Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's New York City Council vote for the subcommittee on zoning and franchises.

At this time, please silence all electronic devices.

Just a reminder, no one may approach a day as at any time.

Thank you.

Chair, we are ready to begin.

Good afternoon and welcome to a meeting of the subcommittee on zoning and franchises.

I am Councilmember Farrellis, Chair of the Subcommittee.

This afternoon, I am joined by Councilmembers Farias, Schulman, Salam Felder, Encanacion, Thomas Henry Carr, and Jay Sanchez.

Stand at ease.

Today we are scheduled to vote on three proposals.

We will vote on LU 72 through 77 regarding the DeWitt Clinton Park North proposal, which actually consists of two separate development sites.

These sites are located on the west side of Manhattan in the northern part of House Kitchen and are in Councilmember Brewer's District.

The first site is located at 801 11th Avenue along 11.

Sorry.

And there the applicant is seeking to develop a mixed use residential building that will have approximately 477 apartments, of which approximately 125 will be permanently affordable.

The second site is located at 629 West 54th Street along 12th Avenue.

And the applicant is seeking to develop another mixed-use residential building that will approximately that will have approximately 617 apartments, of which approximately 162 will be permanently affordable.

The proposed developments would seek a transfer of floor area from the commercial park piers in Hudson River Park in exchange for approximately 29729.7 million payment to Hudson River Park Trust that would support improvements in capital maintenance in the park.

The 11th Avenue site is requesting a zoning map amendment to change the existing manufacturing M2-3 zoning district to a commercial C4-district, which has a residential equivalent of a R10 district.

The 12th Avenue site is also requesting a zoning map amendment to change the existing manufacturing M2-4 zoning district to a commercial C4-7 district.

Second, a zoning text amendment would map a mandatory inclusionary housing area on both sites, as well as an update the special Hudson River Park District rules to reflect the new granting and receiving sites for a floor area transfer from Hudson River Park and clarify the affordable automated related use provisions for C4-7 districts as well as applicable bulk rules and the applicability of the special Clinton District regulations.

The third action, again, applicable applicable to both sites is a special permit to allow the transfer of a development right from Hudson River Park to the development sites and to provide bulk waivers to facilitate the proposed design of the mixed use buildings.

We are recommending the following modifications.

The removal of the street wall location waiver granted by CPC for the 11th Avenue site, which will provide a more consistent streetscape along 11th Avenue.

For the 12th Avenue site, the modification is to reduce the building height from the CPC approved 550 feet to a maximum of 520 feet, consistent with the intent of having the height of buildings decreased from 11th and 12th Avenue in order to create less of a barrier along the waterfront.

Councilmember Brewer supports these applications as modified.

I now recognize Councilmember Brewer for a statement.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, these two buildings, as you suggested, are being considered together in the area of 54th Street and 11th Avenue.

They are separately owned.

Most of most of the discussions were with Mr.

Friedland and not the Chapman organization when we spoke to them.

And they are getting what we call FAR, which is basically height, from Hudson River Park Trust.

It's a good project where Hudson River Park Trust, which you know, every time you look at a peer that needs assistance like Pier 76, it's millions and millions of dollars.

So the least that these buildings will pay Hudson River Park Trust is 29 million dollars, which is around 200 a square foot.

We also think that maybe they should pay more, but that's what it is at the moment, and they'll have to work it out.

There have been many, many meetings between community board four and the developers, and I participated in them, both in person at the community board, and then Zoom discussions with these parties as well as the council land use staff.

And I certainly want to thank Paul Devlin and Joe Restittier from Board 4, as well as the council land use staff here.

CB4, which is a bill of a very sophisticated board, will all due respect to all other 58 community boards.

Nobody else has the expertise like Board 4.

The people on it have been doing this for a long time, particularly Joe Vesticia.

They support housing at this site.

But just so you know, at the full board meeting that I was at, they issued a negative declaration, unless certain milestones were met, as opposed to a yes but, which is what they would have liked to, because the owners were so reluctant to make any concessions for the community.

The height community wanted the max height to come down, but the most that we could get was a reduced 30 feet from 550 to 520.

They wanted to bring it down even more because they understand these buildings are facing the river.

