Eddie Small, Crain's New York, 8.19.20
The City Planning Commission has recommended approval of the controversial Industry City rezoning, despite the objections of local City Councilman Carlos Menchaca.
The commission voted Wednesday morning to approve the proposal, by a vote of 11–1, with one member recusing herself.
In prepared remarks, commission Chairwoman Marisa Lago said she was pleased to vote in favor of the project, as it could provide a huge economic boost to the city at a time when it was dealing with record job losses.
“We know that for our city to function, we need both warehousing space and space for job-dense uses close to where New Yorkers live,” Lago said. “And the Industry City proposal can provide both—without public subsidies or public capital investments on the underutilized privately owned 30-acre facility—but only if we update our long-outdated zoning.”
Menchaca announced in late July that he would vote no on the Industry City rezoning if it came before the council. That normally kills a project, due to the council’s tradition of local-member deference, but the Industry City case has been different.
Councilmen Ritchie Torres, Donovan Richards and Robert Cornegy all urged the city to move forward with the rezoning over Menchaca’s objections. They cited the plan’s likely economic benefits. A group of business and labor leaders wrote a letter to Council Speaker Corey Johnson, calling on him to keep the project alive.
The Citizens Budget Commission announced it would launch a review of the city’s land-use procedures in the wake of the controversy.
“Industry City’s plan represents a much-needed investment for Sunset Park and the entire city, creating thousands of new jobs and helping New York City recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said New York Building Congress CEO Carlo Scissura, one of the signatories of the letter to Johnson. “This is the type of investment we need right now.”
Menchaca released a lengthy statement in response to the commission’s vote, calling it unsurprising but “still remarkable, and deeply offensive to the Sunset Park community.”
He slammed the commission for not looking more into who the jobs would be for and why Industry City needed a rezoning to continue developing the site.
“But perhaps more disturbing than what the commission said is what it did not say,” he said. “Nowhere was there an acknowledgement of the Sunset Park community’s deepest concern, which is that the rezoning will cause a rise in rents and displacement of its working-class, immigrant families.”
The project has faced strong local opposition throughout the process over these concerns, mainly from Protect Sunset Park. Jorge Muniz, a leader with the group, remained optimistic that the rezoning would still ultimately not happen, saying it was already on life support in the face of community resistance.
“We feel pretty confident that this thing is on its way to falling apart,” he said.
Industry City is owned by a group of landlords including Jamestown, Belvedere Capital and Angelo Gordon. They have spent more than a year trying to rezone the property, with the initial plan calling for two hotels and 1 million square feet of commercial space.
“We will continue to make the case for this proposal, and look forward to working with the City Council and other community stakeholders as the approval process enters its final phase,” Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball said.
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/planning-commission-recommends-industry-city-rezoning
