Bruce Eichner suffers 976th consecutive defeat in Crown Heights

Ian Bruce Eichner’s pursuit of a Crown Heights project has come to resemble Captain Ahab’s manic, ill-fated quest for Moby Dick.

In the latest chapter, the Brooklyn borough president recommended rejecting his upzoning proposal, which would allow Eichner’s Continuum Companies to build 475 apartments near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The project has not actually suffered 976 setbacks in a row, but it seems that way.

The recommendation by Antonio Reynoso, like the community board’s rejection earlier this summer, is non-binding, and the upzoning could still be approved.

Reynoso’s rejection of the most recent proposal for 970 Franklin Avenue by Continuum and partner Lincoln Equities followed a heated public hearing in which Garden officials frowned on the updated proposal’s design.

“It is still not possible to answer the simple question, What building can be constructed that creates no additional incremental shadow on BBG and its resources?” Reynoso wrote in his rejection letter, which was made public Friday.

Eichner, whose much larger proposal for the site crashed and burned two years ago, has tried to make the design more palatable to horticulturalists. With stepdowns on upper floors that allow for more sunlight to pass over the building, the structure would reduce solar exposure to the Garden by a minuscule 0.4 percent, engineering consultant Thornton Tomasetti concluded in a study commissioned by Continuum.

Still, Garden officials say they oppose any zoning change that would let a development shadow its plants more than what can be built under current zoning. Garden officials say outside experts were involved in their assessment, too, although they have not named who was consulted or released the findings. 

“When this site was downzoned in 1991, it was done specifically to protect BBG from loss of sunlight caused by building shadows,” said a Garden representative. “Loss of sunlight would significantly impact BBG’s ability to grow plants for the entire 52-acre Garden, and would harm plant health, plant diversity, and our ability to grow and display plants from around the world.”

In early August, the City Planning Commission, which wants to bring affordable and market-rate housing to the site, will hold a public hearing on the rezoning and will decide the following month whether to send a proposal to the City Council for a vote.

The commission, which is controlled by the mayor, almost never nixes a plan during the public review, although that would have been the fate of Eichner’s de Blasio-era proposal had he not withdrawn it.

“We are hopeful the CPC will review our proposal, together with its enforcement mechanism to protect the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,” said Rosenberg & Estis attorney David Rosenberg, who is steering Eichner’s proposal through public review, “to decide it’s a worthy project that will bring affordable housing and good union jobs to Crown Heights.”

To mollify the Garden, Continuum wants to amend the city’s zoning code to require buildings on the block to honor the 1991 height limit at points closest to the popular venue, then permit them to rise along a solar plane defined by setbacks at higher floors. It would also make 119 units affordable.

All that may be for naught, however, if Council member Crystal Hudson opposes the project. The City Council’s tradition of member deference essentially gives her veto power over the rezoning.

Continuum has some leverage. A rezoning would require the company to make at least 25 percent of the units affordable, and Hudson could push that number over 40 percent in exchange for her sign-off. But if she refuses, the developer could build an entirely market-rate condo. That is what developer Yitzchok Schwartz, who bought an adjacent lot, is planning.

In his rejection letter, Reynoso seemed ready to accept luxury condo development.

“This form of unit production is also a need throughout the city,” Reynoso reasoned, “to create additional ownership options for those who can access these units but have limited choice.”

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