You want to have as much light and air on the river as possible for the fish and other uh aspects of marine life, but we were not able to get it down even further.

Another issue.

DeWick Clinton Park is right across the street.

This is not the Hudson River Park, Hudson River Park is on the river.

The Hudson River, the Witt Clinton Park is a city park.

It's right across the street from these buildings.

I know it well.

It includes ball fields, leisure areas, playgrounds, and more.

Despite the request for more, six plus six.

Then, of course, there's the issue of affordability.

By law, as you heard from the chair, uh 25 to 35, 25 percent to 30 percent, depending on option one or option two, are mandated to be affordable and to be low income.

That's based on law and based on the state.

Community board four has always advocated this unlike other boards, what I call workforce housing, which is basically higher income teachers, firefighters, police, etc.

And we wanted to add another five percent, so it would be 30 percent total.

We can't we started to compromise at 2.5%, meaning 165% AMI workforce housing, make it additional to the what was their MIH mandated.

But we ended up after much nickeling and diming is what I would call it, with one and a quarter percent, maybe 12 to 13 units additional, but they are permanent.

The owners wanted to have just housing that would be affordable for the life of the property tax abatement, which is usually 35 to 40 years.

But having been around for 35 or 40 years, I've seen housing disappear and become market in some of the buildings on the upper west side.

So it's less units, they do mirror and track with the other units in the building.

You cannot build all studios, you have to be consistent with the one, two, three studios and one bedrooms with the rest of the buildings.

So it can't be on the ground floor, has to be moved around in the other buildings, and it has to track the same size.

So the other issue is I guess Mr.

Friedland, along with everybody else in the development world, hate 485X.

They don't like this new property tax exception that was uh negotiated and passed in Albany.

Let them figure it out what's going to happen.

That's not my problem.

But it owner has stated that if 485X property tax is not rest renovated, I shouldn't renovated, it's not enacting in a different way, he's not going to build.

Right now, there's a good uh storefront meaning there's a ground floor auto repair auto sales, which is an excellent union jobs, and there's a commercial building on one of the sites.

So it's active currently, it's not like they're vacant lots.

So I don't know what's gonna happen if this thing will ever get built.

It all depends on 485X.

They don't like they the developers don't like the union portion of that bill, and they don't like that you have to be a hundred units, and then above that, you gotta follow 485x labor law.

So I think a lot of folks are building at 99 units, but not here.

So I support because we've been working with the community board to come up with this, but I do want to say to the city of New York, to HPD, having been borough president for eight years, it is so darn hard to get any kind of affordable housing in these high income areas.

And it makes me crazy.

The schools are excellent, the transportation is excellent, the parks are excellent.

It doesn't seem right that every time I ask for support, subsidy if needed, that we are told it's cheaper land in the Bronx.

We're going to the Bronx scale, we're not gonna stay in Manhattan.

And that's what's happening here.

I mean, if HBD or others wanted to say if the developers not gonna do this, then we should find other ways to subsidize this apartment building.

These should have more affordable housing than what we're able to negotiate.

Um number one.

Number two, I'm a big supporter of all of the unions, but when I call 32 BJ into the credit of the developer, they'd be you know, they're working in terms of long-term 32 BJ jobs, as they should.

But 32 BJ should say, we want 5% affordable.

We want the extra workforce housing.

They don't, they say they go along.

That's not right.

Every unit in the city should be stating we need more workforce housing.

And so I'm here also to say I think HPD is gonna work with us to make sure that once the abatement is over, if a family moves out, that market, that union, those few 12, 13, 14 units, they made the stay rate stabilization.

I have to be very, very clear on that.

So it's written into law, and they should be rent stabilized, not equivalent red stabilized, but actual rent stabilized.

So I'm here to be supportive, but I'm also here after what 25 years, 200 and some Ulurps I've done.

This is really nickeling and diming, and it's not building affordable housing.

The way that we should be doing it, and so I hope that this is somewhat of a lesson, and then I think it's sort of putting everybody on notice that uh good intention is not good enough.

What is the only way that we sh build affordable housing is to actually build it.

If you want to put in subsidy, fine, but nickeling and diming is not the way to go.

Thank you very much, madam chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Brewer.

