Council okays Broadway Triangle rezoning

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]