A controversial hi-rise plan that throws shade on the “sacred’’ Brooklyn Botanical Backyard — doubtlessly damaging its delicate unique vegetation — received the go-ahead from town Planning Fee on Monday.
The panel voted 9-3 to approve developer Continuum’s pruned-back but nonetheless towering plan for 962-70 Franklin Ave. — as backyard advocates argued even the revised proposal will show devastating for such treasured denizens as tropical orchids, tropical desert vegetation and South African bulbs.
“@BrooklynBotanic is sacred, and this one-of-a-kind neighborhood useful resource deserves one-of-a-kind consideration,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso wrote in a current X put up. “This proposal fails to satisfy that customary.”
Façade modifications had been remodeled the summer time to scale back the constructing’s top from 14 to 10 tales, reducing the variety of residential items from 475 to 355, together with 89 income-restricted items.
The shadow impacts to the backyard will “fluctuate on completely different parts of the backyard, starting from no shadow impacts on sunlight-sensitive conservatories to a variety between 47 and 69 minutes on Hardy [Plant Nursery Yard] and [NY] Native plant sections the place the influence is taken into account partially mitigatable,” a DCP rep instructed The Publish, lauding the revised authorised plan.
Continuum has additionally pledged funding to mitigating shadow impacts in different methods, equivalent to added lighting and construction upgrades to each the botanic backyard and close by Jackie Robinson Playground.
“With right now’s motion, we’re charting a path ahead that balances the necessity for brand new housing with important protections for a treasured neighborhood area,” mentioned Division of Metropolis Planning Director Dan Garodnick in an announcement.
“The Brooklyn Botanic Backyard is a jewel of the borough, and the particular protections that we’ve proposed will guarantee it could thrive far into the longer term whereas additionally creating the housing this neighborhood wants,” he mentioned.
The proposal will now go to the Metropolis Council for a vote. The council has been recognized to present weight to Planning Fee suggestions.
The planning panel’s approval Monday comes after it overwhelmingly struck down comparable plans in 2021 for the coveted location on Franklin Avenue. That proposal known as for 2 39-story buildings – a far cry from Continuum’s present plans.
Brooklyn’s Neighborhood Board 9 additionally rejected the plans in June, citing “vital adversarial results on parts of the neighborhood district together with the Brooklyn Botanic Backyard (BBG) and the Jackie Robinson Playground.”
Regardless of the developer’s emphasis on the pruned plans at a public listening to final month, the proposal, if authorised by the Metropolis Council, continues to be poised to create “existential hurt to Brooklyn Botanic Backyard for generations to return,” Adrian Benepe, Brooklyn Botanic Backyard’s president and CEO, has beforehand mentioned.
BBG Vice President of Horticulture Rowan Blaik has additionally accused the developer of implementing a research into the shadow impacts that “cherry-picks” knowledge and measures daylight in inappropriate areas, equivalent to rooftops moderately than plant beds.
Metropolis Planning Commissioner Leah Goodridge, who forged one of many dissenting votes, criticized the “affordability” part of Continuum’s plan — stating the “abhorrent” $3,000+ month-to-month price ticket for the market-rate studio items within the deliberate constructing.
“Housing versus inexperienced areas,” Goodridge mentioned. “I perceive that there’s a housing crunch, however we additionally see, from a coverage standpoint, that it’s forcing folks to make this form of choice that inexperienced areas should not necessary, and we see that taking place all through town.”
Garodnick mentioned on the assembly, “This has definitely been one of the debated non-public functions to return earlier than town Planning Fee in years, and for a very good cause: It calls out the necessity to stability a chance for brand new housing within the midst of a generational housing scarcity, and the safety of the Brooklyn Botanic Backyard, one of many jewels of the borough.
“With the modifications that the DCP crew has laid out and is recommending to the fee, I’m assured that we’ve achieved an applicable stability,” he mentioned.