The other vote concerns LU 66, 67, 68, 69, and 71.

Related to the monitor point rezoning proposal and council member wrestlers district.

The applicant is seeking to develop a mixed use residential project in Green Point, Brooklyn.

That would consist of a museum building, a market rate building with MIH permanently affordable housing known as the West Building, and a hundred percent affordable housing building known as the East Building.

Let me first address the affordable housing component of this project.

This is a unique project for two reasons.

The majority of the development site consists of a publicly owned land controlled by the MTA.

Although there has been a lot of housing development along Green Point Waterfront in the past decade, the area was rezoned prior to the city's mandatory inclusionary housing requirements.

As a result, the affordable housing built to date has been at income levels that are not affordable to low income New Yorkers.

This large publicly owned site is a unique opportunity to build hundreds of units of affordable housing that low income New York New Yorkers can actually afford in an area that has been overwhelmingly that has an overwhelming amount of market rate housing.

This project is also unique because it provides the opportunity to pair affordable housing with green space.

Since I have been chair of the subcommittee, you have heard me state the importance of providing the needed infrastructure and services for the new housing units we approve.

The proposed project will have over one acre of open space and connect to a larger waterfront open space plan in Green Point and Williamsburg, providing a unique opportunity to provide affordable housing with direct access to waterfront green space, where affordable housing can be paired with the community improvements.

As originally proposed by the applicant, the project would have a total of 1,150 apartments, of which 460, 40% were proposed to be permanently affordable.

Based on the modifications to the project that we are recommending, which I will describe in more detail, and the leadership of the council, the project will now have an additional 202 permanently affordable apartments for a total of 662 affordable units.

In addition, there will be over one acre of open space on the site, and the site will include a museum and educational space to commemorate the USS Monitor, a warship launched from Green Point that played a pivotal role in the Civil War.

This is truly a one-of-a-kind project.

The proposal initially involved five land use actions.

However, the applicant has withdrawn its application regarding LU 70 for a special permit modifying the applicable loading birth requirement, and it is no longer needed, and we will vote to file that action.

There are four remaining actions.

First, a zoning map amendment to change the existing manufacturing M3-1 zoning district to a residential R6 and R8 district with a C2-4 commercial overlay.

Second, a zoning text amendment to map a mandatory inclusionary housing area, modify the density, bulk, and park designation regulations for a waterfront blocks located in the Green Point Williamsburg Waterfront Access Plan, and certain waivers available for a large scale general development.

Third, a special permit to create a large scale general development and modify bulk regulations that would otherwise apply to the proposed development, including a reduction, a reduction in the required width for a portion of the waterfront publicly accessible area along the project's shoreline.

The fourth action is a change to the city's map to remove the previous parks designation over the western portion of the development site, which is privately owned by the parties that will oversee the monitor museum.

In order to maximize both the affordable affordable housing on this publicly owned site and the amount of open space, we are recommending the following modifications.

Changes to the special permit drawing for the large scale general development, which will allow the developer to increase the number of affordable apartments provided.

This is achieved in several ways.

By converting previously proposed commercial space to residential space, by reallocating some of the space previously allocated to the museum to more housing, by extending the development site to include all the MTA control land, and by providing additional height to the East Building.

Stand at ease.

We are also modifying the waiver granted to decrease the width of a portion of the required waterfront publicly accessible area, which will maximize the amount of public open space on the site.

Council Member Restler supports this application as modified, and I recognize Councilmember Russell for remarks.

Thank you so much, Chair Lewis.

And I I just want to apologize to every member of the committee for my tardiness and I'm sorry to keep each of you waiting.

I really apologize.

We just uh moments ago were able to reach a final agreement on this project.

Um, about five years ago, it was July or August of the summer of 2021, shortly after I won my primary, and I remember screaming on the phone to Will Schwartz at the MTA about how this I thought this project was a total nonstarter, and it's come an extraordinarily long way, and I am pleased today to express my support for the amended proposal for majority affordable housing development known as Monitor Point at Forty Quay Street and Green Point.

You know, I've been clear over these five years that any development of this publicly owned land must be primarily in the public interest.

And I'm grateful to the hundreds, actually thousands of neighbors who've reached out to me and my office to share their perspective.

