The one where a four-block, nearly-1,000-unit East New York rezoning cleared committee 10 to 0

The headline number out of the December 11 Land Use Committee was nearly one thousand apartments. Chair Rafael Salamanca moved to approve, with modifications, the bundle of land use items 434 through 438 for the High Kimmer Williams proposal in Councilmember Nurse's East New York district in Brooklyn. The plan reshapes four blocks: over one million square feet of floor area, close to a thousand residential units, plus commercial space, light industrial uses, and publicly accessible open space. It runs on five related actions, a zoning map amendment, a zoning text amendment, a combined site selection and acquisition, and two special permits, one of which sets up a large-scale general development. The committee's modifications struck MIH Option 2, the affordability choice that decides who actually gets to live in those units.

Councilmember Nurse asked to be recognized after the roll opened and put a marker on the record. She called herself excited about the project and said the parties had gotten to a good place, but added that there were still things to work out, with hope of landing them by the 18th. The vote did not wait on that. The full slate carried ten in the affirmative, zero in the negative, no abstentions, every item adopted as described by the chair.

The Brooklyn megaproject shared the agenda with a smaller Queens item. The committee approved LU 439, the rezoning at 18-15 Francis Lewis Boulevard in Councilmember Paladino's District 19, which lays a C1-2 commercial overlay over existing R3-2 residential zoning. A third item never reached a decision on its merits. The applicant behind the Lee Dive sidewalk cafe revocable consent, listed as the Saiwa Cafe application under LU 447, withdrew it in writing, so Salamanca moved to file it under council rule 11.60B rather than rule on it.

With the East New York approval banked, the project moves toward the full Council. Nurse's open items, and her target of the 18th, are the thread to watch before the redevelopment of those four blocks becomes final.