A state Supreme Court judge starting tomorrow is scheduled to rule on a motion to block the city from rezoning the so-called Broadway Triangle urban renewal area in Brooklyn, a 31-acre site that activists say has favored politically connected members of the Hasidic community in Williamsburg over African American residents of Bedford Stuyvesant.

The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition will present expert testimony before Judge Emily Goodwin over what they claim to be long-standing housing segregation that has given members of the Hasidic community preferential treatment in public housing, despite a waiting list that is overwhelmingly black and Latino.

“Their goal an intention has always been to accommodate the political connected Hasidic Jewish community,” said attorney Marty Needelman of the Brooklyn Legal Services, representing the coalition. “Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg has totally given in to whatever they can come with.” [more]

A state Supreme Court judge ruled against the city in the controversial Broadway Triangle rezoning case in which a coalition of community groups allege that the Bloomberg administration steered affordable housing deals to members of the Hasidic community and two non-profit groups linked to Brooklyn party boss Vito Lopez.

The Bloomberg administration filed an October 2010 motion asking Judge Emily Goodwin to lift a stay on development of three sites near the Williamsburg location of Broadway Triangle. Several other affordable housing projects are on hold pending an investigation into possible civil rights violations by Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

City officials said the ruling will not have any impact on the case, as the development still remains on hold until the investigation moves forward. [more]

The city’s investigation into the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — a non-profit founded by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, allegedly plagued by fraud — is hindering the group’s effort to develop a huge city-owned plot of contaminated land called the Broadway Triangle, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Attorneys for the city asked a Manhattan judge to lift her stay on development, despite the concurrent investigations into the site’s developer, and the state’s decision to delay funding for housing contracts on two city-owned sites within the triangle. Ridgewood Bushwick and its nonprofit partner, the United Jewish Organizations, were awarded the rights to develop 1,895 units of housing on a 31-acre brownfield near the former headquarters of Pfizer in South Williamsburg almost two years ago. The plan was approved by the city, despite protests from community members who sued to stop it. At the same time, federal investigators were probing the records of Lopez, regarding how government subsidies could be used to fund brownfield redevelopment programs such as the Broadway Triangle. Thanks to the judge’s reluctance to move forward, the Broadway Triangle now remains on hold. [Brooklyn Paper]

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The city’s investigation into the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — a non-profit founded by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, allegedly plagued by fraud — is hindering the group’s effort to develop a huge city-owned plot of contaminated land called the Broadway Triangle, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Attorneys for the city asked a Manhattan judge to lift her stay on development, despite the concurrent investigations into the site’s developer, and the state’s decision to delay funding for housing contracts on two city-owned sites within the triangle. Ridgewood Bushwick and its nonprofit partner, the United Jewish Organizations, were awarded the rights to develop 1,895 units of housing on a 31-acre brownfield near the former headquarters of Pfizer in South Williamsburg almost two years ago. The plan was approved by the city, despite protests from community members who sued to stop it. At the same time, federal investigators were probing the records of Lopez, regarding how government subsidies could be used to fund brownfield redevelopment programs such as the Broadway Triangle. Thanks to the judge‘s reluctance to move forward, the Broadway Triangle now remains on hold. [Brooklyn Paper]

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Broadway Triangle

City officials are riled over last week’s ruling allowing a
lawsuit against a contentious rezoning initiative to move forward, according to the Brooklyn Paper. They say the
suit would delay construction of new housing on the Broadway Triangle
site in South Williamsburg, and endanger state money promised to two
nonprofit organizations slated to develop it.
Forty community groups filed a lawsuit in December, accusing the city
of discriminating against them by rezoning the area with the backing
of the City Council.
Justice Emily Goodman ruled against a city motion to dismiss the case,
saying that evidence of discrimination and segregation was substantial
enough to continue investigating the city’s redevelopment plans, which include the construction of 1,851 housing units. But city
officials maintain that Goodman’s reading of the law is misguided,
since all apartments in the new buildings will be open to Brooklyn residents
regardless of race or ethnicity.

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Court hearings over the controversial Broadway Triangle rezoning began last week, with plaintiffs contending that the city left key community groups out of the planning process before handing the development rights over to Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and the United Jewish Organizations, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The city, on the other hand, claims that the plans moved more quickly not because of bias but due to a funding deadline. Louise Moed, an attorney for the city, said that blocking the project would be a detriment to the community. “The city will be harmed and residents will lose access to affordable housing if the sites are not developed,” Moed said.

The development of the Broadway Triangle, a 31-acre site in Brooklyn bordering Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, has been temporarily halted due to a court order from a Manhattan judge. The injunction was handed down yesterday, after Monday’s City Council approval of Bloomberg’s plans for the site. The ruling came down after a lawsuit was filed Tuesday, alleging that minority groups in the region were left out of the rezoning process. The city will be barred from taking further actions to develop or rezone the region until a hearing in March.

In a 36-4 vote yesterday, the City Council approved a controversial rezoning proposal by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for Brooklyn’s long-blighted Broadway Triangle, a 31-acre parcel of land in East Williamsburg, near the borders of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. The land is currently zoned for manufacturing, but the plan will convert it to a residential community with 1,851 units of housing, more than 800 of which would be for low- and moderate-income families. The rezoning was approved this summer by the local community board, and yesterday was the last day that the City Council could vote on the project, which has been met with harsh criticism over the past two years. Some say the plan does not do enough to address the area’s growing need for affordable housing, while others charge that the city granted early development rights to the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council, without providing any opportunity for competitive bidding. Martin Needelman, a lawyer for several groups that oppose the plan, said he would file a lawsuit today to block the decision. [NYT]

The city’s public and private development projects are a testament to its bright future, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS yesterday. Bloomberg praised the job-creating new NYPD College Point Police Academy, a $750 million project that he said will create 2,000 construction jobs after being on the drawing boards for more than 20 years. In Williamsburg, the vacant “30-acre eyesore” known as the Broadway Triangle is awaiting final approval from the City Council on its rezoning, which Bloomberg said will allow close to 1,900 new apartments, nearly half of which will be designated affordable. Bloomberg also cited the last piece of the West Side rail yards’ rezoning decision, expected this week, as a way for the city to preserve affordable housing options, as well as the Hunters Point South development on Queens’ East River waterfront, where construction broke ground six weeks ago. “All these projects in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan spell j-o-b-s for New Yorkers,” Bloomberg said. TRD

A final vote on the city’s Broadway Triangle proposal is expected for Oct. 19, despite the widespread community opposition to the rezoning plan for the vacant space that borders Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the rezoning would allow for 1,850 new apartments, about half of which will be reserved for affordable housing. A coalition of around 40 local groups has been adamantly protesting the project, arguing that it was unilaterally conceived and didn’t take community concerns into account. “The HPD is always doing this and it has to stop,” Ward Dennis, chair of the land use committee under Community Board 1, said. “It’s a good plan, a good contextual plan, the kind we’ve been advocating for. The problem is, the process stinks.”