Brooklyn Community Board 1 kicked off the year with a combined board meeting/public hearing on January 11th, scheduled for 6 – 7 PM, but running over by an hour and a half. The meeting got off to a bit of a slow start due to technical difficulties.
- New Brooklyn borough president and former city council member for District 34 Antonio Reynoso spoke to the board members about working together and what his new team looks like. Since a lot of folks from the borough president’s office left to join new Mayor Eric Adams, he’s working with a small team for now.
- District leader Kristina Naplatarski spoke on behalf of new District 34 council member Jennifer Gutiérrez who is out on maternity leave.
- New District 33 city council member Lincoln Restler also spoke about his new office and how he’d like to work together with the Board on land use issues.
- A presentation from the team behind the new proposed space at 840 Lorimer gave a presentation about how they envision the space looking like. The idea is that it will be a mixed-use residential and retail space. The first three floors would be zoned for retail and office space. A vote on approving the project was rescheduled to allow time for a larger discussion. There were some comments pushing back against the new development.
- A member Park Church Co-op spoke in favor of the church, and how they wanted to pursue landmark designation.
- Don Pancho Villa applied for a new liquor license, and two residents encouraged the Board to not approve their application, as they said they had made numerous noise complaints against the restaurant.
- A representative from Grow NYC spoke; they were supposed to have a stop and swap event on January 22, where residents are invited to use their gently used items.
- There was a large discussion about liquor licenses in Marsha P. Johnson Park, especially as it concerned BIBA, a bar and events space that wanted the Community Board to write a letter to the office of New York State Parks in support of them being granted a liquor license.
You can watch a recording of the meeting here.