UPDATED, April 19, 2021, 4:30 p.m.: The Gowanus rezoning is a go.
Judge Katherine Levine on Monday agreed to lift a temporary restraining order, allowing the proposal to enter the city’s seven-month approval process.
The City Planning Commission certified the neighborhood rezoning application Monday afternoon, officially kicking off the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. City Planning Chair Marisa Lago called the move a “giant step closer” to building a more “inclusive” and “green future” for the neighborhood.
“The Gowanus plan is an antidote to the status quo, a status quo that has long put wealthy, amenity-rich neighborhoods under glass and out-of-reach for too many New Yorkers,” she said.
Planning via Zoom: Legal Scrutiny for Pandemic Realities in New York City
The question of whether a public review process conducted by Zoom is sufficient to approve a sweeping rezoning plan is a matter of no small legal concern in New York City. February 24, 2021, 5am PST | James Brasuell |
Rebecca Baird-Remba reports the details of a lawsuit that threatens to derail the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study, alleging that Zoom meetings don t allow for a sufficient public review process.
The stakes in the lawsuit are substantial. The new zoning would cover 80 blocks between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, and it would pave the way for 8,200 new apartments, 700,000 square feet of commercial space and 251,000 square feet of community facilities on land that is now largely zoned for industrial uses, according to Baird-Remba. The plan had been stuck in COVID limbo for the first half of 2020.
Judge Katherine Levine (Levine via Facebook; Getty)
If a city agency makes a small change to its website, will a “usual Joe Schmo in Gowanus” know what that means?
That, more or less, was the subject of a nearly two-hour hearing Thursday on a lawsuit that seeks to stop the Brooklyn neighborhood’s rezoning from moving forward.
Kings County Supreme Court Judge Katherine Levine didn’t rule on that issue directly, but agreed to partially lift a temporary restraining order on the rezoning, allowing the Department of City Planning to release the remainder of the proposal’s application.
She said she is “predisposed” to allow the application to be certified, which would officially kickstart the city’s public land-use review process, but called on the city to find ways to ensure more people have access to virtual hearings held as part of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. She floated the idea of installing public computers in the Park Slope Armory.