Domino Sugar project gets “no” from community board

The Community Preservation Corporation’s $1.2 billion Domino Sugar factory redevelopment project got a resounding “no” last night from Community Board 1, because of doubts about whether the group’s planned skyscrapers would benefit the neighborhood. The 23-12 vote backs another “no” vote last week by the board’s land use committee, though neither decision is more than advisory. Borough President Marty Markowitz will hold a public hearing on tomorrow before he makes a decision, which will also act as a suggestion to the City Planning Commission and ultimately, the City Council. Plans call for a 2,200-unit waterfront apartment complex, which would require the Kent Avenue site, just north of the Williamsburg Bridge, to be rezoned from manufacturing to residential. The developers have promised to create an open, public space on the waterfront and to designate 30 percent, or 660, of its units for below market-rate housing, far more than what is required by current zoning. The land-use committee last week had objected that the affordable housing in the complex would not necessarily be permanent, but the developers have since insisted that it would be. [Brooklyn Paper]

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