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 plan to convert Williamsburg’s Broadway Triangle area from a manufacturing-zoned site to a residential community won its first approval from Community Board 1′s land-use committee on Tuesday. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s controversial plan is to rezone the 31-acre portion of the triangle to create 1,851 units of housing, 905 of which would charge below-market rents. Supporters of the plan say the area needs affordable housing, while opponents allege corruption between the city and two neighborhood groups that have been awarded first dibs at affordable housing contracts. The city awarded the contracts to the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council, without putting the sites up for bid.