1 2 CITY COUNCIL 3 CITY OF NEW YORK 4 -------------------------------x 5 THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES 6 of the 7 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING 8 And FRANCHISES 9 -------------------------------x 10 March 19, 2008 11 Start: 10:00 a.m. Recess: 12:51 p.m. 12 City Hall 13 Committee Room New York, New York 14 15 B E F O R E: 16 TONY AVELLA Chairperson, 17 18 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Joel Rivera Simcha Felder 19 Eric Gioia Robert Jackson 20 Melinda Katz Larry Seabrook 21 Helen Sears Kendall Stewart 22 Albert Vann Diana Reyna 23 24 LEGAL-EASE COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC. 17 Battery Place - Suite 1308 25 New York, New York 10004 (800) 756-3410 2 1 2 A P P E A R A N C E S 3 Gerald Caliendo, R.A., A.I.A. 4 Architect, P.C. Scaldafiore Realty Corp. 5 Winston Von Engel 6 Deputy Director NYC Department of City Planning 7 Steven Lenard 8 Project Planner NYC Department of City Planning 9 Daniel Rivera 10 Director People's Firehouse, Inc. 11 Ward Dennis 12 Chair, ULURP Committee Community Board No. 1, Brooklyn 13 Peter Gillespie 14 Executive Director Neighbors Allied for Good Growth 15 Amy Sillman 16 Mary Westring 17 Carlos Isdith 18 Lawrence Lo 19 May Liu 20 Nancy Wechter 21 Fillmore Place Associates 22 Denny Tomkins 23 Steve Gerberich 24 Agapito Garcia 25 Nelson Cuesta 3 1 2 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) 3 Harry Georgeson 4 Kenneth Fisher 5 Michael Lichenstein 6 Richard Bass 7 Herrick, Feinstein LLP 8 Kevin Fullington Herrick, Feinstein, LLP 9 Gerald Goldman 10 70 Wyckoff LLC 11 Chris McGrath Herrick, Feinstein, LLP 12 Josette Urso 13 Sandy Sontre 14 Irvin E. Johnson 15 Brenna Scarrott 16 Caitlin Dourmashkin 17 Empire Zone Coordinator East Williamsburg Valley 18 Industrial Development Corporation 19 Linda Lowry 20 Io Bollerslev 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Good morning, 3 everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of Zoning 4 And Franchises to order. Joining me are Council 5 Members Simcha Felder, Robert Jackson, Larry 6 Seabrook, Kendall Stewart and Al Vann. 7 We have a few items on the agenda, 8 and I'm going to be taking them out of order, but 9 the first thing I would want to mention is that Land 10 Use No. 699, the Stairwells Text Amendment submitted 11 by the Department of City Planning, that is being 12 laid over, at the Chair's request. And the Westerly 13 Rezoning in Council Member McMahon's district in 14 Staten Island is being laid over at the request of 15 the Council member. 16 The first item we'll be taking up is 17 Land Use No. 689. 31st Street rezoning. C060228 ZMQ. 18 Application by Scaldafiore Realty Corporation, for 19 an amendment to the zoning map, changing from an R5 20 district to an R6A district, property bounded by 21 21st Avenue and other streets. 22 I will call up the representative of 23 the applicant to give the presentation. 24 While he is getting ready, I will 25 tell you this is in Council Member Peter Vallone's 5 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 district. 3 MR. CALIENDO: Good morning, 4 Councilman, members of the Subcommittee. My name is 5 Gerald Caliendo, architect. I'm representing 6 Scaldafiore Realty on a proposed zoning change from 7 an R5 to an R6A. The location is on 31st Street in 8 Astoria, between 21st Avenue and 20th Avenue. 9 The property is just -- the location 10 of the rezoning is just south of the Con Edison 11 facility, Con Edison Plant, electric generation 12 plant, just to the north of the property. 13 The site, the unique conditions of 14 this location are that it happens to be on an 15 extremely wide street for the area, which is 100 16 foot wide. This particular block happens to be a 17 unique block where it is 285 feet deep, by the 18 length of the full block, which lends itself to the 19 potential for a zoning change, which we have 20 proposed, due to the fact that the actual built 21 conditions of this particular block have buildings 22 that were pre-war, the block consists of seven 23 pre-war buildings on that frontage, which are over 24 the conforming bulk of the current zoning, which is 25 R5, significantly. Therefore, we found it, the 6 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Commission found that it was warranted to change the 3 zone to an R6A, which would be consistent with the 4 rest of the block. As you could see, there are six 5 pre-war buildings just to the south of a vacant 6 piece of land, and the vacant piece of -- including 7 the building just all the way to the left on that 8 block, which is even larger. The current FAR for 9 those buildings are 1.89 FAR each, and the one on 10 the corner is 2.66 FAR. The current zoning affords a 11 1.25 FAR for residential, with a maximum FAR of 2.0, 12 with community facility, but in no way would be able 13 to, with the yard requirements of an R5, unless 14 you're building against another building, to build a 15 building of the size that exists on that block. 16 And, again, I'll just repeat myself: 17 this happens to be a 100 foot wide street, wide 18 street by definition, and zoning is a wide street of 19 75 feet, this is a 100 foot wide street, so 20 therefore, it lends itself to a larger bulk 21 building. 22 In consideration for community 23 concerns relative to the height of the building, the 24 owner and the Council are entering into, or 25 establishing a restrictive declaration on the land. 7 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 And if you, Pat, can show the -- the proposed 3 building would align with the frontage height of all 4 of the other buildings on the block, which is four 5 stories, as well as set back the two upper stories 6 that we're requesting as part of the zoning change, 7 in order to allow us to build to a three FAR, we're 8 setting back 20 feet. In an R6A normally the law 9 says you would set back ten feet, we're setting back 10 20 feet. The purpose of that, considering the 11 concerns of the neighborhood, was the exposure of 12 the upper floor relative to the site lines, and the 13 context of the adjacent buildings. 14 This is a rendering that would show 15 what the actual built condition would be, looking 16 from the other side of the street, the other 17 sidewalk across the street, so you could see it's 18 illustrated that you could only see that little 19 portion going above. 20 And it would have been a four story 21 completely, although because of the adjacent 22 buildings to the south, there are existing windows 23 that we have to honor, and we cannot change. So, 24 therefore, and fire escapes. So, we created a court, 25 in order to allow for those windows and egress from 8 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 fire escapes, and therefore, that additional floor 3 area goes up into the upper two floors. 4 Given all that, the other conditions 5 that exist on this particular situation are that if 6 you look to the section through the block, as I 7 mentioned earlier, this is a 280 foot deep block, 8 which is unique in the City of New York, most blocks 9 are only 200 feet, therefore, when we analyzed the 10 shadows and the impact of adjacent buildings, there 11 is 87 feet between our building and the building in 12 the rear, so, therefore, we have really very little 13 impact on any of the adjacent homeowners. As well 14 as, when we studied the whole block, from 21st 15 Avenue down to 20th Avenue, on this particular 16 street front, the topography is such that the block 17 drops almost 30 feet, 28 feet in fact, from one end 18 to the other, therefore, when you look at what we're 19 proposing with the two additional floors above 20 what's already there, the relative impact of these 21 two floors is very little. 22 I'm happy to answer any questions. 23 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I know Council 24 Member Peter Vallone has been working with you to 25 establish a restrictive declaration on this site, 9 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 would you go into details of the restrictive dec? 3 MR. CALIENDO: Yes. Well, to the best 4 of my knowledge, and there's an attorney actually 5 doing that, but to the best of my knowledge, it's to 6 restrict the height of the front of the building to 7 four stories and to the same height as the adjacent 8 facade, as well as the top of the building not being 9 more than 63 feet, which allows for access of a 10 truck to go through to collect garbage from the 11 back, so the first floor would be a little bit 12 higher, as well as the 20 feet setback above the 13 fourth story. 14 I understand they also would be, the 15 persons of interest would be, I'm not positive of 16 this but I believe anyone within a half a mile 17 radius of the property. 18 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: What I would 19 strongly suggest, and I know Council Member Vallone 20 is next door chairing an important Committee on 21 Public Safety, he is in favor of the project given 22 the restrictive dec, that you get the restrictive 23 dec done before the full City Council votes on this 24 item. 25 Any questions from Committee members 10 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 on this item? 3 Council Member Seabrook. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: Yes, a quick 5 question. What is the size of this lot that you're 6 placing all of this on? What is the square footage? 7 MR. CALIENDO: The particular lot that 8 we're constructing the new building? 9 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: Yes. 10 MR. CALIENDO: Is 175 by 80. That's 11 vacant land, the rest of the property, the rest of 12 the buildings are remaining the same. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: Oh, okay. 14 MR. CALIENDO: They're actually all 15 occupied. A hundred percent occupied, all the rest 16 of the buildings that exist. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: Right. Thank 18 you. 19 MR. CALIENDO: Thank you. 20 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I see a couple of 21 people also signed up to speak but I believe they're 22 the owner, right? 23 MR. CALIENDO: They're the owner. 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Now, any other 25 questions from Committee members? Okay, thank you. 11 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. CALIENDO: Thank you. 3 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I see no one else 4 signed up to speak on the public hearing on this 5 item. Is this correct? 6 Seeing no one, I will close the 7 public hearing on this matter. And we will move to 8 the Land Use No. 700, the Grand Street rezoning. 9 C080213 ZMQ. And is City Planning here to give the 10 presentation? 11 This rezoning lies within Council 12 Member Diana Reyna's district, and I know she is 13 here, as well. And we do have a number of people to 14 speak on this item. 15 MR. VON ENGEL: Good morning, Mr. 16 Chairman, Honorable Council Members, my name is 17 Winston Von Engel. I'm the Deputy Director of the 18 Brooklyn Office of City Planning. We are very proud 19 to be here today, together with Steven Leonard, who 20 is the Project Planner for the Grand Street rezoning 21 in Williamsburg to present this contextual rezoning 22 to you, which was requested by the Community Board, 23 the local community and done in conjunction with 24 assistance from our elected officials here. 25 Steven is going to go through a very 12 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 brief explanation of what the rezoning is about. 3 It is an area that was identified 4 after our larger Greenpoint Williamsburg rezoning, 5 it's an area in need of study. We've studied this 6 area and we're proposing the contextual zoning here. 7 It passed the community board and Borough President. 8 City Planning Commission voted to approve it, and it 9 is now before you. 10 And in a moment, as soon as Steven is 11 set up, I will ask him to explain the proposal to 12 you. 13 MR. LENARD: Apologies, Council 14 members. Good afternoon, Council members. My name is 15 Steven Lenard. With the Grand Street rezoning, the 16 Department of City Planning plans to institute 17 height limits in a 13-block area, between the north 18 side and south side portions of Williamsburg in 19 Community District 1 of Brooklyn. The area is two 20 blocks east of the East River and four blocks north 21 of the Williamsburg Bridge. And the existing context 22 in the area, the existing context within the 23 rezoning area is mixed use. Grand Street is a 24 commercial corridor, with residential uses on the 25 upper floors. Most buildings are between three and 13 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 four stories, with some rising up to five or six and 3 a few one-story commercial garage buildings. 4 The existing zoning, which I will 5 also put up in a different board, the existing 6 zoning in the rezoning area is R6. This permits 7 height factor rules to be used to create residential 8 towers rising up to 14 stories, which is up to four 9 times the height of the existing context. It permits 10 residential use to an FAR of 2.43 and community 11 facility use to an FAR of 4.8. There are also C1 and 12 C2 commercial overlays within the area that permit 13 local retail and service uses to an FAR of 2.0. And 14 so this is the existing zoning which permits tower 15 construction with basically no height limit. The 16 proposal will replace this zoning with R6B and R6A 17 contextual districts that have height limits to 18 ensure that future development is consistent with 19 the scale of existing context. 20 The proposal proposes R6B along 12 21 blocks within the rezoning area. These blocks are 22 along Grand Street and two blocks on Metropolitan 23 Avenue. R6B permits residential and community 24 facility uses to an FAR of 2.0, and has a height 25 limit, most importantly, of 40 feet at the street 14 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 and then 50 feet overall after a setback, and this 3 was chosen to match predominantly the prevalent 4 heights within the rezoning area. 5 There is one block that is proposed 6 for R6A. R6A permits residential and community 7 facility uses to an FAR of 3.0, and has a height 8 limit of 60 feet at the street and 70 feet overall, 9 after a setback. 10 So, that's the main change that's 11 being made in this rezoning, is to institute height 12 limits to ensure that future development is 13 consistent with the scale of the existing 14 neighborhood. There are also minor changes to the 15 commercial overlays, to allow them to better reflect 16 and promote the existing commercial activities. 17 These changes in certain areas slightly expand the 18 range of permitted uses, and in certain areas 19 slightly reduce the parking requirement, and they 20 also serve to focus retail activity along the main 21 commercial corridors and keep it off of residential 22 side streets where it might be disruptive. 23 Are there any questions? 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Council Member 25 Reyna, would you like to make a statement? 15 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Thank you, Mr. 3 Chair. 4 I just wanted to express to the 5 Committee members my strong urgent call to you for a 6 downzoning in this area. Since the 2005 rezoning of 7 the Williamsburg Greenpoint rezoning -- waterfront 8 rezoning, there has been a substantial amount of 9 development, not because of the actual rezoning 10 itself, prior to the rezoning, a lot of development 11 was already occurring. Post the rezoning, it has 12 just been an influx of taking advantage of the 13 market, and there has been an adverse effect in the 14 neighborhood. A lot of the residents and property 15 owners are galvanizing to try to deal with a lot of 16 the complaints that they have to be diligent about 17 informing the Department of Buildings. 18 This particular downzoning in effect 19 is going to assist in controlling what was -- what I 20 would consider an oversight when it was zoned for an 21 R6, rather than a contextual zoning as being 22 proposed now to an R6B, wherever appropriate, and an 23 R6A as appropriate as well. To maintain commercial 24 space is conducive to the existing neighborhood, and 25 this particular, you know, 13-block contextual 16 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 rezoning is just one of two parts. This is the 3 smaller portion. We still have a remaining portion 4 that is much larger in scale, over 100 blocks in 5 Williamsburg Greenpoint. 6 And, so, this particular item today 7 before you is important to the post 2005 rezoning. 8 We have to bear in mind what has created massive 9 tensions between development rights and property 10 owners in the neighborhood. We're dealing with the 11 Department of Buildings overwhelmed with complaints, 12 3-1-1 calls, a lot -- you know, there's a handful, 13 I'll be fair to developers, who try to beat the 14 clock, and that particular behavior just lends more 15 unscrupulous activity to leaving adjacent property 16 owners in jeopardy of damaging their property and 17 damaging the block, and damaging just the character 18 of the neighborhood. And, so, this is a moment where 19 we can at least fix something that should have been 20 done in the first place to be able to accommodate 21 the needs of the neighborhood. 22 Separate and aside from the rezoning 23 itself, there is a modification I am calling for. 24 The modification is for the area of a 60-foot wide 25 and 200-feet long, approximately 6,500 square feet 17 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 of a parcel of land. This particular parcel of land 3 is diagonally located from a senior complex, built 4 about 15 years ago, it's the Jarka Hall Senior 5 Residence. The triangular land is being proposed as 6 an R6B, and I would request for there to be a change 7 for it to become an R6A. 8 This particular change will allow for 9 there to be development of the exploring to expand 10 the Jarka Hall Senior Residence, which was the 11 intent of the property owner. The property owner is 12 People's Fire House, Inc. It's the non-profit 13 developer in this area. 14 Additional comment, and last comment 15 I just wanted to share, is the work that the 16 residents of our neighborhood have been trying to 17 diligently just try to express to elected officials 18 and build some type of, or a very, a full of pride 19 attempt to landmark particular areas in the 20 neighborhood. 21 One of these particular blocks is 22 called Fillmore Place. It assists in just 23 preserving some of the character that we're losing 24 in Greenpoint Williamsburg. This is known for 25 families that have been immigrant to the 18 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 neighborhood, who have walked to work in the 3 neighborhood. We'd like to continue to preserve what 4 has continued to be a sense of community, and a lot 5 of what is being built does not compliment that. We 6 are in favor of development but we are also in favor 7 of responsible development. 8 So, with that, I urge you to join me 9 in voting yes, in favor of this rezoning, with a 10 modification. 11 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Point of 12 clarification, Council member. 13 There's a commercial overlay on that 14 piece that you're asking to be modified. We're 15 leaving the commercial overlay, you're suggesting, 16 as is? 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Correct. 18 The commercial space is not -- is 19 optional. And, so, if the developer chooses to use 20 the commercial, they can. If they choose not to 21 because it doesn't appropriately meet the needs of 22 the community, then they won't. 23 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: And I understand 24 that City Planning is okay with the suggested 25 modification? 19 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. VON ENGEL: Yes. This is the kind 3 of modification that would be within scope of this 4 action. 5 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Questions from 6 Committee members? 7 Seeing none, thank you, gentlemen. We 8 have a number of people to speak on this item, both 9 in favor and in opposition. 10 What we will do is, which is the 11 normal practice, and if the Sergeant-At-Arms can set 12 the clock for three minutes, I will call a panel in 13 favor and then a panel in opposition and so forth 14 and so on, until we have heard from everybody. 