Many Prospect Heights and Crown Heights residents said they are dissatisfied on how the city measures what is affordable rent amid a likely Atlantic Avenue rezoning that would add thousands of new housing units to the area.
As Community Board 8 gets ready to vote on the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Pan, which calls for an additional 4,600 apartments to be built and streetscape upgrades on and around the major corridor, residents pushed back at the city's plan to peg rents on the deeply affordable housing component to 40% of Area Median Income.
“I feel like this presentation is like a child that is hard headed and doesn’t listen to us,” said Jamell Henderson, a CB8 housing committee member, referring to Thursday’s presentation by Department of City Planning officials.
Henderson called for rent on affordable units to be based on 30% of AMI, so a wider swath of lower-income residents can quality for the apartments.
“How are we really living in a time right now when we’re just going to sit back and really say it’s okay to let this happen?" Henderson said.
DCP officials said they would follow up on residents’ concerns.
“We just want to remind everybody that the land use actions are at the heart of the proposal, but at the same time, we’re working towards other types of program-based or infrastructure improvements that get codified at the end of the process,” said Jonah Rogoff, a city planner at DCP, referring to job creation and job training programs that is part of the rezoning proposal.
The committee recommended the city include measures that would protect current tenants, as meeting attendees worried about tenant displacement that may stem from the rezoning. This included a five-year commitment of $750,000 towards tenant representation under the Right to Counsel program, which provides free legal representation from nonprofit legal services.
Sarah Lazur, a committee member and an organizer from the Crown Heights Tenant Union, advocated for such funds to be bumped to $3 million.
“Our neighborhood deserves special funding, and broad based funding,” said Lazur, pointing to an expansion of services for those who are currently ineligible for free representation under Right to Counsel.
Another well-received recommendation included the creation of a registry that would track tenants in the area who would likely face pressure of being displaced. The tenants on this registry would receive preference to get one of the affordable units in a building that would be newly built as result of the rezoning.
Mimi Mitchell, a committee member and a Prospect Heights resident, said she liked these "hopeful" proposals but wondered whether the city would agree to include such recommendations as past rezoning plans led to tenant displacement and the rights of tenants being stripped away.
"It makes me very skeptical and scared of what’s to come,” said Mitchell.
The general board meeting will vote on the proposal at the Brooklyn Children's Museum on Dec. 12 at 6:30pm.
