Help With The Downtown Rezoning Plan

Dear Boerum Hill Association Member:

Boerum Hill needs your help and your voice.

As you have probably heard, the City of New York is proposing an intensive redevelopment of Downtown Brooklyn.

The Boerum Hill Association supports revitalization, BUT the "Downtown Brooklyn Plan" is only half a plan. It does not address the impact of thousands of new residents, workers and visitors on the surrounding brownstone neighborhoods, including Brooklyn Heights, regarding traffic mitigations, improvements to mass transit, or creation of open space. Nor does the plan provide for preservation of any of Downtown Brooklyn's historic buildings.

The plan, now undergoing public review by the City Planning Commission and City Council, anticipates 6 million square feet of new office, retail and residential space between Atlantic and Tillary, and from Boerum Place to east of Flatbush Ave. This does not even include the arena project, which could bring an additional 7.6 million sq. ft. of new construction, and will be separately reviewed.

The BHA has joined with other community groups to form the "Downtown Brooklyn Coalition". Together we are asking the Mayor to sign our "Contract with the Community" to protect our neighborhoods. (see http://www.boerumhillbrooklyn.org/archives/000024.html for a copy of the Contract and Community Statement of Needs which list the Coalition groups.) Other community groups are also asking their members and residents to write the Mayor.

We are calling for specific steps – which are described in the attached Word document – to address traffic, mass transit, open space, preservation and zoning.

Please let Mayor Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, and City Council Land Use Chair Melinda Katz know how you think the plan could be improved. As we have learned in the past (e.g.: last year's Office of Emergency Management proposals), letters, faxes and phone calls from citizens can make a real difference! So please take a minute to take action as described below. Your voice is urgently needed.

You may download the letter here and customize it yourself before printing it.

Sincerely,

Sue Wolfe
President

Jo Anne Simon
Chair, Land Use Committee

Posted by jpotisch at May 28, 2004 10:47 PM