15 I see four chairs up there, so I will 16 call panels of four at a time. 17 The first panel will be those in 18 favor. Daniel Rivera, Ward Dennis, Peter Gillespie, 19 and Steven Lenard -- oh, no, I'm sorry, that's City 20 Planning. Amy Sillman. 21 MR. RIVERA: Hello. 22 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Hold on one 23 second. Can the clock be set, please? Three. 24 MR. RIVERA: My name is Daniel Rivera, 25 and I'm the Executive Director of the People's 20 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Firehouse, a not-for-profit community-based 3 organization located in the north side of 4 Williamsburg. 5 The Department of City Planning, I'm 6 just going to read a statement real quick, has 7 approved a plan to downsize a 13-block stretch 8 around Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 9 order to help preserve the neighborhood's low-rise 10 character. 11 Although many in our community, 12 including People's Firehouse, support the plan and 13 are hoping to speed up the City's public approval 14 process, we at the Firehouse are also requesting a 15 modification to the rezoning proposal. 16 The lot we are referring to is a lot 17 that Diana alluded to, and it's a triangular lot in 18 shape, bordered by Metropolitan Avenue, North Third 19 Street and Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg. 20 The triangular shape is currently a 21 lot that allows for 14 spaces of parking for 22 residents in the Monsignor Alexis Jarka Hall 23 residential building, and that building is a federal 24 202 Housing for seniors located directly across from 25 Bedford Avenue. 21 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 We are currently looking into the 3 possibility for constructing apartments for seniors, 4 expanding the number of apartments available to the 5 seniors, applying for housing at Monsignor Alexis 6 Jarka Hall. A recent Community Board's most recent 7 Needs Assessment made by Community Board 1, noted 8 that "...there is a great need for housing for the 9 elderly. An increasing senior citizen population in 10 Community Board 1, over 20,000, remains of paramount 11 concern." 12 The need for affordable Senior 13 Housing has reached crisis proportions in our City 14 during the past eight years. In 2002, Congressman 15 Anthony Weiner's Office conducted a systemic study 16 which investigated the availability of senior 17 housing in the five Boroughs of New York, and a 18 systemic study revealed that senior housing wait 19 lists in New York City was crammed with over 200,000 20 names, for only 17,000 available units, leaving 21 seniors to wait up to 10 years to get an affordable 22 place to live. The ULURP Committee of Community 23 Board 1 recently approved our request to modify the 24 rezoning proposal for the triangle lot at a meeting 25 held in February 26, '08. The request was also 22 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 approved by Community Board 1, at their meeting held 3 on March 2008. 4 We're urging the Committee members to 5 support our request to modify the zoning proposal, 6 in light of the fact that the City's rezoning of 7 Greenpoint and Williamsburg in '05, while successful 8 in the creation of new affordable housing 9 developments, such as Palmer's Dock, does not 10 address affordable housing for seniors. 11 Long-time residents of our 12 communities, specifically seniors, are being 13 displaced, a fact recognized by the Department of 14 Housing Preservation and Development, which has 15 established a legal fund for seniors, for citizens 16 who have been displaced by the rezoning. 17 In conclusion, the People's Firehouse 18 believes that senior citizens are our most 19 vulnerable population, should remain in our 20 community and should be able to enjoy the community 21 and what it is, with a vibrant waterfront. 22 Thank you. 23 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Just for the 24 record, you're in favor of the modification that 25 Council Member Reyna is suggesting? 23 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. RIVERA: Yes. 3 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Next speaker. 4 MR. DENNIS: Good morning, Council 5 members. My name is Ward Dennis. I serve as the 6 Chair of the ULURP Committee of Community Board 1 in 7 Brooklyn. You should already have the Board's 8 official position in favor of this rezoning 9 application, as well as position in favor of the 10 modification. So, I'm speaking to you today on my 11 own behalf. 12 The stretch of Grand Street west of 13 Marcy Avenue is one of Brooklyn's oldest 14 thoroughfares, with buildings dating back to the 15 1820s. Historically, Grand Street was Williamsburg's 16 mercantile center, with stores lining both sides of 17 the street, as far east as Bushwick Avenue. 18 Since World War II, many of these 19 storefronts had been lost, converted to apartments 20 or simply mothballed. In recent years, Grand Street 21 has been reinvigorated with new retail, shop fronts 22 that have been inactive for decades are now 23 bustling, bringing jobs and life to the 24 neighborhood. 25 The core area of Grand Street that is 24 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 under consideration today consists primarily of 3 three- and four-story residences with shops on the 4 ground floor. The proposed R6B rezoning would retain 5 this 19th Century scale while allowing some room for 6 growth. 7 To the north, along Metropolitan 8 Avenue, the typical buildings are five- and 9 six-story tenements, the proposed R6A zoning on 10 those three blocks would maintain the scale of this 11 wider through street. 12 This rezoning should have happened 13 three years ago as part of the larger waterfront 14 rezoning. In the Williamsburg 197-A plan, Grand 15 Street was identified as one area in need of lower 16 scale contextual zoning. The points of agreement 17 between the City Council and the Administration 18 recognized this fact, in calling for studies of 19 inland R6 zones that should be rezoned with 20 contextual zoning. 21 When DCP came forward with a 22 follow-up corrective action in the Summer of 2005, 23 CB 1 asked at that time that this area be included, 24 but we were told that it wasn't within the scope of 25 the FUCA. 25 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 City Planning first met with the 3 ULURP Committee in the Summer of 2006 to discuss the 4 potential areas for contextual zoning. This area of 5 Grand Street was high on our list. Since that 6 initial meeting with DCP, the ULURP, and the full 7 Board have endorsed the contextual zoning on these 8 blocks as well as the modification. 9 In November of 2007, DCP presented 10 its study areas to the ULURP Committee. The 11 Committee's only comments with regard to the Grand 12 Street rezoning was that we wanted to see additional 13 blocks included. DCP listened to our position and 14 has included all the blocks requested by CB 1. The 15 full Board voted unanimously in November to endorse 16 the Grand Street rezoning. 17 In short, this rezoning meets all of 18 the Board's wishes and requirements and I urge you 19 to approve it with all due haste. At present, there 20 are a number of active construction sites within 21 this rezoning area, and if they are allowed to 22 proceed under the existing R6 zoning, the results 23 would be detrimental to the neighborhood context. 24 I would like to just close by 25 thanking the Council for your quick and considerate 26 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 action in this matter, and also to thank the 3 Department of City Planning for their work with 4 Community Board 1. It has been a very fruitful 5 collaboration on this and on the larger rezoning, 6 which we will hopefully see by the end of this year. 7 Thank you. 8 MR. GILLESPIE: My name is Peter 9 Gillespie. I'm the Executive Director of Neighbors 10 Allied for Good Growth, a non-profit community 11 planning organization that's been providing services 12 to North Brooklyn since 1994. 13 We strongly support City Planning's 14 application for a zoning map amendment for the 15 13-block area in Williamsburg, including Council 16 Member Reyna's modification. 17 Approving this amendment will take us 18 one step closer to both achieving a longstanding 19 community planning goal as outlined in the 20 Williamsburg 197-A Plan, and fulfilling a priority 21 principle agreed to in the City's original rezoning; 22 namely, to maintain neighborhood context in the 23 upland residential areas by using zoning to restrict 24 out-of-scale development while encouraging the 25 creation of affordable housing. 27 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 In fact, the Williamsburg 197-a Plan 3 stated as a priority recommendation, "to maintain 4 the physical character, scale and density of 5 existing surrounding buildings in new residential 6 developments by supporting contextual zoning R6A and 7 R6B as a tool to control new construction in certain 8 areas," and goes on to specifically include the area 9 bounded by Berry Street and Marcy Avenue, Fillmore 10 Place and South First Street that is included in 11 this application. 12 As you know, this application was 13 also recently approved by Brooklyn Community Board 14 No. 1, after a year-long, fully vetted and 15 transparent procedure. As a member of the Land Use 16 Committee of the Board, I would describe the process 17 as an ideal one in which the impacted neighborhood, 18 elected officials, property owners, the Community 19 Board, local organizations, and Brooklyn City 20 Planning worked closely together to craft a 21 well-thought out and timely amendment that truly 22 improves the original rezoning action. 23 As importantly, during the entire 24 year-long community process, not one property owner 25 or would-be developer expressed concern that this 28 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 action would be either unfair or impose undue 3 economic hardship. 4 To make certain that the City's 5 amendment is meaningful and not just an academic 6 exercise, we are requesting, in addition to your 7 support, that your Committee fast-track its review 8 process to ensure that the City Council votes to 9 support this application at the next Stated Council 10 meeting scheduled for March 26th. 11 To do so would be to effectively stop 12 the developer of 227 Grand Street from beating the 13 clock to substantially complete the foundation work 14 for a proposed 14-story luxury tower at the site, a 15 project they've tried to realize through beating the 16 system by breaking the rules, including working 17 after hours and on the weekends without the required 18 permits, creating an unsafe construction 19 environment, and intimidating nearby residents 20 monitoring the site. In fact, a stop work order is 21 now in place for excavating the site without the 22 required permits to do so. 23 Finally, the contextual zoning 24 designations -- just to conclude, the contextual 25 zoning designations that had been put into effect in 29 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 the area adjacent to this zoning map amendment have 3 actually fueled new development, while carefully 4 weighing the public's interest in creating a livable 5 and sustainable community. By supporting and 6 facilitating the approval of this application you 7 will help realize this important longstanding 8 planning goal of the communities. 9 Thank you. 10 MS. SILLMAN: Hi. I'm Amy Sillman. I'm 11 an artist and a professor at Columbia University and 12 at Bard College. I've been living on the corner 13 across from the proposed 14-story tower, Grand and 14 Driggs, for 25 years. I'm a homeowner and a voter 15 and a good citizen. 16 This is an urgent call to approve R6B 17 zoning for the reasons that everybody has said, 18 including Diana, which I thank you for. This is 19 about a building type whose impact would be 20 completely detrimental to the kind of neighborhood 21 that we've been watching grow. All of us. It's 22 unanimous. Everybody in this neighborhood has been 23 trying to welcome and participate in a responsible, 24 appropriate, contextual development of all kinds. 25 And the kind that's been proposed on the corner of 30 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Grand and Driggs is totally destructive to the 3 quality of life that we, who have been working and 4 voting and paying taxes for, and living through want 5 and need. 6 So, believe me, it's unanimous, and 7 we all vote. But I'm just here, aside from my own 8 ardent passionate plea for you to keep the 9 neighborhood workable and livable rather than 10 destructed essentially. 11 I'm here to read a letter from an 12 elderly woman who lives on Fillmore Place, who would 13 be affected by the proposed tower on Grand and 14 Driggs. Her name is Josephine Ferrone, and she says, 15 "I've been a resident of Fillmore Place since 1951, 16 56 years. This has been a neighborhood full of 17 hard-working people who get along. I'm very upset 18 that the tall tower will rise next to my back yard. 19 This tower is totally out of place, will make my 20 street dark and unpleasant. This rezoning of my 21 neighborhood, promised that inland from the 22 waterfront projects would not be higher than 23 contextual existing buildings. Please support City 24 Planning's zoning amendment that would prevent a 25 ridiculously high sore thumb of a building and 31 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 others like it that none of us in the community can 3 afford. It would be destructive. 4 I think everyone in our neighborhood 5 agrees with these feelings. 6 Thank you. 7 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 8 The next panel will be a panel in 9 opposition. 10 May Liu, Lawrence Lo, Mary Westring, 11 Carlos Isdith. I'm terrible at pronouncing names. I 12 apologize. 13 MS. WESTRING: My name is Mary 14 Westring and I live at 190 Grand Street. I will 15 speak for myself. I and two other people are putting 16 up a building next door at 186 Grand Street. It is a 17 four-story, red brick, very, very carefully planned 18 to fit in with the neighborhood, and I won't speak 19 for my partners, but I oppose a 14-story building 20 also. I think it would be very destructive. 21 So, I don't know if I'm sitting here 22 in opposition or in favor. I am in opposition, 23 because it seems very unfair that we have spent two 24 years, two and a half years, lots and lots of money, 25 planning this building. We have a third of the 32 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 foundation laid. It seems as if this proposal that I 3 agree with, it will be very harmful to us if it goes 4 through before we can get our foundation laid. 5 MR. ISDITH: Good morning. My name is 6 Carlos Isdith. I live in 212 Grand Street for 45 7 years, since 1963. I bought two properties in the 8 seventies, when things are very rough in that 9 neighborhood. I know a lot of things over there. 10 Thanks to my hard work, like a truck 11 driver, I raised my four kids and I continued with 12 my life. I bought a lot from the City in 1985, next 13 to my other two properties. 14 I waited for this moment to change in 15 2005 with the zoning, because I don't know what I'm 16 going to do with that piece of land. So, now I had 17 the opportunity to build something, five-story 18 building. Even I have between 85 and 90 percent my 19 foundation ready, and I think don't affect me. But 20 I'm concerned for my friends in the same block on 21 Grand Street. She built like a four-story building, 22 my friend built five-story building, and they are in 23 the procedure with the foundation right now. So, my 24 concern is, if these people tell me that their going 25 to invest a lot of money and there's going to be 33 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 jobs in jeopardy. 3 MR. LO: Good morning, Committee 4 members. My name is Lawrence Lo, and I'm here with 5 May Liu, my partner, and we are owners of a lot on 6 276 Grand Street which lies within 100 feet of the 7 wide street Roebling. 8 We came to the neighborhood about six 9 years ago on Havemeyer Street. We opened one of the 10 first restaurants over there. At that time, there 11 was no takers, no investors, nobody climbing or 12 protesting development at that time. 13 We were probably the only light on 14 that street at night. As the place developed we got 15 to really like the neighborhood and the people, and 16 through hard work and everything else, we were lucky 17 enough to find a small lot, which at the time we 18 bought it almost a year ago was dilapidated. So, 19 we're not some mega developer putting up some mega 20 sites, we are planning to build a four-story walk-up 21 with a restaurant downstairs which we plan to serve 22 the immediate community. 23 Now, there's a restaurant on 24 Havemeyer already, that's been for over five years, 25 and we took another chance by buying the site to 34 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 develop it. And at the time we bought it, as we 3 understood it, it falls within all the proper 4 guidelines. 5 And as far as notice, I heard a 6 gentleman say no one ever objected to the plans; we 7 never received notice about this. Didn't know about 8 it. In fact, we only found out about it yesterday. 9 If we had known about it, we would 10 have been very vocal about it. As with many of the 11 other people here that I've met today. They only 12 knew about it by today. To me, this is just some 13 fast-track thing by someone who has an objection to 14 a specific site on Driggs. But by doing that, 15 they're penalizing, Mary, I'm sorry, Carlos, 45 16 years, 30 years, six years, and all the rest of the 17 people over here. So, this is not some equity 18 argument that the neighborhood is negatively 19 impacted by us. We're building four-story building, 20 as is Mary and Carlos. And even the Planning 21 Commissioner said before that most of the buildings 22 on Grand Street are three-, four-story buildings, 23 but by penalizing the property on Driggs, you are 24 now dragging the rest of the good people down who 25 have made substantial investment, substantial time, 35 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 and who are compliant with all the rules and 3 regulations. 4 Now, at our stage we've already had 5 our plans just approved. I know my time is up very 6 shortly, but I think May has allowed me to speak for 7 her time, if that's possible. 8 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: No. 9 MR. LO: Oh. One more minute and I'll 10 be very done. One second. 11 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Go ahead. 12 MR. LO: We just had our plans 13 approved, but by this fast-track being approved next 14 week, the Committee may have not considered the 15 negative impact, because the negative impact is all 16 the small builder owners over there, homeowners, 17 basically, are left, we're going to be left with 18 vacant lots that we cannot build upon. 19 Sure, you can say, well, just 20 downsize, just build something less, something 21 smaller, but it doesn't make the economic sense in 22 this day and age because the values of property, 23 price is so high. 24 The last thing I want to point out 25 is, even in the present economic states, the federal 36 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 government has said stop the foreclosures. Don't 3 foreclose on properties, because by doing that, what 4 you're doing is dragging down the rest of the 5 community. 6 So, I urge the Committee to 7 reconsider the negative impact they'll have in 8 trying to penalize one person by dragging all of us 9 into it, who are compliant with the existing laws, 10 and that by passing the expedited fast-track thing, 11 we are going to have a negative impact by having 12 vacant lots that will be undeveloped. 13 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you very 14 much for your time. 15 I know at least one Council Member 16 has a question. 17 I would like to respond to some of 18 the things that you mentioned. First of all, the 19 comment that you only found out about it yesterday, 20 I'm not going to question whether or not that's 21 true, but I will tell you that this has been an 22 issue for this Council and myself as Chair for quite 23 some time that City Planning does not officially 24 notify people, the property owners in a potential 25 rezoning area. If the City can send out a tax bill, 37 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 they can send a notice to every property owner. 