In direct response to our feedback, the applicant Gotham has amended their proposal to increase the share of permanently affordable housing from about 25% of the units to 50% of the units, nearly tripling the number of actual affordable housing units that are going to be built in our community.

At my insistence, this development will include 662 affordable apartments in this 13 plus 100 unit development.

50% of those affordable units are going to be deeply affordable.

So to give you a sense, a family of three making 76,300 a year will be able to rent a two-bedroom apartment at $8, $1,822 a month.

That is deep affordability.

26% of the apartments will be for moderate income households, 172 units.

161 of the affordable homes will be designated for seniors, and we all know the need for affordable housing for seniors.

That means that a senior making 34,600 a year can rent a one-bedroom apartment for just $911.

And 30% of the units, and this was very important to me personally, 110 apartments will be supportive housing.

That's deeply affordable housing for formerly homeless individuals with on-site services to ensure that we are actually meeting the moment of our homelessness crisis.

This development will also yield significant green space benefits for our community and strengthen resiliency.

This project is adjacent to Bushwick Inlet Park, a long-promised 27-acre park that was a central promise of the 2005 rezoning.

The vast majority of the park remains unremediated and fenced off.

The mayor visited the future park site with me and told me that he is committed to fulfilling the promise of this park and completing Bushwick Inlet Park.

The developer will be contributing $300,000 annually for the extent of this agreement, which I believe is 99 years, to maintaining and operating Bushwick Inlet Park, and dedicated funds will go to the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, a local conservancy group, to help maintain that space.

The project will include more public green space than originally proposed.

The waterfront esplanade will now be 40 feet wide, resulting in a total addition of 52,000 square feet of publicly accessible waterfront space linking Green Point directly to the Motiva parcel of Bushwick Inlet Park.

There will also be two new public bathrooms in the uh in the East Building for park users and neighbors who just got to go.

And as was promised 20 years ago, the MTA emergency response unit will be relocated finally from the promised Box Street Park in the northern tip of Green Point to East Williamsburg.

The MTA is going to be responsible for demolishing the build their building at Box Street Park and paving over that land to make way for the final section of that promised park.

The development will help us will help protect against flooding by building a new bulkhead along the waterfront edge and by building stormwater retention systems to decrease the load on our local sewer systems.

The buildings and the green space will also be built in an elevation to help mitigate inland flooding.

And we have secured consequential investments to ensure our infrastructure can meet this moment and the growing needs of our community.

There will be a new the green the Nassau Avenue G station will now be fully accessible with a new elevator going in.

That is an approximately $60 million dollar project, and it will be executed in the current MTA Capital Plan.

There will also be 2,700 square feet of community facility space for local nonprofits in the monitor point development.

Look, most importantly, this project will add uh good.

Well, let me add, this project will add good union jobs.

Uh work partnering with the laborers on construction and partnering with 32 BJ once these buildings are built.

I want to thank both of those unions for their support of this project.

And I also want to thank the Monitor Museum for partnering with uh the applicant to make this happen, and this project will yield a new 18,000 square foot museum.

Uh, and I want to thank George and Janet for helping in that regard as well.

But look, most importantly to me, in a neighborhood where we have seen rents skyrocket, where we've lost 15,000 Latino residents in the last 50 years, 15 years, where we've seen rents increase by 60% in just the last six years.

This development will finally add desperately needed affordable housing that our community can actually afford, and it will help some of our most vulnerable neighbors access housing as our city suffers from a historic affordability crisis.

I know that many of my neighbors will be disappointed in this outcome, but I believe this is ultimately a positive project for our community, and that's why I'm supporting it.

This was far and away the hardest negotiation I've had to be a part of in my five years in the council, and I just want to say a handful of thank yous.

First and foremost to Speaker Menon.

She had my back every single step of the way on this project.

Uh we discussed what I could support.

She said she agreed with me, and then supported me.

And her and her team uh were phenomenal.

We would not have gotten to this outcome without her help.

I really want to thank the chair of this committee, Chair Lewis, for leading a great hearing and for her support, and especially want to thank the land use chair, Kevin Riley, for coming out with me to tour Monitor Point to see the site to understand why this was so important to me and for helping us get to the right place.

