanted any future development plan to address, such as environmental safety and resiliency, protection of local manufacturing, and investments in parks and schools.

The new planning study will continue that process. DCP staffer Jonathan Keller explained Thursday that going forward, the city will engage the Gowanus community through a series of public meetings. The first, focused on resiliency, will take place on Dec. 8, though a location and time haven't been finalized.

After that, DCP will produce a draft planning framework that will identify local needs, along with outlining a development strategy and a basic framework for how local land should be rezoned.

Comments left behind by event attendees

Further community input will then help turn that framework into a detailed draft zoning proposal and development strategy, which would then be subject to additional input and public review.

Keller said the city wants a plan that will adhere to many of the principals already outlined by the community, including streetscape improvements that will benefit all users, the expansion of neighborhood services (like supermarkets), support for diverse industry and business, the creation of more affordable housing, the promotion of environmental sustainability, and the continuation of cleanup efforts targeting the Gowanus Canal itself.

He also said the city will not permit further residential development in the neighborhood's Industrial Business Zone.

DCP staffers said the planning study does not have a set time frame, in order to ensure that the process is properly conducted. They also pledged that a rezoning proposal won't be moved forward until the planning study is complete.

Questions from the audience revealed some of the top-of-mind concerns held by area residents. Among them: attendees wanted to know if the city was serious about building affordable housing; about how storm waters could be protected against without the use of walls; if the development process would make Gowanus more accessible to those with disabilities; whether community outreach would be robust, and whether it would take place in multiple languages; if there was a set goal for the number of affordable housing units to be constructed (the answer was no); and whether any rezoning proposal would preserve local school seats for area children (a question that drew significant applause).

In many instances, DCP officials said they didn't have specific answers at this point in time, while backing the principles behind the questions. They also encouraged residents to stay involved in the planning process to make sure their concerns were heard.

Several elected officials attended the presentation, and offered the planning process their support.

Gowanus Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon said that constructive collaboration would turn local development disagreements into "a plan we can all live with and believe will better our community."

Councilman Brad Lander said Gowanus has seen positive changes lately, such as increased job growth and a developing arts scene. But the neighborhood faces "real risks and threats" even outside of rezoning, he said, pointing to the displacement of artists on Ninth Street as an example.

"Inaction is not going to preserve and strengthen" the community, Lander said, adding that "really hard questions" will have to be answered collectively through the planning process.

Similarly, Councilman Stephen Levin, who shares Gowanus with Lander, said the planning process is "our opportunity to create a meaningful impact" on the community "for future generations."

The planning process will also clearly be a major focus for community activists.

Edward Tyre, a Gowanus Houses resident and president of the Gowanus Resident Association who said he's spent his whole life in the community, said he was amazed at how quickly the area was being redeveloped.

"The neighborhood is no longer recognizable," he said, citing major residential developments as an example. "We want to be involved" in the planning process, Tyre said. "We want to be informed about what's happening in hour neighborhood."

"We're happy the neighborhood is changing for the better," said Juana Lino, the Association's secretary, "but at the same time, all these high rises are too much. It's just looking too much like the city."

"The process needs to be inclusive for all," said Paulette Soltani, an organizer with activist group VOCAL New York. The city's conversations with residents, she said, must be "really representative of the diverse neighborhood that this is, from people who are homeless to NYCHA tenants, to small business owners."

And Dave Powell, the Director of Organizing and Advocacy for the Fifth Avenue Committee, said his organization is focused on avoiding the kind of residential displacement seen after the city's rezoning of 4th Avenue in 2004.

"What we saw in the wake of that rezoning was a dramatic uptick of tenant harassment of rent stabilized tenants who previously were safe," Powell said, adding that the city must "first commit to not making the same mistake."

Powell said city staffers didn't say enough on Thursday about preventing future displacement.

"We'll definitely be working to mobilize tenants in the corridor who may be threatened by displacement, to make sure that those voices are heard," he said.

Asked about whether the Fifth Avenue Committee wanted the planning process to happen quickly, considering the speed of local change, Powell acknowledged that "even the city indicating that there might be some [zoning] change is having a very drastic effect on speculation."

But the activist said the process shouldn't be rushed.

"It really is important that the city gets this right if they're going to rezone at all," he said.

For more information on the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study, you can visit the project's website, call 718-780-8280, or email gowanus@planning.nyc.gov.

Pictured at top: DCP official Jonathan Keller speaks at the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study kickoff on Thursday. Photos by John V. Santore