Brooklyn Community Board 1 is backing the controversial Monitor Point project, a proposed housing development that also entails new green space and a permanent home for the Greenpoint Monitor Museum.
NY1 reports that the board voted 24-9 in favor of the project. However, that support is not unconditional, as they’re calling for “a 50% local preference for affordable housing, an increase in cars for the G train and doubling the funding for Bushwick Inlet Park.”
Monitor Point, a private-public partnership spearheaded by Gotham Organization, has sharply divided the community since it was first proposed.
Gotham Organization plans to create three residential towers, comprising 1,150 apartments, on land they will lease from the MTA. Project supporters say that this will generate a much-needed stream of funding for the agency, as well as create permanently affordable housing in a neighborhood bereft of it (40% of the units will be affordable).
The project’s critics say that the project does not go far enough in addressing the neighborhood’s affordability crisis and will be just another luxury high rise development that further drives up rents and pushes residents out.
Monitor Point’s location on the Bushwick Inlet further complicates the public’s opinion. Some see it as an opportunity to enact new publicly-accessible open space (with a new museum attached), while others say it could damage the inlet’s fragile ecosystem and be susceptible to flooding from climate change.
The board’s vote marks the first local government representative to come out in support of the project. State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and City Council Member Lincoln Restler all stated their opposition at a recent board hearing in January.
A Gotham Organization spokesperson said in the following statement:
“We are grateful for Community Board 1’s thoughtful engagement and its vote of support for Monitor Point tonight. We heard the board clearly, and we take the conditions of that approval seriously. Our commitment is to work collaboratively through the land use process to address those conditions in ways that are financially responsible and reflective of what this community has told us it needs — deeply affordable homes, a restored waterfront, and the environmental investment Greenpoint deserves. We know there is more work to do, and we’re ready to do it.”
The board’s vote is advisory, but taken into consideration during the city’s zoning process. The project will move next to the Brooklyn Borough President and the City Planning Commission before it can move forward to the City Council. If successful, the project will likely be completed in 2031.
The way Affordable is designated… talk about “rigged”! Like gerrymandering, it’s possible to sweep in the areas with highest rents, and average them. It works out that a one bedroom could be considered Affordable at say, 2700. Is that a good rent?