Borough President Adams Turns Down 18-Story Atlantic Ave Complex

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has voted against plans to build an 18-story apartment tower on Atlantic Avenue, agreeing with community board members who called for a smaller, more affordable version of the complex.

The borough president released his 17-page decision this week to disapprove the 840 Atlantic Ave. proposal, which asks to change zoning rules to make way for a partly-affordable apartment building where a McDonald's now stands on the corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues.

The vote follows a similar disapproval in May from Community Board 8, who had spent months in a back-and-forth with developers given that the building asks for more density than is laid out in a development plan known as M-CROWN that the community board has for the neighborhood.

Adams echoed the concern in his decision.

"Borough President Adams generally supports the applicant’s proposal to increase density along wide commercial streets in the M-Crown district, which would facilitate a new mixed-use building at 840 Atlantic Avenue. However, he acknowledges that the project represents a large jump in density from what is permitted by the underlying district," he wrote.

Like Community Board 8, Adams' disapproval lays out several suggestions for how the developer could change their proposal to fit better with zoning goals for the area.

Developers have contended that their staircase-like building — which is tallest at the busiest part of the corner and as short as three stories at other parts of the development — was designed to fit with its place on the edge of the M-CROWN development area.

Through conversations with the community board, they have scaled back the proposed building, but have resisted shrinking it enough to meet the board's guidelines.

The current proposal would include 284 apartments, 71 of which would be set aside as affordable.

The price of the affordable apartments has also been a sticking point for local officials.

At the hearing with the borough president, developers said they would make the apartment more affordable by switching from what is known as Option 2 to Option 1 in the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.

But Adams contended the complex should use the even more affordable "Option 3" given rampant gentrification in Prospect and Crown Heights, in part driven by the nearby 22-acre project known as Pacific Park.

"The influx of wealthier individuals to the area, through the many units developed to date as part of Pacific Park, together with increased land values, has led to the replacement of longtime, low-income tenants, with new residents able to pay higher rents," he said.

Nearly 58 percent of households in Community Board 8's districts are considered rent-burdened and 50 percent of their residents make less than $60,000 per year. Under both Option 1 and Option 2 of MIH, most of the affordable apartments would require a salary higher than $60,000, According to Adams.

The Atlantic Avenue proposal will head to the City Planning Commission next.