Controversial Plan to Rebuild Sunset Park Library Is Now One Step Closer to Reality

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Community Board 7, which represents Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, officially backed a plan Wednesday night to demolish the Sunset Park Library and rebuild it in the ground floor of a new affordable housing complex.

The board's vote, which took place at its general meeting Wednesday, came with a pretty strict set of stipulations (embedded below). Among them: The board wants the project's affordable housing marketed to "undocumented immigrants and other disadvantaged residents," wants input on the building's final design, and wants to be told immediately if funding for the project is falling short.

City officials hope to get the project underway in the third quarter of 2017, and open the new library and affordable units by the end of 2019.

Now that it has secured the Community Board's approval, the proposal will head to the office of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams — the next step of the standard Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP process, that must play out before demolition can begin.

The Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a local non-profit, and the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), want to demolish the current 12,200 square foot library — which library officials say is too small to accommodate its many users, and in need of millions of dollars in repairs — and replace it with a new, 21,000 square foot library built into the basement and first two floors of a 100 percent affordable building owned by the Fifth Avenue Committee. The city would stay in possession of the library itself.

The project is expected to take about 20 months to complete. If it moves forward, BPL officials planto run a 5,000-square-foot temporary library out of the former Sunset Park Courthouse, located at 5108 4th Ave., during construction. (Officials have insisted the space will be large enough to accommodate basic programming and book and computer rentals. David Woloch, BPL's executive vice-president for external affairs, has said the temporary space will be up and running within "a couple of weeks" of the current branch closing.)

The Fifth Avenue Committee, acting as developer on the project, has promised to conduct extensive outreach to Community District 7 residents in multiple languages, to solicit as many applications as possible from its residents. Those backing the project say its units reserved for Community Board 7 residents will overwhelmingly go to Sunset Parkers, considering most Windsor Terrace residents (who also live within the district) make too much money to qualify for the development. The FAC has also confirmed that undocumented individuals will be able to apply for the property.

Nine of the building's 49 affordable units would be held for households making 30, 40, and 50 percent of area median income, or AMI, respectively. Twelve units will be for households making 60 percent of AMI, while 10 units will be for households making 80 percent of AMI. At least half of the building's units would be held for residents of CB7.

Proponents of the project say it will give the community a state-of-the-art library, something outside of BPL's budget, as well as much-needed affordable neighborhood units.

Critics, however, have called for the site to be kept in public hands, so that its public uses could be expanded in the future. Vocal community member Maria Roca, for example, has said the property should be the home of a new library and education complex, which would help alleviate the neighborhood's crushing need for new school seats.

Roca voiced that opinion again on Wednesday after CB7's vote, saying, "We just threw another generation of children under the bus."

But Sunset Park Councilman Carlos Menchaca attended the meeting to again express his unequivocal support for the project.

"We are in the middle of a robust expansion of education space across the district," Menchaca said in response to Roca's criticism, adding that the project in no way distracts from "our larger commitment to more education facilities for our overcrowded school system in Sunset Park."

Wednesday's meeting also saw strong representation from members of the Carpenter's Locals 926 and 157, who asked for the project to be built with union labor.

Brett Robinson, the BPL's executive vice-president of finance and administration, said the build-out of the new library itself, a $10 million project to be paid for by the library system, will definitely be done at the state's prevailing wage rates, and could be done with union labor as well.

However, Jay Marcus, FAC's director of housing development, said the economics of the project don't allow for the building itself to be either union-made or built at prevailing wage rates.

Councilman Brad Lander, the former director of FAC who attended the meeting in support of the project, also said that requiring it to be fully union "will just kill this deal," adding that the overall proposal is "as good a deal as I've seen come to this Community Board."

However, Rubén Colón, an official with the Carpenters, said his union still plans to bid on the project. The Carpenters can offer a "blended rate" of work, he said, splitting the job site 50-50 between union workers making about $42 per hour and "provisional" union members recruited from non-union sites and temporarily making slightly less than the union rate: about $39 per hour. Having union labor on the job will also increase safety, Colón said, adding that 15 workers were killed on non-union job sites in the city last year, compared to two on union projects.

Before backing the project Wednesday night, the community board voted down a proposal calling for the project to be built entirely with union labor. A second proposal calling for the project to be built at prevailing wage rates deadlocked at 15 votes in favor and 15 votes against, and therefore failed as well.

During the votes, CB7 chair Dan Murphy urged board members to stay focused on the big picture.

"What we're doing is dealing with a real estate market that gives us very few chances to develop true affordable housing," he said. "Let's stick to first principles. Let's not get caught up in the weeds."

Editor's note: this story has been updated to more accurately reflect quotes provided by Rubén Colón

Pictured at top: the current Sunset Park Library. Photo by John V. Santore