3 And I say to the City representatives 4 that are here, I mean, I'm tired of hearing this 5 from people, that they didn't know about the 6 rezoning. It would cost virtually nothing to send a 7 notice once there is a certification of a ULURP 8 action, a rezoning, to the property owners. It's 9 only fair. Whether they agree with it or not, every 10 property owner should be notified and have the 11 opportunity to have their say. And quite frankly, 12 I'm tired of hearing this. It's got to be done. You 13 have to do it. 14 So, I apologize, but the City should 15 be doing that. Right now the only regulations are 16 that the City has to put a notice in the City 17 Record, which obviously you don't read the City 18 Record, and I wouldn't blame you if you don't. 19 MR. LO: And -- 20 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: It's not up for 21 discussion. I'm making a comment to what you said. 22 I also want to mention that we asked 23 City Planning the issues that you're bringing up of 24 the four-story building. Under these rezoning, you 25 can put up a four-story building. It may not be the 38 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 same design that you wanted, but you can do that. 3 And I suggest that you have a follow-up meeting with 4 City Planning or the Council member's office, but 5 you can put up a four-story building. 6 Council Member Sears, did you have a 7 question? 8 MR. LO: The FAR -- 9 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: This is not for 10 discussion. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Just two 12 things. One, I'm confused that you're supporting it, 13 but because your foundation is only 35 percent in 14 instead of the 75 percent, you find it hard to 15 support it because then you will not be 16 grandfathered in, am I correct? 17 MS. WESTRING: That's correct. 18 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Correct. 19 Because that's my understanding where that happens. 20 So, you have a little dilemma. 21 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Speak into the 22 mike. 23 MS. WESTRING: We'll need to downsize, 24 which means that we'll have to go back to the 25 architect, back to the engineers, and we've already 39 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 sunk a lot of money. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: How high up 4 were you going? 5 MS. WESTRING: Four stories. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Well, we just 7 heard that you can go four stories. 8 MS. WESTRING: But under this new 9 zoning I understand that the parameters will be 10 changed. The amount of space will be reduced by 20 11 percent. 12 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Well, it's a 13 contextual rezoning in that spot. Therefore, it 14 seems to me, with the Councilwoman, that there are 15 things, you just need to go back to the drawing 16 board because with contextual rezoning, and the fact 17 that you can do four, that there may be 18 modifications that would not be as painful. That's 19 what I'm suggesting. 20 Second thing for you, that you know 21 there is a process by the time it reaches us, and 22 that process, community boards have hearings, and 23 contrary to what is said, I know from my own 24 experience with community boards in my district and 25 throughout the Borough of Queens, they work very 40 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 hard to be sure that they reach everybody. And what 3 happens, with your involvement I find it hard to 4 believe that you didn't receive a notice from the 5 community board, because there is a process, and 6 everybody comes here, it's just as if we're 7 snowballing something, that isn't the case. And I 8 would like to clarify for the record, because I hear 9 there's a lot. 10 It didn't just get here and 11 everything has been snowballed. The Councilwoman 12 works very hard on it, there is a process. It goes 13 before the community board, it goes before the 14 Borough President of Brooklyn, the Borough President 15 has a public hearing, the community boards have a 16 public hearing. It comes back to us where we're 17 doing this public hearing, and by the time it 18 reaches and we vote on it, there has been some 19 absolute clarification as to exactly how this 20 project is going, and I'm sad that you haven't 21 heard, but on the other hand I do know that there is 22 enormous outreach to do that. 23 MR. LO: May I respond to that? 24 First, if there is a restaurant or 25 store that wants to put a liquor license over there, 41 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 they have to send certified mail out to individuals 3 in neighborhood, and also -- in other words, the 4 community board then should have, I believe, sent 5 certified mail to the people who will be impacted. 6 But by the same, it was posted in some record some 7 place that no one even would know about and say that 8 was the process, now, therefore, you're stuck with 9 it, because you should have known -- 10 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Sir, I have to 11 interrupt you. 12 MR. LO: That I think is disingenuous. 13 I'm just saying -- 14 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: I understand 15 the process very well. Whether community boards send 16 certified mail, I'm not so sure their budget allows 17 for that. However, not only is there a hearing of 18 the Land Use Committee of a community board, but the 19 community board itself holds a hearing. So, I'm not 20 passing judgment on anything here. I am just saying 21 for clarification that by the time it reaches this 22 table, if there are weaknesses in City Planning, I 23 think the Chair here needs to address that with the 24 agency. The fact is, what I am saying to you is that 25 there is a process, and that process is a step by 42 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 step by step and by the time it reaches us, it isn't 3 snowballed, it isn't accelerated, because there are 4 many questions that we ask as well. And I would just 5 like everybody to understand that when it reaches 6 us, it's not just a completed thing because it's 7 going through a great deal, from the Borough 8 President to the communities to here, our public 9 hearing. 10 With that, I'm going to end. And I 11 suggest that you really meet so that you can look at 12 the modifications in contextual zoning. 13 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 14 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Council Member 15 Reyna. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Thank you, Mr. 17 Chair. 18 I just wanted to ask the property 19 owners here today, how did you find out about this 20 hearing today? 21 MS. WESTRING: I heard -- 22 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: If you could 23 just speak into the mike. Sorry. 24 MS. WESTRING: Oh, okay. I heard it 25 from one of the partners in the building. I heard 43 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 that on Monday. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: You heard it on 4 Monday. But he didn't tell you how he found out 5 about it? 6 MS. WESTRING: No. But he is scheduled 7 to speak. You could ask him that. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Okay. 9 Carlos? 10 MR. ISDITH: From a friend. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: From a friend. 12 MR. ISDITH: Yesterday. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Okay. 14 MS. LIU: I heard it last night from 15 my broker who sold the property to me. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And did you at 17 all know about the 2005 rezoning? 18 MS. WESTRING: We had heard rumors 19 that it might happen. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: About the 2005 21 rezoning? 22 MS. WESTRING: I'm talking about the 23 downsizing one now that is being considered. We did 24 hear, I had heard that that was a possibility, but I 25 didn't know about any meeting. 44 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But you 3 purchased your property when? 4 MS. WESTRING: Ten years ago. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And you chose 6 to develop it at what point? 7 MS. WESTRING: Three years ago. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And that was 9 right before the 2005 rezoning? 10 MS. WESTRING: The person who does 11 more of the business will be speaking, you could ask 12 him those questions. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Okay. 14 MS. WESTRING: I think it would be a 15 better answer. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: That's fair. 17 Thank you, Mary. Absolutely. 18 MS. WESTRING: Yes. 19 Carlos. 20 MR. ISDITH: Yes, I hear about the 21 rezoning in 2005. But it took me year and a half 22 through the process to start the excavation, you 23 know, the plans. All the other things took me year 24 and a half. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But you were 45 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 aware of the 2005 rezoning. 3 MR. ISDITH: Yes. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Have you 5 participated at the community board level? 6 MR. ISDITH: No. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Is there a 8 reason you felt -- 9 MR. ISDITH: I'm working too much to 10 support four kids. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Well, at that 12 level is where you would have received notification 13 of this process. The work that had to occur after 14 the 2005 rezoning. This is not something that we 15 started two days ago. This is something that had 16 been started from the 2005 rezoning, that took 20 17 years for the community to develop, to then bring it 18 to the state of municipality process and even then 19 there was an oversight and therefore this is the 20 aftermath of what we have to endure in order to 21 continue the process of dealing with certain 22 oversights. 23 And, so, I'm just trying to 24 understand and empathize with you here, but we 25 cannot allow for individuals to come here and say 46 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 that they just found out about it, because there is 3 a format, there is a City Record, as a property 4 owner you have to not just invest in your own 5 property, but in the neighborhood, and participate 6 in understanding what the vehicles are to get your 7 property invested within that neighborhood. 8 I wanted to just ask the last 9 property owner, had there been participation on your 10 behalf at the community board level? 11 MS. LIU: Never heard of such a thing 12 before. 13 MR. LO: No, because we just bought 14 the property last year. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But you have 16 been in the neighborhood for six years you said. 17 MR. LO: True, yes. But we never 18 received any notices about it. 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Did you hear 20 about the 2005 rezoning? Did you know about the 2005 21 rezoning? 22 MR. LO: No. 23 MS. LIU: No. 24 MR. LO: Well, first, I think most of 25 us don't even know what the 2005 zoning is. At least 47 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 for myself, I don't know exactly what you're 3 referring to. So, if I knew what that was, I would 4 try to answer you. 5 We knew about the general waterfront 6 rezoning. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: That is the 8 2005 waterfront rezoning. 9 MR. LO: Yes, but that did not include 10 changing -- 11 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Yes, it did. 12 MR. LO: -- R6 -- 13 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Yes, it did. 14 Yes, it did. 15 Before the R6 text applied to this 16 area, this area used to be a different zoning. It 17 was a C8-2, correct? A C8-2. 18 It was then changed in 2005 to an R6. 19 It was an oversight to have changed it to an R6, and 20 that is why we're here today. It took two years to 21 correct that action, to a combination of an R6D and 22 an R6A. 23 MR. LO: For ourselves, we lie within 24 100 feet of the wide street, and we were told that 25 we would be exempted or protected from this. 48 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Who said? 3 MR. LO: Well, that was according to 4 our -- 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Lawyer? 6 MR. LO: Architect, whatever. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Okay. 8 MR. LO: That was at the time. But we 9 did not know about the zoning implications. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But you had 11 said that you were aware of the waterfront 2005 12 rezoning. 13 MR. LO: Only through the New York 14 Times, which printed up just a flacking (phonetic). 15 But to say that Carlos and Mary or May or myself or 16 anybody else would pick up the zoning book, how many 17 people here have read the Internal Revenue Code? I 18 mean, this is exactly the same question. 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Thank you, sir. 20 MR. LO: No, wait a second. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I appreciate 22 it. 23 MR. LO: No, wait a second. You know, 24 I'm sorry but you're saying you should have read the 25 internal revenue book. 49 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Sir, your point 3 has been made; the Council member's point has been 4 made too. 5 Any other questions for this panel? 6 Thank you. 7 Next panel is a panel in favor. Nancy 8 Wechter, Denny Tomkins and Steve Gerberich. Did I 9 pronounce it correct? 10 MS. WECHTER: Thank you. I shouldn't 11 even be here today. My name is Nancy Wechter, and I 12 have been a community member in Williamsburg for 25 13 years. I shouldn't be here, I'm skipping work, as 14 many of us are doing. But I love where I live. I 15 love my neighborhood. I love my community and I feel 16 strongly that the swiftest possible adoption of the 17 zoning amendment before you for approval is the 18 right thing to do. 19 I'm also a property owner. I have 20 developable property, but I would rather see 21 something contextual, and in keeping with the 22 neighborhood, then, you know, you make enough money 23 anyway. 24 I've lived in the heart of historic 25 Williamsburg, and our neighborhood looks like this, 50 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 if you'll note the board. Currently we're faced with 3 what no one anticipated. At the time of the 4 Williamsburg rezoning, which followed the 197-A 5 planning process, a developer has come in from 6 outside our community, trying to take advantage of a 7 zoning loophole, in order to put up this, a 14-story 8 luxury tower with not one unit of affordable 9 housing. 10 The architect's drawing reduces us 11 all into living in spaceless, windowless boxes and 12 places outdoor spaces for his creation right outside 13 our windows. We're afraid that this is what it will 14 feel like to live beneath something so massive. And 15 frankly, even seven or eight stories would be 16 massive for us. 17 The site for this tower at Grand 18 Street and Driggs was part of the area included in 19 the original rezoning of Williamsburg. A lot of hard 20 negotiation went into the decision to honor the 21 community's wishes to maintain the low context of 22 the blocks inland, while allowing tall structures on 23 the waterfront. 24 Due to an oversight, Grand Street 25 zoning wasn't clarified, and City Planning has 51 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 wisely seen fit to correct the mistake with proposed 3 changes that cap heights on Grand Street at the 4 existing contextual five stories. 5 While we recognize the need to build 6 housing for the future, we strongly oppose the 7 destruction of a neighborhood through the 8 construction of an inappropriate building, thus 9 paving the way for change in the context and 10 introducing an overwhelming scale. 11 All over the neighborhood developers 12 are building four- or five-story buildings and 13 making money and not complaining. There are other 14 building projects taking shape on Grand Street, and 15 none of them will be over five stories. 16 I would like to see a five-story 17 structure at Grand and Driggs, no taller. There are 18 other places for towers and bulky structures. 19 Anyone who is paying attention to the 20 197 process and the current Grand Street amendment, 21 which has been public and transparent, certainly 22 have known what was going on going back for a long 23 time. We ask you to expedite the process of 24 finalizing the zoning changes without delay. 25 There is urgency to the situation. We 52 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 as a community can't afford to hire a high-priced 3 politically connected lawyer or lobbyist. 4 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Can you sum up, 5 please? 6 MS. WECHTER: And we certainly don't 7 need to wage another battle like that going on 8 against Williamsburg's infamous finger building. 9 That building has been costly in time and energy for 10 the community and the developer hasn't made out well 11 either. 12 Thank you. 13 MR. TOMKINS: Good morning. My name is 14 Denny Tomkins, and I have been a resident of 15 Williamsburg community for 23 years. I moved to 16 Driggs Avenue near Grand Street 1985, despite a lot 17 of its obvious problems at the time - drugs, 18 prostitution, car theft, burglary, to name a few. 19 Regardless, there was a core of 20 people there who lived there much longer than me and 21 my wife, neighbors who had pride in their 22 neighborhood and kept it stable and wanted to make 23 it a better place to live. 24 As a community we have fought many 25 battles to make this the neighborhood it is today, 53 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 an attractive place to live. 3 As a result of our hard work, a 4 revived neighborhood, full of nice houses, thriving 5 businesses, and we paved the way for further 6 development to take place. 7 We do not oppose development, as long 8 as it is done in a way that contributes something 9 positive to our community. 10 We are not interested in profiteers 11 coming in and taking over. This development in its 12 current design is a 14-story pillar of exclusion. It 13 will only cast a shadow of bad will in this 14 community. A few will profit and a few will have 15 great views for a little while, but the cost will be 16 enormous. 17 Henry Miller, the great American 18 author, grew up on this block across the street. In 19 his book The Tropic of Capricorn he refers to 20 Fillmore Place, the block that will be cast in 21 darkness by the shadow of this monstrosity, as the 22 most enchanting block in the world. This is from a 23 man who had lived a long time in Paris. That seems 24 to be saying something. 25 In other book of his, the Irgadesh 54 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Nightmare, he talks about his return to New York 3 after living abroad and being appalled by the awful 4 development and its affect on people and their 5 communities. How ironic this is happening today to 6 his childhood block. 7 Unregulated development has already 8 destroyed many adjacent buildings and lives. It has 9 ripped our community apart and has not invested in 10 infrastructure to handle this kind of bulk. 11 All of this luxury development, I 12 understand, is 25 year tax abated. We will 13 eventually absorb the new higher taxes and to add 14 insult to injury, we will be living with probably 15 their sewage in our basement due to this poor 16 planning. 17 This does not seem like responsible 18 development, and it seems that it's more like urban 19 renewal. 20 Please take action and help us make 21 this project a positive thing for everyone, and not 22 another contentious out-of-scale nightmare. Please 23 approve the rezoning without delay. Thank you. 24 MR. GERBERICH: Good morning. My name 25 is Steve Gerberich. This always happens, artists 55 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 looking for reasonably priced space move into 3 under-valued and under-ulitized urban neighborhoods. 4 These artists naturally repose the 5 existing industrial structures. They bring new life 6 and ultimately a marketable identity to these 7 communities. 