Residents Sue To Stop Bedford-Union Armory Redevelopment

CITY HALL, MANHATTAN — A group of Crown Heights residents are suing the city in an 11th hour effort to stop the redevelopment of the Bedford-Union armory.

The residents, represented by the nonprofit Legal Aid Society, say the city didn't properly study the effects that the armory development, with its hundreds of new housing units, would have on displacement in the neighborhood.

The city's Environmental Impact Study only considered the effects of tenants living in market-rate apartment buildings and not rent-stabilized ones, in violation of city law, their lawsuit says. The residents demand that the development should be stopped until the displacement effects can be fully studied.

"The city should have to look at the harm that doing luxury (housing) with some affordability would have on the Crown Heights community," Judith Goldiner, attorney-in-charge at the Civil Law Reform Unit at Legal Aid, said.

The lawsuit was announced on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday morning.

"They’re introducing 400 units of housing at a rate that will have tenants that are of a higher income than the surrounding area. That creates displacement pressures," Jennifer Levy, a supervising attorney for the Civil Law Reform Unit at Legal Aid, said.

"It raises the rents in the buildings around the project. It encourages landlords to move tenants out so that they can increase rents and deregulate the apartments."

Some residents have long opposed the Mayor Bill de Blasio-backed plan, from developer BFC Partners, to turn the vacant armory on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Union Street into a community rec center, affordable office space and housing complex.

They say all housing at the site should be affordable to families making the median income in the neighborhood, around $40,000 to $45,000 per year. The city and its chosen developer say the market-rate housing is necessary to subsidize the rec center, where locals can go for as little as $10 per month.

Last week, City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, who represents the neighborhood, unveiled changes to the plan that removed market-rate condos, increased the number of affordable units and lowered the income levels needed to rent them.

More than half of the 415 apartment units in the new plan will be rented at levels affordable to families of three making about $51,000 and below.

That new plan passed a city council subcommittee and committee. The full council is scheduled to vote on it Thursday, when it is expected to be approved and sent to de Blasio's desk.

"We are prepared to see this project through," Cumbo said in a statement Wednesday.

A judge denied Legal Aid's request for a temporary restraining order on the project, according to a city spokesman, meaning Thursday's vote can go through as planned. Arguments on the lawsuit are set for February, the spokesman said.

"We have proudly worked with Council Member Cumbo to deliver an equitable project that will create a world class rec center for kids and families in this community, 250 affordable apartments, and space for non-profits in Crown Heights," Ryan Birchmeier, a spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corporation, said in a statement.

"This is a win-win for the neighborhood."

A spokesman for BFC Partners declined to comment but sent Patch a statement attributed to District Leader Geoffrey Davis, a vocal proponent of the redevelopment whose anti-gun violence nonprofit would have space at the armory.

"As a lifelong resident of Crown Heights, I’m disappointed by any attempt to block a plan that would create more affordable housing and a recreation center that our community has demanded for years," the statement from Davis said. "For the sake of this community, we need to make the new Bedford-Union Armory plan a reality."

Photo by Marc Torrence, Patch Staff

Note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the affordability rate of housing at the armory for a family of three. It is around $51,000 per year, not $57,000.