80 Flatbush Project Could Cast Shadow Over Brooklyn, Foes Worry

BOERUM HILL, BROOKLYN — While they would give the city's first Arabic-language public high school a much-needed new home, local advocates worry two massive mixed-use buildings planned for Boerum Hill would forever cast a shadow over a swath of Brownstone Brooklyn — including a beloved community garden.

The City Council's Zoning Subcommittee heard plans Tuesday for the 80 Flatbush development, which calls for 74- and 34-story buildings in an area bordered by Schermerhorn Street, Flatbush Avenue, State Street and Third Avenue.

The pair of towers proposed by Alloy Development would contain more than 900 residential units, offices and two new schools, including a larger home for Khalil Gibran International Academy. The school's current building would be revamped into a new cultural space, according to the project's website.

But advocates worry the outsize buildings will block sunlight from the 40-year-old Rockwell Place Community Garden, potentially damaging the longtime amenity in addition to the surrounding brownstone neighborhoods. The garden is located at Lafayette and Flatbush avenues.

"As moss grows in the shadows on the dark north side of trees and buildings, we face the same fate — a darkened space unsuitable for the vegetables, fruit and flowers that flourish there now," said Ron Janoff, a coordinator for the garden.

The city's Educational Construction Fund selected Alloy last year to redevelop the Khalil Gibran Academy site with a project that requires a significant upzoning.

It's hard for the academy to retain students while they languish in a dilapidated, aging building where many floors lack bathrooms and there's no gym or auditorium, said Jennifer Maldonado, the Educational Construction Fund's executive director.

The booming Downtown Brooklyn area also desperately needs the more than 160 new school seats the project would add, officials argued. And the new apartments — about 200 of which will be permanently affordable — will give the city's stressed housing market some breathing room, aid Alloy CEO Jared Della Valle.

"The threat of displacement is low and an opportunity exists to create more economic diversity through the provision of affordable housing," Della Valle said at Tuesday's hearing. "The housing crisis affects all communities and the efforts to address it should be shared equally across the city."

The plan also has support from business groups such as the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the Association for a Better New York.

But it has drawn fierce opposition from residents and elected officials who argue the state benefits aren't worth the overdevelopment. The City Planning Commission approved it last week despite the local community board's land use committee voting it down earlier this year.

"There have been tweaks to the plan, but frankly they've been underwhelming and not addressing the core concerns of (the) community, which has been density," said state Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D-Boerum Hill).

Local Councilman Stephen Levin said the site has long been considered a "transitional" block between Downtown Brooklyn's skyscrapers and the low-rise brownstones to the south.

While he didn't take a hard stance on the project, he questioned the propriety of putting such dense development right across from small-scale residential neighborhoods.

"Frankly, height doesn't really matter to me that much," Levin said. "It's about the scale, it's about the experience of the local residents, and density is the thing that impacts experience more than height."

The development plans reportedly still need approval from the Zoning Subcommittee, the Land Use Committee and the full Council.

(Lead image: Supporters of Downtown Brooklyn's Rockwell Place Community Garden wave their hands at a Tuesday hearing on the 80 Flatbush project. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)