8 Developers spot the opportunity and 9 pretty soon, residential pioneers are forced out. 10 The developer's priority is simply to exploit the 11 situation. Many new buildings do not enhance 12 neighborhood identity or mesh with the existing 13 aesthetic. 14 Bigger, taller, better, were some of 15 the last words out of my landlord's mouth, before my 16 eviction from 231 Grand Street after seven years. 17 All six apartment units were evicted. None 18 challenged the eviction or sought payment. 19 I now view my old apartment from my 20 studio across the street, a giant wounded hull with 21 rubble and broken bricks. New contextual zoning is a 22 must for Williamsburg. 23 Thank you. 24 MR. GARCIA: My name is Agapito 25 Garcia. 292 Grand Street. I represent my sister, my 56 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 brothers, my family, and a lot of the community 3 people that are being able to take advantage of 4 getting jobs on these construction sites. 5 I want the Committee to consider 6 these people. I do have a lot of ex-drug addicts and 7 ex-convicts that nobody will hire. By these 8 construction sites, I've been involved with a lot of 9 the developers, and finding these people, that 10 nobody else would hire them in the neighborhood to 11 find jobs. I want you to consider the impact that 12 you're going to have on the community. 13 I grew up in this community. I've 14 been kidnapped, I was shot at, I've been mugged. 15 I've seen the good times and I've seen the bad 16 times. I want you guys to consider this change that 17 you're going to do is going to take a lot of this 18 investment away. This rezoning is going to affect 19 the community in a big way, at least the people that 20 I work with. I work with a lot of people that nobody 21 will hire. And to find jobs in these construction 22 sites, and like you all know, in today's day in 23 order for you to get a good job, you have to have a 24 clean record. 25 I want you guys to consider all these 57 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 people. They have family, they have kids. With the 3 economy the way it is, it's hardly enough for a lot 4 of these people to make ends. By driving a lot of 5 the investments away, you're making it hard for them 6 to put food in their plate, in their families. So, I 7 want you to consider when you vote, a lot of this 8 development, like three development that are going 9 on, I'm involved with the owners, and I have 10 promised like 20 people jobs there, I want you to 11 consider that fact if they put on their construction 12 site, a lot of people are going to lose jobs that 13 have the promise to. 14 So, in essence, the rezoning is, I 15 feel it's unfair for all of us because even in R6A, 16 in the whole neighborhood they're only doing five 17 stories, just one project that's going over affected 18 all of us. And I think it's unfair because the 19 action of one for the whole community to pay. 20 MR. CUESTA: Good morning. I'm Nelson 21 Cuesta. I am one of the owners, property owners of 22 186 Grand Street. We are in the process of putting 23 up right now a four-story building that contextually 24 fits in very well with the community. But what a lot 25 of people don't realize here is that, we have people 58 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 here that are reminding us that, oh, just because it 3 changes to an R6B you can still build a four-story 4 building. That's not the point. The point is that 5 footings, excavations have been made, footings have 6 been made, this has been three years in the 7 planning, two and a half years now that my partners 8 and I have spent over $400,000 on this site. We went 9 to pull permits out in March of 2006, and the site 10 had been labeled as 300 plus sites were by the 11 Department of Environmental Protection as an 12 environmental little e designation, and also for 13 noise. 14 So, consequently, it took us a year 15 and a half to go do all that clean-up work. And as a 16 result we are where we are today, which we're 17 probably approaching 50 percent of our foundation. 18 Additionally, they are saying that 19 there is plenty of notification, and that there is 20 plenty of notification and that there is plenty of 21 ways and mediums of knowing what's going on here 22 today. I defy anyone here to show me where you can 23 find, I've looked all over the internet, DEP, you 24 name it, I came across this information by accident 25 that there was a meeting this week. I was following 59 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 up. I'm the one that let everyone know that's here 3 today what's going on, and within a 24-hour time 4 frame, I was only able to reach a fraction of the 5 people. So, there is a lot more people impacted. 6 This is a private party which we were 7 not invited to, and I can see how this happens, 8 because if you take, let's say I spoke with Peter 9 Gillespie, I understand it's the Northside Community 10 Group, you start a movement to create a change. 11 Well, that's great, because the only 12 ones that are working on it are the ones that know 13 that it's being changed. So, meanwhile, the only 14 last thing I heard was the community board meeting, 15 which I did attend, and the Spanish gentleman who 16 was here before, he also attended it, and he and I 17 were unable to sign up to speak because when you go 18 over there, you find out that it takes half an hour 19 to find a spot after you acquiesce and you park 20 eight blocks away, and it was too late to sign up. 21 We missed it by a few minutes. 22 And, unfortunately, that's not 23 representative of the community, it's not fair, it's 24 not fair notice, and we need to talk about things 25 here, what I propose for 186 Grand Street. What I 60 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 propose is that we made -- I'm making a request for 3 modification that we should be allowed to continue 4 our building and do this four-story building, 5 because right now if Grand Street had been rezoned 6 to an R6B and there was no grandfathering, you'd 7 have to tear down half the buildings on Grand Street 8 because they exceed the 2.0 Floor Area Ratio. 9 You would have to tear down half the 10 buildings that are there now. Because everyone is 11 talking about the vertical, but the reality is, is 12 that the depth of a lot of these buildings are in 13 excess of what an R6B proposes. So, as a result, I 14 would add that we send to make things look at, just 15 consider the following: Fairness, the good faith, 16 the hardship that it would impose on us. We are 17 planning to use half of the building for our 18 families. There are three families involved here. 19 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Sir? Sir, you are 20 significantly over. 21 MR. CUESTA: Oh, okay. All right, I 22 thank you. 23 MR. GEORGESON: Good morning. My name 24 is Harry Georgeson. I was the first artist to buy a 25 building in Williamsburg. In 1983 I bought a vacant 61 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 lot alongside my building to protect my building 3 from an atmosphere that can only be described as 4 something out of a horonomous (sic) Bosch painting. 5 Buildings were being burnt down by landlords and 6 vacant lots were forming. 7 In the afternoons I used to go on the 8 roof and watch the buildings burn down in the 9 neighborhood. Now, 27 years later, I've joined up 10 with Nelson, a neighbor, and Mary, a partner in my 11 existing building, alongside the vacant lot, and for 12 the last two years we have struggled against every 13 City department to get a modest building built so 14 that I could put my son and my daughter in an 15 apartment, and have an apartment for myself. 16 This building is not a large 17 building. It's within the height limit, but under 18 this new change in the zoning, it would be .43 19 square feet over. As Nelson said, most of the 20 buildings exceed their allotments. The old buildings 21 in the neighborhoods. For instance, the building I'm 22 in takes up all of its allotment. The old building 23 that I live in was a Ukrainian Social Club, so it 24 uses up every square foot of the allotment that's 25 on. 62 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 These delays have cost us, Nelson 3 says 400,000, it's cost us more like half a million 4 and keeps increasing all the time, because we've 5 had, in the last couple of months we've had stop 6 work orders. And these stop work orders, they're 7 pointless. I know they're trying to, the City is 8 probably trying to slow down development to get the 9 bigger building that's going up, the 14-story 10 building, and I believe, like all the other members 11 of the community, that a 14-story building is way 12 too high. But you've cast a large net to catch a 13 large building, but you've caught a lot of little 14 fish. This proposal that you're putting forward is 15 not nuanced. It doesn't take into account the small 16 people, like myself, the people who don't want 17 affordable housing, because we want to make our own 18 way in the world. 19 I struggled with this building. I 20 bought a building that was on the verge of becoming 21 a shell. 22 I put sweat equity into it. I put so 23 much into that neighborhood in my little area, I 24 built a beautiful garden on that vacant lot. I 25 minded my own business on my friends, the people in 63 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 the area, and now I'm up against the monolith that 3 just wants to. It's just not fair. We've got half 4 the footing down. We've complied with every 5 ordinance, we've done all the -- 6 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Sir, if you could 7 sum up, please. You're over time. 8 MR. GEORGESON: Make allowances for 9 the little people that have already got started that 10 ask nothing but to be self-sufficient. 11 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 12 The last panel in opposition, Michael 13 Lichenstein, Ken Fisher and Jonathan Einhorn. And 14 that is correct, there is no one else to sign up to 15 speak on this item? 16 MR. LICHENSTEIN: First of all, I 17 apologize for my outburst, but when people accuse me 18 of untruths, I tend to get emotional. 19 Second of all, the problem -- 20 MR. FISHER: You have to tell them 21 your name. 22 MR. LICHENSTEIN: Oh. Michael 23 Lichtenstein speaking. 24 The problem with the R6 -- 25 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I'm sorry to 64 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 interrupt, but because my Committee has run over in 3 time, if anybody is here for the Landmarks 4 Subcommittee, it's going on across the street at 250 5 on the 14th Floor. 6 Oh, no, now it's being deferred until 7 tomorrow morning. At what time? 9:30. 8 I'm sorry, sir. Go ahead. 9 MR. LICHENSTEIN: Okay, first of all I 10 am the developer of that notorious 14-story 11 building. I have been negotiating for the past two 12 months with the neighborhood, and I've been willing 13 to go down to six stories, seven stories, eight 14 stories. We came up with five different proposals of 15 how I can come down. I am not interested necessarily 16 in building a 14-story building. What you are doing 17 is you are punishing every developer in the 18 neighborhood, every one of these small developers 19 because you insist on R6B, which really gives them 20 only half of the square footage in total of what 21 they could have built til now. 22 Instead of just limiting heights, 23 which I, myself, don't have a problem with, for the 24 record, I'm going on the record, I don't have a 25 problem putting up a six-story building, but don't 65 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 chop the square footage and heights. By making it 3 R6B, you are turning the whole neighborhood into 4 half of the square footage than what they could have 5 built til now. That's why all these developers are 6 complaining, and they didn't say it in the right 7 words. 8 R6B limits from R6, which allows a 9 total of 4.8 times the lot to R6B, which allows a 10 complete total of two times the lot. That's more 11 than half, actually. Less than half that is. That's 12 the main problem with this rezoning. 13 The other issue is that you're 14 talking about contextual zoning, I believe the 15 context of the neighborhood is 40 feet. The context 16 of the neighborhood is not 40 feet. I have a 17 presentation which I showed to the community groups 18 when I met with them, and I hope it's here, and it 19 shows at least ten buildings in my site that are 70 20 to 80 feet tall. At least ten buildings. The context 21 of the neighborhood is not 40. Limiting it to four 22 stories tall is actually cutting down on the context 23 of the neighborhood itself. And these are facts that 24 can be verified if you would delay the vote, and 25 just go for a walk around in the neighborhood for 66 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 five minutes, you will see what I am saying is true, 3 and no matter what City Planning says, or whatever 4 anyone else says. These are things that you can see 5 for yourselves. 6 So, to summarize, the problem is that 7 R6B is not the appropriate answer at all. R6A would 8 be better. Any other zoning would be better than 9 R6B, which chops it in half. That is the main issue 10 here. And I think it would be very wise if you would 11 delay the vote and rezone it to the correct zoning, 12 and I, again, on the record, go here and say that I 13 don't have no problem going up to six or seven 14 stories only. The issue is the square footage. 15 You're not allowing with R6B more than two times 16 that in total, and that is less than half than what 17 was allowed by the rezoning two years ago. So, the 18 City rezoned two years ago, allowed 4.8 times, two 19 years later, boom, suddenly they rezone and they 20 chop it down. And, by the way, there was no proper 21 notice, but I'm not going to get into arguments 22 here. I personally never got a notice, never got any 23 mail, never got nothing, and the manager of the 24 Community District told me himself there was no mail 25 sent out. He just went along Grand Street and 67 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 distributed flyers. He didn't even go onto the side 3 streets and distribute the flyers. So, they are 4 right that there was no proper notice. 5 But the main problem is R6B is not 6 the right answer to the issue of the 14-story 7 building, and I, again, am willing to talk. 8 MR. FISHER: I'm Ken Fisher. I'm Mr. 9 Lichenstein's Land Use Counsel, and if I can clarify 10 some of these issues briefly? 11 There is something, Mr. Chairman, you 12 had it right, there is something terribly wrong with 13 this process, and particularly in this case. 14 And Council Member Sears, I want to 15 speak directly to your concerns and then talk just 16 briefly about the zoning. 17 It's not an oversight that this area 18 was zoned R6. It was an affirmative decision by City 19 Planning and the Council as part of the 2005 20 rezoning. And with all due respect to Council Member 21 Reyna, it's not realistic or fair to think that 22 every property owner who buys a piece of property 23 and reliance on a zoning has to watch the community 24 board every month to find out whether something is 25 going to change. 68 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 So, you affirmatively upzoned this 3 property. You also did something else. You 4 basically, there's some technical changes you made 5 in terms of anybody who wanted the quality housing. 6 So, we were in effect forced to do height factor, 7 which is what results in the shape of the building, 8 which by the way, was going to have one floor of 9 commercial with jobs for the neighborhood, in 10 keeping with the character of the district. That 11 will be gone now. One floor of community facilities, 12 offices, or non-profits. Those jobs, that's all gone 13 now. And then because of the height factor and the 14 open space ratio. 15 What happens is, the community board 16 sets down this path, and unless you go to the 17 community board meetings every month, you'd have no 18 way of knowing about it. And then just when they're 19 ready to vote, the District Manager went, and as Mr. 20 Lichenstein said, he handed out flyers to some of 21 the property owners. That's how we found out about 22 it just one week before the meeting. 23 And then let me tell you what 24 happened. The normal process of Community Board 1, 25 which I have some familiarity with, is that you have 69 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 a public hearing, then it's referred to the ULURP 3 Committee. Then you come back the next month for a 4 vote. Not uncommon for community boards. So, here is 5 what they did. They had the public hearing. We 6 testified. After we left, because it was a long 7 agenda that night, they recessed the community board 8 meeting, called the ULURP Committee meeting into 9 session without any notice to anybody, reported it 10 out and then called the vote on the item at the full 11 community board. And contrary to what my friend 12 Peter Gillespie says, it wasn't unanimous. The 13 Chairman of the community board himself voted 14 against it, because he thought that the process was 15 unfair. And if it wasn't Peter who said it, it may 16 have been Ward Dennis, and I apologize. But somebody 17 said it was unanimous -- I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. 18 Someone, it may not have been Peter, somebody said 19 that it was unanimous at the community board. That 20 statement was not true. 21 Also, no violations issued for after 22 hours work, by the way. We are under a stop order 23 now because they need for a shoring plan and we hope 24 to have it lifted shortly. 25 The bottom line is, if it were the 70 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 other way around, and I'm finishing, if it were the 3 other way around, Mr. Chairman, if a community had a 4 property, had an area that was downzoned, and then 5 just two years later a developer somehow convinces 6 them, you know, convinces City Planning that it 7 should be upzoned, and there is no notice to anybody 8 in the community, but suddenly the community board 9 votes it out, you all would be justifiably outraged 10 by that. Just because it's some developers that 11 happen to be caught in this, it doesn't mean that 12 they're automatically disqualified from any 13 considerations of fairness and equity. 14 You have heard people are going to 15 lose hundreds of thousands, if not millions of 16 dollars. Job opportunities are going to be defeated 17 over this. It's basically not fair. 18 The City Planning did their job. They 19 did what the community asked them to do. We're 20 asking you to exercise your power of equity and 21 fairness. Delay this vote, or tell City Planning to 22 hold off. You can at least give some of these people 23 the opportunity to vest their foundations by pushing 24 this off until the end of the clock, and not doing 25 it on the 26th. 71 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: As I mentioned 3 before, there was no one else signed up to speak on 4 this item. I will therefore close the public hearing 5 on this matter, and given that -- you can get up, 6 Ken -- given that there is an important engagement 7 that a number of Council members have to go to, what 8 I will do at this point is call the vote on the 9 first two items, and we will hear the remaining item 10 of 70 Wyckoff. We will do the public hearing, but we 11 will recess the meeting til 9:45 tomorrow morning 12 before the Land Use Committee to take the vote on 13 that item. 14 To refresh everybody's memory, since 15 we've been here awhile, we will be voting on the 16 31st Street rezoning, in Council Member Vallone's 17 district. He is in support of the item. And we will 18 be voting on the item we just heard, the Grand 19 Street rezoning, and Council Member Reyna is in 20 favor of the rezoning. 21 Chair recommends approval of both 22 items, and I would just make a quick comment that I 23 fully understand, as I mentioned before, the fact 24 that some of the property owners may not have been 25 notified. And, again, this is a major issue for me 72 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 and other Council members. City Planning has to 3 notify every property owner when they do a rezoning 4 as soon as the application is certified. We are not 5 talking about a whole lot of money, and I think City 6 Planning mentioned at one of the budget hearings 7 that we're talking about a figure of maybe $25,000 8 in any one fiscal year. I think it is a disgrace 9 that we don't do this. Every property owner gets a 10 tax bill, they get a water bill, they can certainly 11 get notification that we're doing a rezoning. 