Activists Storm Industry City Meeting, Menchaca Vows Rezone Fight

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Council Member Carlos Menchaca vowed not to let Industry City's rezoning plan move forward without concessions, but that may not be enough for hoards of activists who stormed a fraught meeting Monday night and demanded an end to the proposal altogether.

Hundreds of residents who showed up to Sunset Park High School to hear Menchaca's stance on the plan — which would transform Industry City's 16-building waterfront complex — ended up taking over the meeting before the council member could finish his presentation.

Menchaca told residents that he would not accept Industry City's current plans, but was drowned out by chants of "no rezoning, no conditions" as he tried to lay out the series of demands he wants to instead ask from the private complex.

"You just heard, and saw, and witnessed what it looks like when the community exercises (their) power," said activist Jorge Muniz, one of several residents who came up to the mic after Menchaca left, even as the lights were turned out. "As someone who looked up to Carlos and really respected his leadership, I was disappointed to see...someone try to come up to this mic and sell out his community. Shame on Carlos."

(Anna Quinn/Patch) Activists took to the mic after Menchaca left the meeting.

Muniz is among a coalition of organizations that handed Menchaca a petition with 4,000 signatures against the rezoning proposal before his presentation. The group, Protect Sunset Park, argues that Menchaca should deny Industry City's proposal outright given its potential to exacerbate gentrification already rampant in the working class, immigrant neighborhood.

Advocates from workers' unions who support the rezoning for the 15,000 jobs Industry City promises it will bring were also at the meeting. Many walked out along with Menchaca as other activists wouldn't let him finish his presentation.

Menchaca contended that simply saying no to the application would not stop the rising rents, loss of manufacturing and displacement that Industry City has contributed to since its owners purchased the complex in 2013.

"While Industry City has certainly contributed to the trends that have hurt our community, saying no without a plan to confront those challenges will not fix those issues, but allow them continue," Menchaca said in a statement after the meeting. "They can continue to build and make all those trends worse or we can use this as an opportunity to change the zoning rules to stop them and steer them in a direction that benefits our community."

Under current zoning rules, Industry City has transformed the 19th-century manufacturing hub from a largely vacant complex to a shopping and eating destination that houses more than 500 businesses.

Its rezoning plan, which they will resubmit to the city at the end of the month after a delay Menchaca requested earlier this year, would alter zoning rules to make way for 900,000 square feet of new food and retail space, 600,000 square feet of classrooms and educational facilities and a pair of hotels with more than 400 rooms.

Menchaca's "Industry City, our way" plan instead proposes not allowing or limiting some of these uses while demanding city investments in Sunset Park.

(Anna Quinn/Patch) Menchaca reveals his "no" stance on the current Industry City proposal.

His conditions include not allowing any hotels, limiting retail, creating a manufacturing hub managed by a non-profit, adding a technical public high school, building solar panels on Industry City roofs and requiring city investments in tenant organizing and affordable housing.

The council member said he will ask for commitment from the Mayor's Office to help make the investments and plans to form a group to be at one end of a "community benefits agreement" with Industry City. He plans to send a letter Tuesday asking Industry City to replace its current proposal with one that incorporates his conditions.

But the industrial complex, at least initially, seems reluctant to do so. In a statement after the meeting, a spokesperson for the complex implied that negotiations about Menchaca's conditions will take place during the review process, after Industry City's proposal is officially submitted.

"The dialogue continues and some interesting ideas were put forth,"spokesperson Lisa Serbaniewicz said. "These kind of ideas are considered and discussed during (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure)."

When asked Tuesday if they will consider making those revisions before submitting the application, Serbaniewicz would only say that they "look forward to receiving the letter from Councilmember Menchaca so that we can continue the conversation and create an outcome that allows for continued job creation while addressing the community’s needs.”

Activists also plan to start writing letters — to Menchaca's office, they said after the meeting. Protect Sunset Park said that, to them, Menchaca walking out before the end of the meeting amounted to him "turning his back" on the community. They plan to continue to demand he turn down the proposal without the conditions.

"For months and months now Carlos has asked us to listen — now Carlos needs to listen," Muniz said.

But Menchaca contended that he still heard the resident's loud and clear.

"I was not able to finish the presentation, and that is okay," he said in his statement. "Industry City has a mixed record of success, and has almost certainly exacerbated gentrification, displacement, rising housing and commercial rents, and the loss of manufacturing on our waterfront.

"Given this record, it was completely understandable that many of my neighbors who are anxious, excited, fearful, or angry about what Industry City has and hasn’t done would want to make me aware of those feelings and make sure I got it," he continued. "I got it."