Sunset Park Library Project Gets Backing of Brooklyn Borough President

BROOKLYN, NY — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has offered his conditional support for a plan to replace the current Sunset Park Library with a new affordable housing building hosting a modern three-story library inside — though he recommended changes to the building's design, how its residents are picked, and how a temporary neighborhood library would operate during its construction.

The project is being jointly pitched by the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), which develops affordable housing in southwest Brooklyn.

Under the proposal, a new eight story building would rise in the library's current footprint at 5108 4th Ave. A new library inside would take up 21,000 square feet in the cellar and first two stories, above which would sit 49 affordable apartments.

The project is currently going through the city's Universal Land Use Review Process (ULURP). In November, the plan received the conditional backing of Community Board 7, sending it to Adams for review. Now that his comments have been received, the plan will head to the City Planning Commission for a Jan. 3 hearing.

In a document presenting his views, Adams said the redevelopment would "result in the much-needed expansion of the highly utilized" library," while also promoting "economic development through the creation of construction and other related jobs while also providing affordable housing."

However, Adams recommended changes to the building's design and tenant selection process.

Under the city's affordable housing lottery rules, at least half of the building's units would be held for residents of CB 7, which includes Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace. FAC staffers and Sunset Parkers have also called for the project to be heavily marketed to locals, including those living without documentation, to increase the chances that community members will receive spots in the building.

Adams, however, wants the preference requirement extended to homeless families whose children attend school in District 15 — which includes Carroll Gardens, part of Fort Greene, Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Windsor Terrace — as well as "any nearby neighboring school zone." (Adams has called for this to be a policy applied to all affordable lotteries.) That change, he said, would make life easier and more stable for homeless children and their parents alike.

The borough president said a plan to open a temporary 5,000-square-foot library in the former courthouse at 4201 4th Ave. during construction is "a less than desirable interim solution." As such, he called for CB 7, which operates out of the building, to share its meeting spaces with the temporary library when the board isn't using them. Adams also said that trailers and computer and internet-equipped vans could be used to enhance programming and computer access at the space.

Adams also called for the new library to feature "a more open floor plan" in order to "produce the most optimal design for a state-of-the-art library space and various library programming that might evolve over time." The current design builds the new library around aspects of the residential building above it, such as stairwells. Adams called for adjustments to the building's residential entrance, among other design elements, to prevent the library space from being split up.

Among his other recommendations: while the FAC has said all of the building's units would be permanently affordable, Adams said that pledge should be codified in writing by the city. And he said FAC should be required to use Brooklyn-based contractors on the project.

You can read the rest of Adams' commentary on the library proposal here.

Pictured at top: the Sunset Park Library. Photos by John V. Santore.