12 And I would also want to make a 13 comment to the property owners who testified in 14 opposition to the Grand Street rezoning. And I 15 certainly sympathize with the situation that they're 16 caught in, but you know something? There would never 17 be a situation where we do a rezoning and somebody 18 is not in the process of doing construction. That 19 situation is never going to happen. And, 20 unfortunately, some people do get caught in the 21 middle, and I know City Planning does their best and 22 I know Council Member Reyna has done her best to 23 make sure that everybody's concerns are addressed. 24 But if we did not do the rezoning because of the 25 construction, then we leave the door open to 73 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 destroying a neighborhood, and that absolutely 3 cannot be accepted, and we cannot condone that in 4 any way, shape or form. 5 So, Chair recommends approval of both 6 items and asks Counsel to call the vote. 7 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Chairman 8 Avella. 9 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Aye. 10 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 11 Rivera. 12 COUNCIL MEMBER RIVERA: I vote aye. 13 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 14 Felder. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER FELDER: Aye. 16 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 17 Jackson. 18 COUNCIL MEMBER JACKSON: Aye on all. 19 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 20 Katz. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER KATZ: Can I explain my 22 vote? 23 Although clearly we've had strong 24 testimony from both sides, the Williamsburg 25 Greenpoint rezoning several years ago did discuss 74 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 this issue quite a bit, and it was part of the 3 discussions on a daily basis between Diana Reyna and 4 David Yassky and myself and the Administration. So, 5 I understand that this, I guess we might want to 6 call it correction, has it both sides pretty hard. 7 And I just want to express what the Chair said is 8 true, you know, every time we do a rezoning on 9 either side, whether it's down or up, there is 10 always people that are caught in the middle, and 11 that is just one of the problems with doing issues 12 like that. 13 But you can't really get a more local 14 issue than this. This is not sort of a Citywide 15 perspective. This is a local issue in a local 16 Council Member's area, and granted, you know, this 17 Committee, it's not always the do or die in that 18 case, but in this particular case it seems that the 19 Councilwoman has done everything she can to at least 20 include only a finite area for the modification, and 21 I have great respect for that and for her ability as 22 a Council member, so I vote aye. 23 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 24 Sears. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Just to explain 75 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 my vote, please? All right. 3 I'm voting aye on this, but I don't 4 think this Committee can ignore certain points that 5 were made. There is something happening in the City. 6 Every community is so obsessed with downzoning in 7 order to protect, what they think is protecting 8 their communities, and sometimes there are very 9 quick kneejerk reactions to this. And I do think the 10 comment that was made about the community boards, 11 there is no question, community boards' Land Use 12 Committees are supposed to have hearings. That is a 13 given. In some cases maybe this isn't happening. It 14 has nothing to do with the Councilwoman, who has 15 spent a great deal of time on this. 16 But what it does mean, and I think 17 the Committee has a responsibility to look very 18 thoroughly about whether these community boards are 19 doing that very thing. We must get away from the 20 fear of over-building, because there are good 21 developers and there's good buildings, and we have 22 to get away from the fear that everything has to be 23 downzoned, because it hurts communities. And I think 24 this is a very good situation of how this has 25 happened. 76 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 I vote aye, because I do believe a 3 great deal of effort has been put into this, but I 4 think we also have to move about some of the stuff 5 we have heard and see that there is a better control 6 and panic is taken away from communities that have 7 to deal with development, remove that fear and have 8 reasonable and fair development. I vote aye. 9 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 10 Stewart. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: May I be 12 excused to explain my vote? 13 On the Grand Street rezoning, I don't 14 think due diligence was done on this issue with the 15 community and the developers. I think some sort of 16 an arrangement can be made whereby this should have 17 been put off and discussed in much more detail so 18 that each party could come to some sort of an 19 agreement. To me, I'm still not clear what is 20 happening here in terms of the development. I notice 21 that this has already been passed because I'm the 22 last voter, but I think the Grand Street rezoning 23 should have been put off and I would abstain from 24 voting on that, but on the other one I vote aye. 25 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 77 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Vann. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Aye on all. 4 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 5 Felder. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER FELDER: Yes. 7 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: By a vote of 8 eight in the affirmative, none in the negative and 9 no abstentions, LU 689 is referred to the full Land 10 Use Committee. And by a vote of seven affirmative 11 and one abstention, none in the negative, LU 700 is 12 referred to the full Land Use Committee. 13 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay, we will now 14 move on to the public hearing on 70 Wyckoff Avenue. 15 C050192 ZMK. Application submitted by 16 70 Wyckoff Avenue, LLC, for a change of the zoning 17 map. 18 MR. BASS: Mr. Chair, thank you. 19 Honorable Council Members, I'm Richard Bass. I'm 20 with the law firm of Herrick Feinstein. I'm 21 representing the applicant, 70 Wyckoff, LLC. 22 This is-- 23 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I will ask 24 Counsel to call on Council Member Seabrook for his 25 vote. 78 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 3 Seabrook. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: Yes, I'm 5 voting aye on all future Land Use Call-Ups. 6 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: And then, Council 7 member, please be aware that the last item we are 8 laying over til tomorrow morning, we are going to 9 have a public hearing, but there will be a vote at 10 9:45 tomorrow before Land Use. 11 MR. BASS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 12 Again, I'm Richard Bass. I'm with the law firm of 13 Herrick Feinstein. This is an application to change 14 the zoning from an existing M1-1 to an R6, C2-4 15 commercial overlay. It's a very small rezoning, as 16 reflected on the map on the Board. It's also in your 17 package. It's affecting ten tax lots on two blocks. 18 How this application came about, the 19 applicant bought this property, they were in the 20 used -- they were in the self-storage business. They 21 bought it for that purpose, and shortly after the 22 acquisition they sold their business and were barred 23 from doing self-storage. The building was 24 under-occupied with garment, threading-type 25 activity, weaving activity. They tried to maintain 79 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 that use, and over a period of time the building 3 became vacant. 4 The clients, the applicant rehabbed 5 the building for commercial lofts. Mr. Johnson, who 6 will be speaking, was the first tenant. He's a sound 7 engineer. He rented the space to be his place for 8 work as sound engineer, and shortly after that he 9 consolidated his other sound location and his two 10 residences. And he'll explain his personal 11 conditions. 12 As part of our submission, we also 13 have a petition from the tenants that were signed 14 last night. Many of the tenants were here, some have 15 left. And you can hear their story, how they sign 16 commercial leases with the intent of having and 17 occupying the space as commercial use, but then they 18 changed the residential use. 19 The applicant, upon finding that 20 there were people living in the building, contacted 21 my office. We immediately contacted City Planning 22 and the Board of Standards and Appeals to find the 23 best way to cure the situation. 24 Upon City Planning learning that 25 there were people living in an M zoned building, the 80 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Department of Buildings was notified and violations 3 were issued. 4 None of the violations were for life 5 and safety. The building is up to code, both 6 commercial and residential codes, and the only 7 violations issued were for youth. The applicant was 8 fined by the ECB and paid those fines. 9 We started this process over four 10 years ago, where we reached out to the community 11 board, the Council member and the Borough 12 Presidents. The Council Member's staff at that time 13 said please contact us when you are certified. The 14 Community Board was reluctant to meet with us 15 because they also said wait until you're certified, 16 but because my personal relationship with the 17 District Manager going back to my days at HPD and 18 the Manhattan Borough President's Office, she 19 allowed us to be heard. The Brooklyn Borough 20 President heard us. This is all prior to an 21 application being filed. To cut this long story 22 short, it took us four years to process this 23 application through City Planning. 24 We're here before you today for what 25 is called a legalization of a loft building that's 81 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 presently occupied for residential uses. I'm sorry 3 to say there is only two ways to cure the situation, 4 either change the zoning or to vacate the building. 5 In terms of the public policy, this 6 zoning is appropriate. Angela Battaglia, who is the 7 City Planning Commissioner who grew up in this 8 neighborhood, informed the other members of the 9 Planning Commission, that she knew this building, 10 she knew this area, and that there had been 11 industrial use on these two blocks for years, and 12 that the rezoning was an appropriate public policy. 13 In terms of the practical point of 14 view, we have a situation where we want to give 15 residential leases and residential protection to 16 tenants who are sitting behind us. That, in a 17 nutshell, is where we're at. 18 Sorry to say that's our two choices: 19 either vacate the building or seek a rezoning. The 20 actual application is pretty brief. The area is 21 basically zoned at M1. This M1 is kind of a thumb 22 sticking into an R6 zoning district. The R6 23 surrounds these two blocks. Our site is the corner 24 of Suydam and Wyckoff. When we contacted City 25 Planning, they suggested we study these two blocks 82 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 and complete an R6 zoning with a commercial overlay, 3 that would be in keeping with the context of the 4 neighborhood and in keeping with the uses of the 5 neighborhood. All ten lots would now be in 6 compliance with the proposed zoning, the ten lots 7 are not in compliance with the existing zoning. 8 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I'm going to call 9 on Council Member Reyna, but for the record, would 10 you introduce everybody that is at the dais, even if 11 they're not speaking. 12 MR. FULLINGTON: I am Kevin 13 Fullington, also with Herrick Feinstein. 14 MR. GOLDMAN: My name is Gerald 15 Goldman. I'm an owner of the building, along with my 16 brother, and we retained Herrick to handle this 17 matter. 18 MR. McGRATH: Chris McGrath, and I'm 19 engaged in the community outreach part of the 20 project. 21 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Council Member 22 Reyna. 23 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Thank you, Mr. 24 Chair. 25 I just want to have a time line here. 83 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 The building was purchased when? 3 MR. BASS: The building was purchased 4 approximately ten years ago. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: What year? 6 MR. BASS: 1998. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And the 8 building was occupied by whom and how many floors? 9 MR. BASS: The building was occupied, 10 was under-occupied -- I'll ask Gerry to speak to the 11 actual number of tenants, the building was 12 under-occupied by a weaving concerns -- 13 MR. GOLDMAN: Knitting. 14 MR. BASS: Knitting concerns. Thank 15 you. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: It was a 17 knitting mill. And it was occupied, as far as how 18 many floors? 19 MR. GOLDMAN: It's a four-story 20 building. It was a four-story building. It was 21 occupied by a knitting mill on one floor, some cut 22 and sew on the other floors. When we bought the 23 building, as Richard said, we were going to convert 24 it to a self-storage warehouse. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: So, how many 84 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 floors were occupied? 3 MR. GOLDMAN: Two, two and a half. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Two and a half. 5 MR. GOLDMAN: Yes. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And what 7 attempts did you have -- did you conduct, as far as 8 occupying the industrial space for other 9 initiatives? 10 MR. GOLDMAN: We offered to extend the 11 leases of the people that are there, and we put out 12 ads for trying to rent that space. At the time, we 13 were looking for three or four dollars a foot for 14 the space, and the knitting mill went out of 15 business and the sewing, the cut and sew people as 16 well, and we ended up with an empty building. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And who exactly 18 did you work with as far as the advertisement of 19 this space? 20 MR. GOLDMAN: Well, I don't recall the 21 broker, but there were local brokers that we worked 22 with at the time. 23 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Were you aware 24 that you were in a -- that you still are, an empire 25 zone? 85 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. GOLDMAN: I don't know what empire 3 means. I knew we were in an M1 zone. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Did your broker 5 tell you you were? 6 MR. GOLDMAN: I don't remember the 7 expression "empire," Ma'am. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: It's a 9 State-authorized boundary that is approved to allow 10 tax credits to assist property owners who own 11 industrial manufacturing spaces. 12 MR. GOLDMAN: I recall something like 13 that vaguely, not really specifically. But no matter 14 what we could get or find, we did not find anyone to 15 occupy it, which is why we felt that by breaking up 16 the space, and renovating the building, we'd have a 17 better chance to rent it that way. 18 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: At any point 19 were you working with the East Williamsburg Valley 20 Industrial Corporation? 21 MR. GOLDMAN: It's ten years ago and I 22 don't recall. My brother may have been, but it does 23 not ring a bell with me. 24 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Did your broker 25 ever mention or work with other -- 86 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. GOLDMAN: Does not ring a bell 3 with me. 4 I know there were other vacant 5 buildings in the area. In fact one was just turned 6 into a self-storage place, but I don't recall that. 7 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Council member, 8 can I just interrupt for one second? I apologize. 9 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Mm-hmm. 10 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I've just been 11 asked to make an announcement because our meeting 12 has run over. 13 The Parks Budget meeting, if you're 14 here for that, it's going to be held on the 14th 15 floor at 250. So, the Parks Budget meeting will be 16 at 250 on the 14th floor. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: No, absolutely, 18 Mr. Chair. 19 I just want to indulge upon the 20 Committee this line of questions because this is one 21 example of many in my district, especially in the 22 industrial park, that we have worked so hard to 23 maintain and retain the spaces that are now 24 dwindled. 25 This particular example merits the 87 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 unscrupulous attempts of property owners who 3 purchase buildings with a clear indication as to 4 where they want to be ten years later. 5 There is no clear understanding as to 6 how they've advertised for their building. I have 7 industries that contact our office and work with the 8 East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Corporation, 9 looking for spaces. There is a clear indication that 10 there is self-hardship created. And, so, I just 11 wanted to find out if that was similar. 12 MR. GOLDMAN: Well, no, I don't think 13 so. Our original intention, we own nine self-storage 14 facilities around the City, it used to be called 15 "Spectrum Mini Storage." We bought this building 16 for that use. It was a good -- 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: So, your intent 18 was always to evict the knitting -- 19 MR. GOLDMAN: You say evict. They were 20 going out of business. We did not evict anyone. We 21 did not have anyone leave before they went out. 22 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Okay. 23 MR. GOLDMAN: Okay? 24 We had other buildings that we waited 25 some time for that to happen, but we could not 88 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 replace the tenants that were there. All these 3 people were looking for space, not in that area. 4 What we did was, we did do a quite 5 extensive renovation, and we did it, and the first 6 people who moved in were sound engineers, they were 7 working in the building. There were artists. There's 8 a fine artist. There is a composer who is composing 9 music for several movies as we speak. There are 10 people who use it as that commercial. 11 When we found out that they were also 12 living there, we immediately called Herrick and went 13 for the application. 14 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: What type of 15 leases are issued to these tenants? 16 MR. GOLDMAN: Commercial leases. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And the 18 commercial leases are for how much space? An 19 average? 20 MR. GOLDMAN: Oh, I don't know. The 21 average rents are 1,300. There are very large lofts. 22 They're air conditioned, heated. 23 MR. BASS: Actually, I can answer on 24 the rent. 25 MR. GOLDMAN: There are 51 tenants. 89 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. BASS: Out of the 51 units we did 3 a rent analysis and found that 90 percent of the 4 rent is below 130 percent of AMI, and that based on 5 the income that's disclosed by the tenants in their 6 applications -- 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Mr. Chair, at 8 this moment, this particular rezoning is not about 9 residents that should not be here. So, in the first 10 place, there shouldn't be 51 residents occupying 11 space with no certificate of occupancy. And so that 12 particular point is irrelevant in this case. 13 MR. BASS: The information I was 14 giving to the Council was informational to compare 15 what the commercial rents are, comparing it to an 16 HPD program. 17 This would be 90 percent. This is 18 greater than what HPD required in residential 19 rezonings. