After four years of planning and community engagement, the city released an anxiously-awaited proposal to rezone Bushwick.
The updated Bushwick Neighborhood Plan outlines the Department of City Planning’s vision to bring below-market-rate housing, open space, and transit improvements to the north Brooklyn neighborhood.
For housing, the draft plan calls for the preservation of existing units by offering loans and tax incentives to urge property owners to keep homes at affordable rents. Other programs, such as the Certificate for No Harassment (CONH) and the Neighborhood Pillars program, would help community-based organizations acquire rent-regulated properties.
The city will also look to preserve and invest in the area’s public housing through federal programs, such as Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), and proposed funding community lands trusts as a model to create new below-market-rate units. Creating fully affordable housing developments is a key component of the plan, though the city has yet to set how it defines “affordable” in most of those projects.
At one planned development, the Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development aims to partner with Riseboro to build 24 units, which will provide homeownership opportunities for those making 80-120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) through HPD’s New Infill Homeownership Opportunities Program (NIHOP). Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and other programs to create new low-income units will also be woven into the plan.
In an effort to preserve neighborhood character, the draft proposal aims to limit building height to be more in context with low-scale residential buildings. This would require new development to line up with existing buildings on the street line with zoning for those areas set to allow building heights between three and four stories. Mixed-use corridors, including Wilson, Central, and Knickerbocker avenues, would increase building height between seven and eight stories.
Major transportation corridors including Broadway, Myrtle, and Wyckoff avenues would see higher density and mixed-used development. A set of new zonings (C4-5A, C4-5D, C4-4D, R7A) would allow buildings to rise up to 16 stories in certain areas. To accommodate for building under the elevated train line caring the J, Z and M trains that runs through the neighborhood, some structures would have a lower base but would then be allowed to rise up to two additional stories higher. Three contextual manufacturing districts (M3, M4, M5) have been proposed for industrial stretches of the neighborhood, meaning heights here could reach up to 14 stories.
Historic preservation in the neighborhood would also get a close look with a commitment from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to survey three historic district study areas and six individual buildings, including Queen Anne row houses on Bushwick Avenue, a charming victorian home at 71 Cornelia Street, and the Arion Hall building, which were suggested by the community.
City officials expect to release the draft scope of work, which maps out the plan’s impacts, in May, followed by a June public hearing before the proposal heads into the lengthy Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).
For more on the plan, read the report here.
Loading comments...