Good afternoon.

And welcome to today's New York City Council vote for the Committee on Land Use.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we please ask that you silence all electronic devices.

At no point in time is anyone to approach the front day.

Chair, you may begin.

Good afternoon, and welcome to a meeting of the Committee on Land Use.

I am Councilmember Kevin Riley, Chair of this committee.

I want to welcome my esteemed colleagues joining me here today, which includes remotely Councilmember Brooks Powers and Councilmember Caban.

And within the chambers, Councilmember Ose, Councilmember Salam, Councilmember Banks, Councilmember Zwang is also online, Councilmember Incarnation, Councilmember Justin Sanchez, Councilmember Thomas Henry, and our minority leader, Councilmember David Carr.

Today we are voting on five items, including various proposals referred by our subcommittee.

And I would like to thank Chair Lewis and Zonin and Chair Marte and Landmarks for their ongoing leadership.

Today we will vote to approve LUs 135 and 136 relating to the Sojourna Troop MAPES rezoning proposal in Councilmember Feliz District in the Bronx for a zoning map and zone and text amendment to facilitate the development of a mixed use 100% affordable residential project, including approximately 457 apartments in total to be provided to two neighboring development sites.

We will also vote to approve with modification LUs 131 and 132 related to the fork Hamilton Mews rezoning proposal in Councilmember Santos District in Brooklyn for a zone and map and zone and text amendment to facilitate the development of a mixed-use residential project in Bay Ridge with approximately 292 apartments, of which up to 88 will be permanently affordable using the MIH program.

Our modification will be to map the rezone district as a proposed R7D district, and we will also modify the proposed text amendment to add MIH option one.

We will also vote to approve with modification LU's 133 and 134 related to the Park Avenue Brooklyn rezoning proposal in Councilmember Wrestler's district.

Oh, we're also joined by Councilmember Wrestler.

Sorry, Councilmember Russell.

In Brooklyn for a zone and map and zone and text amendment to facilitate the development of a mixed-use residential project, including approximately 391 apartments in total, of which up to 101 will be permanently affordable through the MIH program.

Our modification will be to remove MIH option two.

We will also vote to approve of modification LU's 137 and 138 relating to the 69-67 108th Street rezoning proposal in Councilmember Shulman's District in Queens for a zoning map and zone and text amendment to facilitate the development of a mixed-use residential project in Forest Hills, including approximately 59 apartments, of which up to 18 will be permanently affordable through MIH.

Our modification will be to remove MIH option two and to add option three.

Finally, we will also vote to approve with modification LU's 139 and 140 related to the 289 Kent Avenue rezoning proposal in Councilmember Wrestler's district as well in Brooklyn for a zoning map and zoning text amendment to facilitate the development of a mixed use residential project in Williamsburg, including approximately 278 apartments, of which up to 83 will be permanently affordable through MIH.

Our modification will be to remove MIH option two and add option three.

Thank you so much, Chair Riley.

I I don't generally have the privilege of joining you in this committee, and it's good to be here.

Uh we're voting on two projects in in my district today or two rezonings in my district today.

Um is the park avenue rezoning.

Uh community members came to me about this rezoning before I had even taken office as a council member uh in 2021, and we were able to work together with approximately 10 property owners to rezone their properties.

DCP insisted that this be one joint zoning action, which caused a whole lot of different challenges, and I will tell you the city agencies involved, especially the Department of Transportation, were entirely uncooperative in the environmental review process and made me want to pull my hair out.

Parks department was better, it was better, but not that much better.

Um, but we were able to eventually get this project to move forward, and it will generate many hundreds of units of housing, but even more importantly, it will generate 2500 school seats.

And you know, we hear from families every single day in our communities who are struggling to get by, who are struggling to afford to live in New York City, and access to affordable housing and access to affordable high quality schools, child care all the way through, are the things that our communities need.

And so I am thrilled that we are making this long-term investment in the future of uh Bed Sti in South Williamsburg with this rezoning uh that will really create um educational opportunity for thousands upon thousands of families for generations to come.

Uh secondly, we're rezoning 289 Kent, uh, which is uh right on the waterfront in Williamsburg.

This site may be familiar to many here.

It was the old headquarters for Vice.

Um, it's a vacant uh building, and we're gonna be building some housing modeled kind of after the building just down the block at 325 Kent.

This will be a step down kind of housing development with more density on the Kent side, less density toward White.

We'll be generating nearly 300 units of housing here.

So we're adding about a thousand units of housing across our district today.

Um, and these are really good projects.

The the owner at 289 Kent is also very graciously helping to support one of the cultural organizations in our community to help them stay in our neighborhood long term, Triscallian Arts, which I really appreciate.

Um, I really want to thank my team for their hard work on this, uh, particularly Hannah Aida um and Molly Haley, and I want to thank the land use team for their smart and thoughtful advice.

Um, Lena, Brian, William, Ann, and every uh Omar, whoever else helped.

Thank you all.

I really appreciate you.

And uh I hope my colleagues will support these projects.

They're really good uh projects that will that are the right type of development for our community long

term.

Thank

you, Councilmember Russell, and the other members.

Okay.

I will now call for a vote with the support of local members to approve L use 135 and 136 for the Sojournal Truth MAPES rezoning, and to approve of modification to L use 131 and 132 for the four Hamilton Mews rezoning, L use 133 and 134 for the Park Avenue Brooklyn rezoning.

L use 137 and 138 for the 69-67 108th Street rezoning, and L use 139 and 140 for the 289 Kent Avenue rezoning.

Would the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you.

Excuse me, thank you.

Good afternoon, William Martin, committee clerk, roll call vote committee on land use.

All items are coupled.

Chair Riley.