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: So the square 21 footage for your commercial leases are how much per 22 square foot? 23 MR. BASS: I don't know that number. I 24 can get that number for you. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: That's very 90 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 important right now. Because ten years ago the 3 square footage was at three to four dollars per 4 square foot. 5 MR. GOLDMAN: Which was why many of 6 those buildings went out of business, or they 7 couldn't afford to pay their oil bill. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But you're 9 saying that the commercial leases now can afford to 10 pay commercial leases at what amount? 11 MR. GOLDMAN: I would say it averages 12 about, I would say roughly a dollar a foot a month. 13 I would say very large leases from a dollar, dollar 14 and a half a foot. 15 The rents run from about $1,300 for 16 the four floors, up to about $1,800, $2,000, for 17 very large floors. 18 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And the loft 19 that you attempt to say that you build out, 20 according to what assessment did you feel that this 21 was the best use? 22 Lofts fall under the manufacturing, 23 light, industrial? 24 MR. GOLDMAN: I'm not familiar with 25 the zoning. I knew -- 91 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: You have 3 lawyers that are. 4 MR. GOLDMAN: Well, we could not rent 5 it as industrial open space. So we felt the next 6 step was to break it into -- 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: You could not 8 rent it -- 9 MR. GOLDMAN: As open floors. We had a 10 tenant on each floor with 15,000 feet of space. Even 11 if we divided it in half with the one elevator we 12 couldn't really make it effective. They moved out, 13 it was empty. We broke it into what we thought 14 economically would be usable spaces. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Usable spaces 16 for? 17 MR. GOLDMAN: For commercial purposes. 18 Artists. We have -- 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: The build-out 20 of commercial spaces that you're referring to, under 21 what permits did you build out the space? 22 MR. BASS: The spaces were all built 23 out for commercial space. They filed the proper 24 permits for commercial loft space. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: With gas lines 92 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 to each unit? 3 MR. BASS: With gas lines to each 4 unit. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Which is not 6 permitted. You built out with gas lines. 7 MR. BASS: All the permitting, and, 8 again, DOB came and cited the building, and the 9 citations were for use. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I'm going to 11 just read what I have expressed on paper and handed 12 out to each of the Committee members here. 13 "The applicant, 70 Wyckoff, LLC, 14 since 2001, when they first acquired the building, 15 has blatantly disregarded New York City Department 16 of Building and New York City Fire Department rules 17 and regulations. Since 2002 they have received over 18 20 DOB, five outstanding, and 13 ECB, ten 19 outstanding, violations. The violations have cited 20 the illegal construction of 51 residential units, 21 all equipped with bathrooms, kitchens, electrical 22 work, and plumbing. They also have been cited for 23 construction of roof decks, and an additional floor, 24 all without permits." 25 MR. FULLINGTON: Council Member, you 93 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 make a point, which is no doubt they improperly 3 converted this building, and they should be held to 4 account for it. But the key question in my 5 estimation is, what is the sufficient penalty, 6 sufficient punishment to fit the crime? And we have 7 spoken with you and a number of you and we have made 8 a number of proposals, including extending 9 affordable housing, including giving some sort of 10 right of first refusal to the community for open 11 apartments, making commitments about doing a future 12 study of the area, the manufacturing area, and what 13 it should be, and we have committed to any other, to 14 listen to any other issues or anything else that you 15 would propose that be a sufficient penalty. 16 Because if you take the position that 17 this is appropriately a residential district, but 18 you turn it down because they have done something 19 wrong and because you can't reward illegal activity, 20 then the message you send across the City is, if you 21 are the owner of an illegally converted building, 22 and you're considering bringing the building up to 23 code, and it's an area that planners agree should be 24 residential, don't even both because there is no 25 punishment sufficient to meet your crime, just stay 94 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 in the shadows, stay illegal, don't bring yourself 3 to the attention of City government, because if you 4 do, you're going to get fined, and you have no 5 recourse because we will not allow you to rezone and 6 come into compliance. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Mr. Fullington, 8 you would agree that there is an authority that 9 deals with conversion. That authority is called the 10 Board of Standard and Appeal. There is a variance 11 process that could have easily been the avenue that 12 this particular property could have ventured into, 13 rather than circumventing the process. 14 MR. BASS: Madam Council member, 15 again, when I started the presentation, I said we 16 reached out to City Planning and the BSA to seek 17 their advice on how to proceed. 18 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I contacted the 19 BSA and they have no record upon this particular 20 property. 21 MR. BASS: Well, I met with Jeff 22 Mulligan and the Chair personally. I can pull my 23 time sheets, if you would like. 24 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: What year did 25 you do that? 95 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. BASS: We met in 2004. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And when were 4 the permits issued for renovation? 5 MR. BASS: Prior to that. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And so the work 7 had already started. 8 MR. BASS: Again, we were contacted -- 9 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Yes or no? 10 MR. BASS: Obviously, yes. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: So, therefore, 12 going before the BSA would have been already too 13 late. 14 MR. BASS: Again, the -- 15 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Is that yes or 16 no? 17 MR. BASS: It's not too late in terms 18 of curing a zoning issue, and the BSA in the past -- 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But we're not 20 talking about a zoning issue. 21 MR. BASS: May I complete the 22 sentence? 23 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: In a rezoning 24 factor. 25 I had asked the question and you did 96 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 not answer yes or no. 3 MR. BASS: It's not a yes or a no 4 question. There are lots of examples of the BSA 5 hearing an application to legalize a residential 6 conversion because there is a unique hardship for 7 the building. We could have made that argument for 8 this space. We could have shown that it made no 9 economic sense for it to continue as a commercial 10 use. 11 The BSA advised us, as did City 12 Planning, that the most appropriate public policy 13 method was to seek a rezoning, and that's the 14 process we pursued. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And the BSA 16 said a rezoning was best because -- 17 MR. BASS: Because the area -- 18 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Because the 19 building had been -- 20 MR. BASS: No, because, again, the 21 Chair who comes out of City Planning spoke with City 22 Planning and agreed that the best public policy 23 approach for the neighborhood, for these two blocks, 24 was a rezoning, not just addressing this one lot. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: It's my 97 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 understanding -- 3 MR. BASS: If they had said file a BSA 4 application, I would have filed a BSA application. I 5 did what the City advised me to do. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But as an 7 expert, in your field, would the BSA have found this 8 property to merit a variance? 9 MR. BASS: Yes, it could have found -- 10 it would have met the standards. We have brought, my 11 firm has brought variances for industrial buildings. 12 Made no economic sense. And the argument for BSA 13 variance is a unique physical hardship. But, again, 14 there is two ways to approach this - a variance or a 15 rezoning. And the City, the City decided a public 16 policy approach, a rezoning was the most appropriate 17 methodology to cure the situation. 18 If they had said they think the BSA 19 is a more approach, we would have filed the BSA 20 application. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: The City was 22 giving you recommendations as to how to go about 23 this, but according to City Planning, the area, the 24 merit of rezoning does not just conclude with your 25 two blocks, as in your application. It's a merit 98 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 rezoning, in regards to everything that's in the 3 M1-1 zone, according to them. 4 MR. BASS: When we met with City 5 Planning to discuss a potential rezoning, we asked 6 them what the boundaries of the study area should 7 be, how many lots and how many blocks should be 8 included. 9 The two blocks that you see there, 10 that are in the application, is what City Planning 11 advised us to study. 12 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Because they 13 are recommending the minimum required for the 14 private application. 15 MR. BASS: That's not -- you know, 16 again, I'm not going to put words in their mouth. At 17 the time they said that to expand the study area -- 18 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I am quoting 19 what they told me. 20 MR. BASS: Well, at the time they told 21 me that to expand the study area would have included 22 more industrial active land that would have been 23 inappropriate in terms of a public policy approach. 24 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And as far as 25 the BSA is concerned, I'm not understanding why 70 99 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Wyckoff did not go before the BSA to request a 3 variance. 4 MR. BASS: Again, as I said 5 previously, when we contacted the BSA they agreed 6 with City Planning -- 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: In what year 8 did you contact the BSA? 9 MR. BASS: 2004. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: In 2004. And 11 the permits that were issued for work were light 12 industrial, for light manufacturing, was when? 13 MR. BASS: I don't know the date. They 14 predate my being retained. Again, we were retained 15 to cure a found problem, which occurred after the 16 renovation. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I have -- I was 18 hoping I had a copy of a permit that was issued to 19 see what time line you had gone before the 20 Department of Buildings. But I don't have one here, 21 other than an ECB violation and the DOB violations 22 that have been issued. 23 MR. BASS: Right. And those were 24 issued after we contacted City Planning. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: No. The ECB 100 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 violation dates back to 2002. And, so, there are, to 3 me, using these documents, the time line of attempt 4 for work in 2002, perhaps work that was being done 5 without permits, to then deal with the issue of 6 we're going to do this anyway, let's figure out 7 where we're going to seek the appropriate 8 forgiveness of trying to fix what we should have 9 done in the first place. 10 MR. FULLINGTON: Council member, if I 11 can? We concede that no doubt, whether the work was 12 done with or without the appropriate permit, I'm not 13 sure, but that it was done inappropriately because 14 it was done to foster a residential use. We concede 15 that absolutely it was inappropriate. 16 The question is, if this site, which 17 City Planning believes, which the community 18 believes, is appropriately residential, is there any 19 punishment sufficient to meet the crime, anything 20 that can be done for the community to redress the 21 grievances that have been done to it, to get us to a 22 position where this can go forward, in the light of 23 the fact that BSA told us we will not accept your 24 application, go to City Planning. 25 So, -- 101 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: So the BSA did 3 say that? 4 MR. FULLINGTON: Yes. 5 MR. BASS: Yes. 6 MR. FULLINGTON: The BSA -- 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: We will not 8 accept your application because -- 9 MR. FULLINGTON: Not on the merits. 10 Not on the merits whether it fits the standard, but 11 based on conversations with City Planning, that the 12 appropriate public policy was to go through City 13 Planning. 14 So, we're here now, and we're 15 throwing ourselves on the mercy of the court saying 16 is there any punishment, anything that we can do 17 sufficient to meet the crime? Because to do 18 otherwise is to just leave an illegal building and 19 the tenants be faced with possible eviction at some 20 point. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: The only 22 sufficient consequence here to meet the crime is not 23 to endorse this rezoning. 24 At this time there is no merit for a 25 rezoning of this particular property. And adjacent 102 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 to it, taking in another block to build conformity. 3 MR. FULLINGTON: Understood. And I 4 agree there is a separate issue with Council Member 5 Dilan's district, because those people have not come 6 to the table and said here is what we're willing to 7 do. But, so, I guess your answer is there is no 8 crime sufficient to meet the penalty, and my only 9 position is that sends an unfortunate message to the 10 whole City, and those owners out there considering 11 bringing their building to code and coming into the 12 light and doing the right thing. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Perhaps we can 14 continue to discuss how do we meet these property 15 owners who are not pouncing my door, ready and 16 willing to be able to legalize. 17 What I do know is that we have lost a 18 firefighter due to illegal conversion. What I do 19 know is that I have families being evicted from 20 Community Board 1 because of illegal conversion. And 21 I have property owners that claim they never knew 22 that this was happening. And at the same time, I've 23 lost over 100,000 square feet of manufacturing 24 space. Those are hundreds of jobs. 25 And, so, these are the things that I 103 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 bring to the table in order to educate and inform my 3 Committee members to be able to understand what 4 position I am being put in. 5 MR. BASS: We understand that. But, 6 again, in this application, there are two things we 7 ask you and the other Council members to really 8 focus on, both in terms of a public policy from a 9 Land Use and zoning point of view for these sites, 10 and for the practical matter of leaving the tenants 11 in limbo. 12 This block, these two blocks -- we'll 13 just talk about the block that 70 Wyckoff is on, 14 it's already zoned three-quarters residential. It 15 was zoned that way for a specific project in the 16 seventies. That's not good planning. That's not good 17 zoning. The entire block should have been zoned 18 residential with a commercial overlay on Wyckoff. 19 That's good public policy. That's what we're 20 proposing. 21 In terms of the practical matter for 22 these tenants, and you can speak to the tenants 23 after we're done, is what do we do with these 24 tenants? If this rezoning is voted down, they're 25 left in limbo. 104 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 DOB could seek their eviction. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I think you 4 have an obligation to move them. Relocate them. And 5 because you have taken it upon yourselves already, 6 entertained a lease that should have never been 7 granted, if there is a lease. 8 MR. BASS: So, you're saying we should 9 evict those tenants. Is that your public policy? 10 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: That is not my 11 public policy. That was your public policy. 12 MR. BASS: In a practical -- 13 MR. GOLDMAN: Can I say something? 14 MR. BASS: Yes. 15 MR. GOLDMAN: You mentioned some very 16 valid points. You said that some of these 17 conversions are dangerous. You mentioned that some 18 of them displaced people. We put a significant 19 amount of dollars to bring this up to very, very 20 strict codes - the width of the aisles, the 21 sprinklers, the standpipes, the exits. It's all up 22 to code. We did not displace anyone. We did not make 23 a dangerous building. We did not displace any 24 manufacturing. We are not the only building that was 25 empty. I don't think there are knitting mills, and I 105 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 used to be in the knitting business, I went broke in 3 the knitting business, I don't think there are any 4 knitting mills looking to park knitting machines in 5 this area, nor cut and sew. It followed the trend of 6 what it was. We have 51 people, most of whom are 7 professional, most of whom are artists, and ended up 8 living there, but they're artists, they're sound 9 people. I brought them down with children, some of 10 them had to leave. They will tell you it's a safe, 11 good building. 12 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Sir, I have not 13 said -- 14 MR. GOLDMAN: We brought this -- 15 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: -- That your 16 building is nothing but. 17 MR. GOLDMAN: No, you said a fireman 18 died in the building, you said it displaced people. 19 We did neither of those things. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I'd like to 21 just take your point -- 22 MR. GOLDMAN: Well, we also -- 23 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: -- And drive 24 them towards a different level. Had you known you 25 were going to convert this to residential, why did 106 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 you not go to the appropriate authority and go to 3 the BSA to be granted a variance? 4 MR. GOLDMAN: The minute -- 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: You built out 6 this building -- 7 MR. GOLDMAN: I will answer that. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: -- To 9 residential code. You said that. 10 MR. GOLDMAN: We built the lofts. 11 Remember, there are no rooms, it's a loft. We built 12 it to high-standard codes. The minute we knew that 13 people were living there, we contacted Herrick and 14 they began the process. 15 Whether to go to rezoning, or whether 16 to go to variance people is way beyond my ability. 17 All I know is I built the best building I could, the 18 tenants who came in were professional to begin with, 19 and I'm holding them up all morning. I wish you 20 would hear from them. And we're saying that we want 21 to be good to the community. There's a school right 22 across the street from us. It's not as if we went to 23 the other side of Flushing, which is heavy 24 industrial. We went to a neighborhood, and that's 25 the use, and that's how it's developed. The City 107 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 didn't say, hey, we found you. We went to them. We 3 may have done it the wrong way. We maybe should have 4 gone variance or we should have gone rezoning, but 5 we did it with a full heart and a good building. 6 I appreciate your position, but there 7 must be some way to make this equitable without 8 punishing the tenants or ourselves. We're prepared 9 to be community members. I know that we went to the 10 hospital, we spoke to them. In fact, we have some 11 people from the hospital there, I think it's a 12 resident, but we're not ducking, we found you. We're 13 here saying we want an honest approach. We did what 14 we did, the people are there, we're doing well 15 there. It's a safe, safe building. The Fire 16 Department was in there several times under their 17 regular inspections. 