By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Executives at Industry City, the controversial 16-building complex in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park , have agreed for the second time to delay their rezoning application. As reported by the Brooklyn Paper, local Council Member Carlos Menchaca met with the Industry City’s leaders on Friday morning, and following a heated back-and-forth argument threatened to deny the application, should it be submitted this week. “We met with Council Member Menchaca and his Working Group this morning, and once again agreed to delay certification into the ULURP process,” said Spokesperson for Industry City, Lisa Serbaniewicz,. “Following the path forward outlined by Council Member Menchaca earlier this week, Industry City has agreed to every request made by the Council Member…We are also prepared to negotiate and execute a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement with a community-based organization with support of the appropriate City agencies.”
The rezoning application, which was first submitted in March, proposes adding more than 1 million square feet of development to the 35-acre waterfront campus, and a 12-year, $1 billion redevelopment plan. Menchaca demanded first and foremost accountability, in the form of a creating a “Community Benefits Agreement”. “The establishment of a group who would sign one end of a community benefits agreement has yet to be established, let alone a facilitator or legal counsel identified. Any attempt to rush through a rezoning process without the community being fully prepared to hold Industry City accountable is something I will never support,” Menchaca said. The Councilman’s other required conditions, which he announced at a public meeting last Monday, included scrapping the two hotels from the plan, reducing the amount of retail space, providing funding for a technical public high school, adding solar panels on Industry City roofs, and requiring city investments in tenant organizing and affordable housing, among other things. The Councilman also insists that Mayor de Blasio become involved by signing a contract allocating city funds for the community, and forming a community watchdog group to supervise the agreement. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Kimball of Industry City responded on Friday that they would hold off their application, which was slated for submission on September 23.
The rezoning plan for Industry City has been a hot topic for years, since 2013 when it was purchased by Jamestown, Belvedere Capital, and Angelo, Gordon & Co. As reported by Patch, the rezoning has been vigorously opposed by the local working class, and immigrant neighborhood, who say the neighborhood is already growing too fast. In fact, Monday’s public meeting was preceded by the presentation of a petition with 4,000 signatures given to Councilman Menchaca by a coalition of organizations against the gentrification of the already transformed area. Throughout his speech, the councilman’s voice was competing with chants of “no rezoning, no conditions” from the crowd, until he finally left the meeting undone when they wouldn’t allow him to finish his presentation.
Menchaca contends that the rezoning cannot be stopped at this point, so their best bet is to mold in as many benefits for the community as possible. The workers’ union is among the projects’ advocates, citing that the rezoning has promised to bring in 15,000 jobs.
