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Dear friends and neighbors, for the past 12 years, CG CORD has been involved in the struggle to clean up the Gowanus canal and bring environmental justice to our community. While that effort has produced some results, we are concerned that our elected officials (Mayor DeBlasio and Councilman Lander) continue to put the cart before the horse.
Mayor DeBlasio opposed the EPA cleanup of the canal while he was our councilman. Along with Mayor Bloomberg, plans were made to rezone 25 blocks along the canal for residential development before an unlikely city led cleanup. These plans were scrapped after the 2008 financial collapse and the EPA Superfund designation.
We are now facing a new, much bigger rezoning plan while the city drags its feet on the cleanup.
This new plan now covers 80 blocks and much larger buildings. The old plan allowed buildings up to 12 stories on a few blocks but the new plan allows 22 story buildings along both sides of the canal which is a flood zone. The public place site (at Smith and 5th streets) which was promised to the community as a recreational space when the city acquired it from Brooklyn Union Gas 50 years ago, is now slated for a massive multi building affordable housing development and school.
Because this site was a manufactured gas plant for around 100 years, it has been polluted with coal tar and other chemicals to depths greater than 100 feet and cannot be thoroughly cleaned up. Since National Grid and New York State have decided to do a less thorough cleanup than was previously planned, it will continue to be one of the most contaminated sites in New York. This should not be where we build housing for those New Yorkers needing a housing subsidy or a school for our children.
While we support revitalizing the Gowanus corridor and the building of affordable housing, the plan being presented is not good enough. 90% of the development will be market rate housing and commercial/manufacturing space built in a flood zone at tremendous cost to taxpayers due to the enormous grants, subsidies and tax exemptions provided. Much of the housing will be built on contaminated land and much of the "affordable" housing is targeted at higher income people so that the rents are only slightly below market.
There is still room for improvement in this plan but rather than continue to work on it, the city intends to push it through the land use review (ULURP) process during the Covid pandemic with virtual meetings instead of actual meetings. Because of this, Katia's group, Voice of Gowanus has filed a lawsuit to prevent the city from proceeding with this plan until we can hold proper public meetings as required in the NYC Charter.
It is our hope that there is still time to make further improvements and perhaps continue the conversation with our next Councilperson and Mayor who will take office in less than a year.
This is the biggest issue to face our neighborhood in many decades and should not be rushed for the benefit of two elected officials and the real estate industry.
There is so much more to say about this issue so we hope you will read some of the links we have included and respond for more information and updates.
CG CORD