I know his commitment to affordable housing is deep, and I know he wanted us to get here, and I'm thankful for his help in getting us there.

Um the council land use team was superb.

Uh, and Lena, Omar were all deeply involved and did a terrific job.

And I especially want to thank Brian Paul and William Vidal who just offered exceptional advice and counsel uh at all hours of the day and night over a very long period of time to help us get here.

Um I really uh am grateful to all the members of the council land use team.

So thank you for your hard work on this.

I want to thank uh the MTA that really stepped up at the end of this project to help make this happen.

Uh Sean Fitzpatrick is an old friend and a really talented guy, and we were lucky to have his involvement here.

I was really tough on the guys at Gotham, and they put up with it, and uh, you know, they said to me all along, Lincoln, we like building affordable housing.

If we can make the financing work, we'll be happy to do it.

And they stuck true to their word, um, and we together pushed each in our own ways to get the affordable investment we needed.

Um, and I really want to thank Brian Kelly in particular for sticking with it and pushing and uh finding a path forward.

Um, David Pickett for his leadership, Varun, Simeon, and the whole Gotham team uh for being good partners, and we're looking forward to working with them in the years to come.

I want to thank as I did the Green Point Monitor Museum folks, George and Janet.

Um, I really want to thank the Mamdani administration.

I think this was probably their first big hairy, hard Ulurp of uh their first six months, and uh Deputy Mayor Bozorg, uh Genevieve, Arvind, Patrick Love, Jelani, Julia Deputy Mayor Cursen, and others all um engaged with an open mind, and even when they told me that what I was asking for was really, really difficult or maybe impossible, they kept trying to figure out a way to make it work.

Um, there are many community members who pushed hard here, um, some for this project, some against, and I'm grateful to all of them.

I want to start by just thanking the Save the Inlet folks and the Friends of Bushwright Park, Catherine Thompson, Steve Chessler, Trina McKeever, and many others.

Um, nobody's been more committed to the park over the last 20 years than them.

Uh, and and I'm hopeful that this uh I'm hopeful that ultimately this is going to be something that that they can see as positive benefit for our community.

Um I also really want to thank Rob Solano and Churches United for Fair Housing, who really fought hard with me for more affordable housing on this site.

Um, and last but not least, I I don't mean to brag, but I think I have the best team in the city council.

Um, and they are just exceptionally smart and hardworking and fun um and give all the best advice, and I'm really, really lucky.

So HANA leads our land use work and is our district director and is remarkable.

Um Eliza leads all of our works on communications and helped us really hone our message here.

And Molly's my chief of staff.

They're all really great, and I'm very lucky to get to work with them.

So with that, I just want to say thank you to everybody for your patience and support and for all the colleagues who had my back through a difficult process, and I'm pleased with the outcome that we were able to achieve.

Thank you very much.

Council, are there any members of, are there any council members with questions or remarks at this time?

Members.

Sorry.

No, Chair.

Okay.

I now call for a vote.

To approve modifications, LU 67, 68, 69, and 71 related to the monitor point rezoning proposal.

LU 72 through 74 related to the do it Clinton Park North rezoning proposal at 801 11th Avenue and LU 75 through 77 related to the do it Clinton Park North rezoning proposal at 629 West 54th Street.

And finally, pursuant to Council Rule 11.60B.

I make a motion to file LU 70 to remove the item from the council's calendar.

Council, please call the roll.

Chair Lewis.

Aye on all and congratulations.

Councilmember Fairis.

I vote I and all.

Councilmember Shulman.

I and all and congratulations to everyone.

Councilmember Salon.

I vote I on all.

Congratulations.

Councilmember Felder.

I know.

Councilmember.

I vote I am all.

Councilmember Sanchez.

I vote aye on all.

Councilmember Thomas Henry.

Aye on all.

Congrats.

Councilmember Carr.

With congratulations to Council Members Brewer and Wrestler.

I vote aye on all.

By a vote of nine in the affirmative, zero opposing and zero abstention.

The items are approved as described by the chair.

These items are now referred to a full land use committee.

That concludes today's business.

I would like to thank members of the public, my colleagues, subcommittee council land use and council staff, and the sergeant at arms for participating in today's meeting.

This meeting is hereby adjourned.