Majority Leader Abreu turned a routine coupled vote into a confrontation. Before the Committee on Land Use approved LU 35 for the 1727 Amsterdam Hilltop Apartments, Abreu, whose district covers Hamilton Heights, said he had walked the block that morning with Mayor Mamdani and told his colleagues the fight over this site had run four years. The HPD project puts a nine-story, 100 percent affordable building with 200 units on city-owned land, mixing supportive housing, senior housing, and units for families earning at or below 40 percent of area median income. Emma Bowen, the mental health provider that has long operated on the site, gets a new home in the building, and Ryan Health will open a clinic blocks away with a million dollars Abreu and the mayor allocated for eye, dental, prenatal, and primary care. He did not soften the politics. He accused opponents of spreading lies and being content to see poor families pushed out of Harlem, said the final hearing drew more than twice as much support as opposition, and asked everyone to vote aye.
The rest of the package moved without speeches. The committee approved LU 36 and 37 for the DEP Newtown Creek CSO Tunnel, a three-mile combined sewer overflow retention system meant to clean up the creek across Brooklyn Community District 1 and Queens Community Districts 2 and 5, an application from the Department of Environmental Protection and DCAS backed by Council Members Won, Restler, and Gutierrez. In Williamsburg, LU 38, 39, and 40 cleared the way for a mixed-use light manufacturing and office building at 20 Berry Street in Council Member Restler's district, through a zoning map amendment, text amendment, and special permit.
The Manhattan items were smaller in scale but local. LU 41 lets open-air cafes and through-block galleries operate at 1325 Avenue of the Americas under the Special Midtown District, with Council Member Maloney in support. Two more sat in Council Member Marte's Lower East Side district: LU 42 and 43 map a slice of the Allen Street median between Delancey and Rivington as parkland while keeping wide-street bulk rules intact, and LU 47 grants revocable consent for the Ladive Sidewalk Cafe, trimmed from the requested six tables and twelve chairs to quiet noise complaints from neighbors. A preconsidered item green-lit a 754-seat primary and intermediate school site for the School Construction Authority in Staten Island Community District 3, in Council Member Moreno's district.
Clerk William Martin called the roll with all items coupled. The tally came back 12 in favor, zero against, no abstentions. Every item adopted, and the committee adjourned. The Amsterdam project now heads toward final Council action with the borough's majority leader publicly staked to it.