From left: Michael Lappin, CPC Resources Senior Vice President Susan Pollock and the Domino sign

The developers of the Domino Sugar Refinery site on the Williamsburg waterfront responded to one of the project’s main criticisms — that its 660 affordable apartments would become market-rate after 15 years — by saying today that housing would permanently stay affordable. Susan Pollock, senior vice president of project developer CPC Resources, said the about-face came after realizing the rezoning for Williamsburg and Greenpoint passed in 2005 required waterfront developers to include permanent, not temporary, affordable housing in their projects in order to receive a density bonus. Although the five-block Domino site, once the world’s largest sugar refinery, was not included in that rezoning, Pollock said they promised to follow those rules for the project’s 660 affordable apartments, out of 2,200 condos and rental units spread throughout six buildings that would be constructed over a 10-year period. [more]

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.

Developer Jonathan Bernstein is setting an ambitious course in Greenpoint — the first-timer is looking to build the tallest tower on the waterfront, so lofty that it exceeds current zoning laws by about 20 percent. The development, which includes two towers, one reaching 470 feet and the other up to 200 feet, would sit on a 100,000-square-foot lot on India Street by the East River. Bernstein is currently applying for the numerous city rezonings and approvals that would be needed to build the structure, the Architect’s Newspaper reported, although it may not be a lost cause. Ward Dennis, chairman of Brooklyn’s Community Board 1, says the project represents the tricky push-and-pull of new developments in the area. “It’s a beautiful project with a hard sell,” Dennis said. “What the community needs to decide is where that balance is between density and open space and affordable housing. And really, that’s what all of these projects come down to.” In fact, the developer’s promise to construct piers, install water taxi service, and facility beach access as a part of the project has reportedly helped cultivate support for the buildings.

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.”