18 MR. BASS: And the Community Board -- 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I'm sorry, my 20 colleagues have questions. I want to not take any 21 more time from them. If time permits, I would like 22 to hold the rights to come back a second time. 23 Thank you. 24 MR. GOLDMAN: May I respectfully say 25 something? 108 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I have some 3 questions and then Council Member Stewart has some 4 questions. 5 I thought the way you summed it up, 6 Kevin, was very appropriate, and that's the dilemma 7 that I have. 8 Let me play devil's advocate. If we 9 approve this, are we not sending a message to every 10 developer in the City saying, go ahead, do illegal 11 work, and then we'll figure out a way to make it 12 legal later on? I mean, how do you answer that? 13 MR. FULLINGTON: I don't think so. I 14 think the first issue is, number one, you have to 15 make a determination first whether it's 16 appropriately residential. And that's the first 17 argument that we're making is that this is 18 appropriately a residential district. 19 And, so, you first have to have a 20 developer with a site in an appropriate residential 21 district. 22 Number two is, maybe it is an 23 appropriate message to say there is something that 24 you can do to come into the light. I don't think it 25 sends the message that you go ahead and develop. I 109 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 think what it says is, if you have and you're 3 appropriately residential, there is a way to make 4 yourself right and make your building safe. I think 5 that is the overriding message that is sent. 6 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I don't 7 necessarily buy the argument, but I appreciate the 8 answer. 9 Did I hear correctly, because a lot 10 has gone back and forth, did I hear correctly, that 11 you're making the argument now that it's the 12 tenants' fault? That in effect, you issued some 13 commercial leases, and they were living there? If 14 you follow that argument, then it's the tenants' 15 fault that you're saying. 16 MR. GOLDMAN: No, I'm not saying it's 17 the tenants' fault. I'm giving you the genealogy of 18 what happened and how it happened. 19 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Well, then I 20 don't understand. 21 You issued some people a commercial 22 lease. 23 MR. GOLDMAN: I issued everyone 24 commercial leases. Whoever rented. 25 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: And then you 110 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 found out that they were living there. 3 MR. GOLDMAN: Yes. 4 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: So, aren't you 5 making the argument that it's their fault? 6 MR. GOLDMAN: No. 7 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You've totally 8 lost me. 9 I mean, if they're violating their 10 lease, you're making the argument that they're at 11 fault, not you. You can't have your cake and eat it 12 too. 13 MR. FULLINGTON: No. But the answer is 14 because we'd be lying if we said we had no idea this 15 was going on. That's why it's not their fault. 16 MR. GOLDMAN: And that's when we went 17 to Herrick and said go to the City. 18 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: So, you're 19 admitting you knew that they were living there and 20 it's your fault? 21 MR. GOLDMAN: To put it on your bases, 22 not my fault. When we realized it was happening, we 23 went to the City. We didn't wait til we were found, 24 we didn't wait to try to do it under cover. We went 25 to the City and said what do we do? 111 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. FULLINGTON: And to answer your 3 question, yes, we are at fault and we're here to say 4 is there any punishment sufficient to meet what we 5 have done? And we have made proposals about things 6 we're willing to do. 7 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Is there a tenant 8 in every unit now? 9 MR. FULLINGTON: Yes. 10 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: And it's 51? 11 MR. FULLINGTON: Yes. 12 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Council Member 13 Stewart, I know you have some questions. 14 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: Thank you. 15 I just want to clear up something I 16 heard earlier. If you had gone through BSA to get a 17 variance, as a matter of fact you filed with the 18 Building Department and they rejected, and then you 19 go to BSA, and they tried to do something about it. 20 Wouldn't they ask you or tell you that you need to 21 do rezoning, wouldn't that be the case? 22 MR. BASS: What we do in all 23 applications, we seek out the appropriate City 24 agency, seek their advice on how we should proceed 25 with the application. 112 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 In this case I personally reached out 3 to City Planning and to the BSA and said what is the 4 appropriate mechanism? Is it a variance or a 5 rezoning? We were advised by City Planning in 6 consultation with BSA to do the rezoning. If they 7 had said, no, we don't think rezoning is 8 appropriate, do the variance, that's what we would 9 have applied. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: In terms of 11 the rezoning, that will include a greater area, but 12 if you did a variance, it would have just been your 13 site? 14 MR. BASS: That's correct. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: With the 16 rezoning, how many other buildings would this 17 affect, in terms of this particular issue? 18 MR. BASS: There are nine -- one of 19 the tenants. Nine other tax slots. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: Which would 21 like to do the same thing? 22 MR. BASS: Well, there are two -- this 23 process took so long at City Planning, two 24 additional industrial buildings converted on the 25 next block. So, there are two buildings that are in 113 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 a similar situation. But the other buildings, 3 there's a post office, there's a supermarket, there 4 are parking lots. I don't know what their intention. 5 We don't own them. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: All right. I 7 can understand what is happening here, in terms of 8 the fact that we were clamoring for new residential 9 space. But in doing so, in terms of getting more 10 residential spaces, we are losing our commercial 11 spaces, which means driving the jobs away from the 12 area and create a different situation. 13 MR. BASS: Council member, this 14 building would have been vacant, would still be 15 vacant today. The community board supported this 16 application 29 to 1. The community board holds a lot 17 of the same concerns that have been raised here 18 today about illegal conversions. They understood the 19 merits of the public policy, of the rezoning, and 20 they understood the need for residential use at this 21 building. They gave an almost unanimous vote in 22 support of this application. 23 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: If you were 24 granted this new rezoning, would you have -- do you 25 think the building would have met, for the 114 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 residential purpose, would have met the, all the 3 different, all the things that has to be done, the 4 codes and all of that? 5 MR. BASS: Yes. If we had a 6 residential rezoning, we could go to the Building 7 Department tomorrow and apply for a residential 8 Certificate of Occupancy. We have the architect 9 ready to make that application. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: And with this 11 rezoning to residential, means then this building 12 could not be reconverted back to commercial? 13 MR. BASS: Well, because there is a 14 commercial overlay, the ground floor can be, you 15 know, converted to commercial if that is what, you 16 know, the future entails. But it does give, from a 17 Land Use point of view, it gives that flexibility so 18 that the ground floor on Wyckoff would be 19 commercial. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER STEWART: Well, I agree 21 with that. 22 I really don't see any big problem in 23 rezoning this, because in the past I've seen where 24 people may have created a violation in the building 25 and they corrected it by paying a fine. And if you 115 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 have paid the fines and gone through all the 3 necessary, meet the necessary requirements and all 4 of those things, I don't see it is a problem, 5 because of the fact that tenants are there already, 6 and it will mean that we have to displace all those 7 tenants, and all those things. 8 My suggestion, Mr. Chair, is that 9 this should be rezoned. 10 MR. GOLDMAN: Very quickly on the 11 issue of jobs. About seven blocks north of this is 12 an IBZ, which is very large, very extensive, and 13 completely industrial and commercial. That's right 14 up at the other end of Wyckoff Street about seven 15 blocks north. And as to the building being a 16 residential asset, whether it be commercial overlay 17 or strictly residential, the building is an asset, 18 will be an asset in the community, and the owner is 19 willing to reach out and perform certain mitigation 20 so that we become partners with the community, at 21 the hospital, at the schools, at the park. 22 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I just have a 23 couple of quick questions, then I will turn it back 24 to Council Member Reyna. 25 If the application were turned down, 116 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 could you not go to BSA then for a variance, even 3 though they suggested to you that you do it this 4 way? 5 MR. BASS: We could -- again, we could 6 reach out to the BSA and see if that's an 7 alternative. 8 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Well, I mean, 9 you're in effect saying that, gee, if they said no, 10 we wouldn't even bother; is that what you are 11 saying? 12 MR. BASS: No. Again, you have to 13 prove a unique physical hardship. 14 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Right. I'm well 15 aware of that. 16 MR. BASS: And I believe we can find 17 the urban economist who would show that this 18 building, as a number of buildings directly 19 contiguous to this building, across the street and 20 down the block, would make no economic return to be 21 returned to an industrial use. 22 So, we would go through that exercise 23 and show that unique physical hardship exists. 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I know Council 25 Member Reyna went over the number of violations; how 117 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 many violations exist on this building today? 3 MR. BASS: Well, the ten outstanding 4 violations, the ECB violations, were fines that were 5 paid, but they stay on the books because they can't 6 be cured. Even though you are penalized financially, 7 you can't cure the violation unless you either 8 rezone it, or you remove the residential use. 9 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: What are the 10 violations for? 11 MR. BASS: They're for residential 12 use. They're for residential occupancy. 13 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You know, Council 14 Member Reyna has copies, we have copies, they're a 15 little more descriptive than your two-word answer. 16 What are the actual violations for? 17 Do you know? 18 MR. BASS: I don't want to do it from 19 memory. I have them in my file. But the majority of 20 the violations were for residential use. They repeat 21 it in various different ways. 22 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You're using the 23 term residential use to cover in effect, if I'm 24 reading these violations correctly, for work without 25 a permit, failure to file a report of compliance, 118 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 work without a permit, installed three decks. I 3 don't know what that has to do with use. Altered 4 building. Occupied without a valid C of O. That 5 could be use. 6 MR. BASS: Most of the work related 7 without a permit relates to the residential use. 8 They didn't have residential permits to do 9 residential use. 10 That's the nexus between those 11 violations. 12 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Some of these 13 violations refer to self-certification. What was 14 that? 15 MR. BASS: The architect, I believe -- 16 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Filed 17 self-certification of what? 18 MR. BASS: That the building was a 19 commercial loft and met the Zoning Code for 20 commercial lofts. 21 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay, obviously. 22 What was the name of the architect? 23 MR. GOLDMAN: Van Brody. 24 MR. BASS: Mr. Chair, can I ask an 25 indulgence? We've had a number of tenants sitting 119 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 here, could we pull them up and have them speak so 3 they can leave and we can come back to this? 4 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: That's actually a 5 good suggestion, but I defer to Council Member 6 Reyna. Is that okay? 7 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Yes. 8 MR. BASS: Thank you. 9 MR. GOLDMAN: We'll answer any 10 questions. 11 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You'll stand by? 12 MR. BASS: Yes. We're not leaving. 13 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay. 14 I have a number of people to call up 15 to speak, but the young lady with the baby, if she 16 is still here, we will obviously call her up. Is she 17 still here? 18 UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: She's 19 downstairs. My wife. 20 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay. Do you want 21 to get her? 22 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: She's in the 23 courtyard. Wait for me to speak. 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: All right. Then 25 why don't we get Brenna Scarrott. Is Brenna here? 120 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Sure, and why don't you come up. And 3 your name, sir? 4 MR. JOHNSON: Irvin Johnson. 5 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay. Sandy 6 Sontre? Is that right? Did I pronounce that right? 7 Okay, Josette Urso. Did I pronounce it right? Wow. 8 Getting better. 9 MR. JOHNSON: Okay, got it. My name is 10 Irv Johnson, and I live at 70 Wyckoff Avenue. 11 Originally I went to the area looking 12 for a place for my studio. I compose music for 13 television and film. At the time I was living at 432 14 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, and my wife was 15 living in Williamsburg on Graham Street. 16 I saw 70 Wyckoff Avenue. Was really 17 impressed with, you know, I did a walk-through with 18 Jordan Goldman, who is not present today, and was 19 really impressed with the loft space and decided to 20 move my business there. And as it was, my studio was 21 in Manhattan on 96th Street in the very small one 22 bedroom. 23 So, after moving my studio, with the 24 renovations, the build-out being such as it was 25 leaned towards for us to actually live there, and to 121 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 consolidate our rents, rather than to have the 3 enormous rent I was paying at 432 Lafayette and my 4 wife's rent. At the time we weren't married. When we 5 finally got married, we decided, well, why don't we 6 stay here, and then we figure it out. 7 Afterwards she became pregnant and we 8 had a child, and we feel that the building is 9 extremely safe. I'm a long-term -- I mean, I'm a 10 Native New Yorker and, you know, I've lived in many 11 buildings. This is probably one of the best. The 12 owner is really concerned with our needs and always 13 there to solve a problem. I have never met anyone, 14 maybe it's because they were in the storage business 15 before, but I never met landlords that were as 16 friendly as they were. That's all I have to say. 17 MS. SCARROTT: My name is Brenna 18 Scarrott, and I'm a resident of 70 Wyckoff also. And 19 I just kind of reiterate the same thing. I feel -- I 20 used to, when I first moved to New York from 21 Portland, Oregon, I moved over to Myrtle, and the 22 fixing on the building there, people did not respond 23 to the tenants, and we felt really unsafe there. And 24 so we chose out this building because of the 25 cleanliness and there's usually three people on site 122 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 every day you see out there attentive to what you 3 might need. I don't even have to call anyone, I just 4 run into somebody, I need help on this. As soon as 5 they found out I was pregnant, we've got to get 6 those bars up to code, you know, as soon as you have 7 the baby. So, anyway, I just don't want to be 8 evicted. I think it would be really wrong to evict 9 people. I think they've done a good job of saying 10 that they wish, you know, things could be different, 11 but they're not, and to evict people out of their 12 places right now is not the right answer. 13 MR. SONTRE: Council members, my name 14 is Sandy Sontre. I live at 70 Wyckoff Avenue. Thank 15 you for taking the time to listen to us today. I 16 have lived in the building for three years with my 17 partner. I do IT support, both out of the loft and 18 in the City, and quite frankly, I can't recall ever 19 having lived in such a phenomenal building. The 20 attentiveness of the staff and their concern for our 21 safety and the livability of the building is 22 phenomenal. They address concerns almost 23 immediately, whether it's gas, electrical, plumbing, 24 anything. It is just a joy to live in this building. 25 The aisles are wide, it's clean, the staff is there 123 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 every weekday, and, you know, personally, I wouldn't 3 want to be living anywhere else, and that's why I'm 4 here, to support them and let you know that this is 5 a great place. It's a full building. You know, 50 6 residents or so, and that's all I have to say. Thank 7 you for your time. 8 MS. URSO: Hello. My name is Josette 9 Urso. I am a visual artist. A painter. My husband is 10 also a painter. And we moved to 70 Wyckoff three 11 years ago. We were actually in Manhattan on 22nd 12 Street for the last 18 years, in a loft that we knew 13 would eventually be torn down. You know, it wasn't 14 really my choice to move here, but literally the 15 first day we went out we saw this building, the loft 16 building on Wyckoff, we were just completely taken 17 by the space. And especially by the impeccably run, 18 the attention to every detail. I completely 19 connected with the people I met. The entire sense of 20 community, and literally in a week I didn't even 21 regret the fact that I left a situation from the 22 last 18 years, and as soon as I moved into 70 23 Wyckoff, I thought, this is it. I want to stay here. 24 There is such a community, and it's such a real 25 place, as well. I love the neighborhood. And it's 124 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 become material. I'm actually, I'm a painter and I'm 3 actually painting the views from the window. It's 4 like the City has really just become a part of me, 5 the City view from this particular location. 6 So, I really, I agree with everything 7 that my fellow residents, neighbors said, and it's 8 just a really great place and we would hate to have 9 to leave. 10 Thank you for attending to us. 11 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I think you 12 understand the dilemma that we have, and you almost 13 have to be Solomon in the situation. 14 I'm curious, what type of lease do 15 each one of you have? Is it a commercial or a 16 residential? It's commercial. 17 When you moved in, did the Building 18 Manager tell you there is no C of O for this 19 building as residential? 20 Speak into the mike. And you have to 21 identify yourself. 