BoCoCa Community Board Holds Small Developer to Affordable Housing Standards

COLUMBIA WATERFRONT, BROOKLYN — The executive committee of Community Board 6 backed a zoning change Tuesday that would let a developer build a four-story apartment building at 14-18 Carroll St. But the issue was treated as precedent-setting by the committee, who wanted to ensure they weren't opening the door to other small-scale developments that would skirt the city's affordable housing regulations.

Under the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing rules, developers putting up buildings of 10 units or less don't need to include affordable apartments on-site.

Those developing buildings of 11-25 units can chose to either build on-site affordable units, or pay money into a fund to be used for affordable housing construction elsewhere.

Councilman Brad Lander, who represents part of the Columbia Waterfront and who attended Tuesday's meeting, said the city is currently formulating exactly how those payments will be calculated (they could, for example, be indexed to the number of units in question, or the total square footage of the development).

The developer of the 14-18 Carroll St. property has proposed a building of about 10 units. But Lander said he didn't want the company to get its zoning change approval, only to then change its plans to avoid having to pay into the affordable housing fund — for example, by deciding to build just 10 units rather than 11.

Craig Hammersmith, the district manager of CB6, said the community didn't want that, either. As such, the executive committee applied a set of conditions to its approval.

First, it attached a pre-amble to the vote stating that it wants to increase the number of affordable units in the communities it represents.

Second, it stipulated that any money contributed by the developer to the affordable housing fund be used within CB6 (Lander said that's already the law). Third, the committee members wanted the developer to keep the proposed external design of the building previously shown to CB members (Patch is trying to obtain a copy of the rendering).

And finally, the committee said the developer should pay an amount of money into the fund that is proportional to the size of its construction. In other words, regardless of how the city writes its rules, the developer should pay a proportionally equivalent amount whether it builds a structure of 9 units or 15.

Hammersmith said the board was aiming to ensure the developer doesn't "get through any loopholes and that our district benefits" from the project.

The City Hall press office did not return requests for further information about when the city's rules related to the affordable housing fund will be finalized.

Pictured at top: Councilman Brad Lander speaks with the CB6 executive committee on Tuesday