22 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, well, I knew that 23 it was a commercial lease, and I knew that it would 24 be illegal to live there technically. But as I said, 25 you know, to consolidate my rent and really better 125 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 living standard. I mean, again, I lived at my former 3 address, 432 Lafayette, for ten years, I believe, 4 and this is just far better. I mean, when we look at 5 it, we just measure it, we just felt safe enough to 6 have a child there, as well as five other families 7 in the building. 8 MR. SONTRE: When my partner and I -- 9 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Identify 10 yourself. 11 MR. SONTRE: My name is Sandy Sontre. 12 When my partner and I moved into the 13 building, we were aware that it was a commercial 14 lease, and we understood that the building was doing 15 everything in their power to convert to residential. 16 We felt confident that they would take care of the 17 building, so it was not an issue for us. 18 MS. SCARROTT: Brenna Scarrott. I 19 agree with Irv. It was the same thing for me I think 20 from comparison. I knew it was a commercial lease, 21 and I had confidence in the owners that something 22 would be -- sorry, pregnancy brain, I can't think of 23 the word -- would be figured out for lack of a 24 better way to say it. And compared to where we were 25 living, where there had been several muggings, and I 126 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 felt really unsafe, we were wanting to get a better 3 place and this was the best price. 4 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Did you want to 5 say something, too? 6 MS. URSO: Yes. My husband and I were 7 -- 8 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You have to 9 identify yourself. 10 MS. URSO: My name is Josette Urso. 11 And my husband and I were also aware that this was a 12 commercial lease, but we agree with Brenna. I mean, 13 there are sprinklers in the spaces, everything is so 14 well cared for. Any time anything happens, in a 15 minute the owner is attending to it. They very much 16 care so much about the tenants and it shows. 17 I mean, having lived in a loft in 18 Manhattan for so many years, things were just always 19 kind of makeshift and nothing was really that legal, 20 and it was always trying to get a code of occupancy. 21 This just all, it just felt like it was definitely 22 possible. Because you could just feel it, the care 23 of the building from the owners, and that's what we 24 responded to immediately and made that commitment to 25 change our life and move here, and we're very happy 127 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 we did. 3 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 4 Council Member Reyna. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I am trying to 6 not have to mix what sense of community you're 7 describing exists with having broken the law. 8 If I were to agree with what just 9 occurred because you are the faces behind this, I am 10 saying it's okay to break the law. 11 I have a community that I represent 12 in Bushwick that earns less than $30,000 per 13 household. That's the average income. Unemployment 14 rates do not describe what's happening in our 15 district, because the workforce has lost all hope 16 that they would be able to find employment. And, so, 17 they're lost in the numbers. They're not even 18 counted in the unemployment rate that exists in this 19 district. 20 I am happy that at the very least you 21 have been able to receive response from a property 22 owner who intentionally demonstrates that his 23 actions were all along going to be to convert this 24 building into a residential component of this 25 neighborhood. But he circumvented on how to do that. 128 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Not only did he circumvent it, but he circumvented 3 so that he put all his pieces into play by making 4 sure he keeps his tenants happy, he made sure he put 5 in all the luxuries of each unit in place. Nothing 6 is missing, other than being rewarded for having 7 broken the law. That is what I cannot agree with 8 here. 9 He could have easily avoided all of 10 this, if he had gone to the Board of Standard and 11 Appeals, and requested a variance. Many don't. And 12 it rises to the level of why? So that you're just 13 one of 100 different spaces I can point out that 14 exist. The only difference is that your building was 15 brought up to code, irregardless of what Certificate 16 of Occupancy it was going to seek. It wanted to meet 17 the residential coding, even though he claims that 18 that was never the intent. That's what I have a 19 problem with here today. 20 I am not in the business of evicting 21 anyone. I know what being displaced out of your home 22 is like, when I was 16 years old, with my two 23 sisters and my parents, and a grandmother. 24 MR. JOHNSON: Can I say something? 25 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Absolutely. 129 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MR. JOHNSON: It's Irv Johnson. I 3 think if all property owners were breaking the law, 4 I think we should have more criminals owning 5 property in New York. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Go ahead. 7 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 8 I have one person signed up to speak 9 in opposition. I will call that person, Caitlin. 10 Caitlin. 11 And then I have two other people 12 signed up to speak in favor. 13 MS. DOURMASHKIN: Good morning. My 14 name is Caitlin Dourmashkin. And I am the Empire 15 Zone Coordinator for East Williambsurg Valley 16 Industrial Development Corporation, or EWVIDCO. The 17 Administrator of the North Brooklyn/Brooklyn Navy 18 Yard Empire Zone. And I urge the Committee to oppose 19 a change in use at 70 Wyckoff Avenue and retain the 20 structure for manufacturing use. 21 EWVIDCO provides technical assistance 22 to over 1,000 industrial firms in the Greenpoint 23 Williamsburg and North Brooklyn Industrial Business 24 Zones through a contract with the New York City 25 Department of Small Business Services. EWVIDCO also 130 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 contracts with New York State to administer the 3 North Brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard Empire Zone. 4 70 Wyckoff is a 62,000 square foot 5 industrial building located within the boundaries of 6 the Empire Zone. The zone was created in '98 and 7 reauthorized in 2006, to specifically designate this 8 and other M-zoned lots to encourage local investment 9 in blue-collar jobs. 10 Location in the Empire Zone entitles 11 a business or building owner to take advantage of a 12 variety of tax incentives designed to award job 13 growth investment on the part of private businesses, 14 to help offset the cost of property renovations, 15 while the Empire Zone investment tax credit offsets 16 the cost of property renovations. The Empire Zone 17 wage tax credit provides $1,500 or $3,000 for each 18 new job created. These incentives, along with a host 19 of low-cost financing options offered exclusively to 20 zone-certified firms can help local businesses 21 reduce their costs and increase competitiveness 22 while keeping jobs in the neighborhood. 23 In addition to our help with 24 incentives, EWVIDCO also fields dozens of requests 25 for assistance in locating industrial real estate 131 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 each year. However, despite this demand, there is an 3 ever-shrinking supply of available properties. This 4 is in no small part a consequence of the 2005 5 rezoning, where the amount of M-zoned land was 6 significantly reduced, and of the ongoing illegal 7 conversion of our remaining industrial buildings. 8 Unfortunately, while more and more 9 buildings are lost to rezoning and conversion, 10 hundreds of our local businesses are in danger of 11 closing their doors or relocating out of the City 12 entirely. 13 According to a recent Ewvidco survey 14 of industrial businesses, the demand for 15 manufacturing real estate will rise dramatically in 16 the coming years. 17 Through a survey, we found 20 firms 18 who collectively employ 120 workers and require a 19 total of 74,000 square feet of space, have expired 20 leases and will need to relocate this year. 21 An additional 30 firms, with 225 22 employees occupying a total of 170,000 square feet, 23 have leases expiring and will need to relocate in 24 the next two years. 25 And, finally, 16 firms with 147 132 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 employees occupying 119,000 square feet will need to 3 relocate once their lease expires in the next three 4 to nine years. And all of the total pipeline demand 5 for in-place, meaning here, now, in North Brooklyn 6 firms, is over 366,000 square feet. Not only does 7 this demonstrate that manufacturing is still viable 8 in North Brooklyn, but it underscores the need to 9 protect M-zoned land. 10 At EWVIDCO we find that while these 11 businesses are interested in expanding, they have 12 nowhere to go in the City. One-third of our 13 respondents noted they would like to expand but 14 cannot find the space. If we do not protect 15 industrial manufacturing spaces, these businesses 16 will be unable to expand locally, and they will move 17 out of the City and the community will lose jobs. 18 North Brooklyn relies on industrial 19 and manufacturing jobs to support the nearly 40 20 percent of community residents who work now in the 21 industrial sector. These jobs on average pay 73 22 percent more than service businesses. That's 23 approximately $50,000 a year as opposed to $30,000 a 24 year. 25 Additionally, over 60 percent of 133 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 manufacturing jobs offer benefits, compared with 30 3 percent of service jobs. These jobs frequently do 4 not require English proficiency or advanced 5 education, and considering that 20 percent of the 6 local residents do not speak English, 31 percent 7 live at or below the poverty line, and 37 percent 8 are on some form of public assistance. These 9 manufacturing jobs offer the best paths to 10 self-sufficiency and economic security for our 11 community residents. 12 EWVIDCO would be happy to work with 13 the owner of 70 Wyckoff to discuss incentives 14 available through the Empire Zone program to assist 15 in the development of this structure for legal 16 manufacturing use. 17 We can also offer our assistance 18 locating industrial tenants for the building, and 19 are confident that this building would not remain 20 vacant and that there is sufficient demand to locate 21 tenants suited to a multi-story industrial building. 22 But in order to protect our valuable industrial 23 sector and increase the number of high-paying jobs, 24 quality jobs for North Brooklyn, we urge the 25 Committee to deny this application. Thanks. 134 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: I will now call 3 up the last two speakers who have signed in, and 4 they will speak in favor of the application. Linda 5 Lowry, and is it pronounced Io Bollerslev? Oh, okay. 6 MS. LOWRY: What button do I -- oh, 7 it's on. My name is Linda Lowry. I live at 70 8 Wyckoff. My boyfriend and I moved in there about, 9 almost three years ago. I was originally living in 10 Manhattan. I got priced out of Manhattan. I moved to 11 a neighborhood in Brooklyn. I got priced out of that 12 neighborhood. 13 I met my boyfriend, and we started to 14 look for a place together. We looked at a lot of 15 loft spaces, many of which didn't have kitchens. 16 They were obviously just thrown up to satisfy this 17 demand for lofts, and you were required to put in 18 your own kitchen, and they cost more than what we're 19 paying now in rent, and some of them were so 20 obviously shoddy that we didn't even consider 21 wanting to move into those buildings. 22 And then we got to 70 Wyckoff, and I 23 can only reiterate what my fellow tenants have said, 24 as far as the quality of the building goes, and how 25 happy we are living there. 135 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 When we moved in, it was not overly 3 emphasized that it was a commercial lease. My 4 boyfriend actually is the one who handled most of 5 that. But we came to understand that it was a 6 commercial building that was, we thought, on the 7 track to gaining residential status. 8 With all due respect to Councilwoman 9 Reyna, I would like to say that we are also your 10 constituents. We live in the community, I shop in 11 the community, I vote in the community, and I'd like 12 to thank you for letting me speak. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Ms. Lowry, in 14 your search for a loft, when you encountered a loft 15 without a kitchen -- 16 MS. LOWRY: Mm-hmm. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: -- Didn't that 18 strike you as an illegally converted building? 19 MS. LOWRY: Yes, it did. But this is 20 New York City, there's a lot of weird things that go 21 on in real estate here. 22 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And that really 23 does not uphold the law. 24 MS. LOWRY: You're right. You're 25 right. 136 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And I have sat 3 through, and saw my industrial park chipped away 4 because of this act. And not to mention that the 5 original tenants that were occupying space, loft 6 space, would love to remain but find themselves 7 displaced because as soon as everything becomes 8 converted, they're the first ones to be evicted, and 9 can't afford to remain in what they considered to be 10 the pioneers of having converted. 11 MS. LOWRY: I understand their 12 concerns, and there are our concerns, and I know 13 that there are a lot of clashes with that. It's a 14 hard situation for everybody in this City with real 15 estate, and people get displaced. I've been 16 displaced. I used to live in the East Village. I 17 moved to Arizona for a few years. I've lived in the 18 City for over 30 years. I moved back, I could no 19 longer afford to live in the East Village. I hung on 20 as long as I could, in an eight foot by eight foot 21 boarding house room because also I was competing 22 with Wall Street brokers for tiny little East 23 Village apartments. 24 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And that's 25 happening right now in our neighborhood. 137 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 MS. LOWRY: It happens everywhere. And 3 manufacturing, yes. Yes, manufacturing is suffering, 4 but I think that's also happening country-wide. I 5 don't think that that's just indicative of what's 6 happening in our neighborhood, and not just about 7 redevelopment. 8 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: But this is not 9 about redevelopment in a site that it has the 10 appropriate zoning for it. This is in a site where 11 the zoning calls for light industrial use, and I 12 have many different businesses looking for that type 13 of space. 14 MS. LOWRY: Well, these are issues 15 that, believe me, until today I didn't know a lot of 16 what was going on here. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: And I 18 appreciate that. Thank you very much. 19 MS. LOWRY: I'm learning a lot about 20 housing issues and super delegates this year. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I appreciate 22 that. 23 MS. LOWRY: Thank you. 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 25 Does the tenant, the other tenant who 138 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 was here with the baby, she is here now, does she 3 want to say something? 4 MS. BOLLERSLEV: Well, I was just 5 outside. Okay, well, hello. My name is Io 6 Bollerslev, and I just came in because I was outside 7 with my son, but I just wanted to say that I have 8 lived in the building for five years, and I feel 9 that it's been so safe. I feel that it is a safe 10 place where I can, you know, bring up my son. It's 11 always by the rules and regulations, so I just 12 always feel that it is a safe place, and I wouldn't 13 know where to just go and find -- I feel like it's a 14 treasure. I wouldn't know where to just go and find 15 a place where things always get taken care of, and I 16 feel safe with him. 17 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: You know, and we 18 certainly appreciate your testimony, but I think you 19 realize that there are larger issues here, and the 20 fact that why were you put in this position of 21 renting an apartment that was illegal. So, I mean, 22 this is what we have to sort of sort out. 23 MS. BOLLERSLEV: Yes. I mean, we have 24 a business, so originally it was just for the 25 business. But I still think that, you know, it's 139 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 very difficult to find a place that you can pay for 3 a normal family in New York City. And I've lived in 4 a lot of places in the time that I have lived here, 5 and there is none of them where I would, you know, 6 just love to have my son and my family. Because, you 7 know, there's a lot of places where they may have 8 done everything by the rule but then there are 9 problems in the building. 10 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you. 11 MS. BOLLERSLEV: So, I think that it's 12 rare. 13 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Okay, thank you. 14 Council Member Reyna, did you have 15 some more questions? 16 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: I don't think 17 that any further questioning is going to shed 18 further enlightening here. You know, I think the 19 request on behalf of the applicant is more so to 20 reward and they are willing to pay whatever means 21 necessary to grant them the reward to adhere to the 22 crime that they admit they've committed. I'm not 23 here to be put in a position where I'm being asked 24 what is it that you need and we will grant you, just 25 ignore the fact that we've broken the law to begin 140 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 with. You know, I've stated my arguments. I call 3 upon the Committee to do its due diligence. This is 4 not the first of many different rezonings that are 5 going to come before us requesting the same thing. I 6 have been informed by the applicant that there have 7 been many other examples that have occurred, not 8 under my watch, not in my district, and I cannot 9 allow this to continue. I just spent hours, you 10 know, trying to make sure that we worked on 11 legislation to impose further penalty for illegal 12 conversions, to try to disincentivize this from 13 happening. You put people at risk. Granted this 14 applicant did everything possible not to put people 15 at risk, but still broke the law. And there was a 16 clear understanding as to where he could have gone 17 to request a variance to not have to put himself in 18 this predicament, circumvented the process and now 19 expects us to deal with the problem. 20 I think it's relatively clear as to 21 how the tables have been turned or we've been 22 cornered to decide to do something that could have 23 been avoided. 24 CHAIRPERSON AVELLA: Thank you, 25 Council member. 141 1 ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 Thank you, gentlemen. 3 If there is no one else signed up to 4 speak, I will close the public hearing on this item, 5 and this meeting is recessed til 9:45 tomorrow 6 morning at 250 on the 14th floor. Thank you. 7 (Hearing recessed at 12:51 p.m.) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 142 1 2 CERTIFICATION 3 4 5 STATE OF NEW YORK ) 6 COUNTY OF NEW YORK ) 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified 10 Shorthand Reporter, do hereby certify that the 11 foregoing is a true and accurate transcript of the 12 within proceeding. 13 I further certify that I am not 14 related to any of the parties to this action by 15 blood or marriage, and that I am in no way 16 interested in the outcome of this matter. 17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto 18 set my hand this 19th day of March 2008. 19 20 21 22 23 --------------------- 24 CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25 143 1 2 C E R T I F I C A T I O N 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified Shorthand 10 Reporter and a Notary Public in and for the State of 11 New York, do hereby certify the aforesaid to be a 12 true and accurate copy of the transcription of the 13 audio tapes of this hearing. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ----------------------- CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25