Charter Reform to Allow New Housing in NIMBY Neighborhood

Forget “location, location, location.” The three most important words in New York City real estate are location, timing and leverage.

In 2024, developer Daniel Grinshteyn acquired a great property: 9305 Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It’s in a good neighborhood and is a 40,000-square-foot site occupied by a single-story Staples with an expiring lease.

But the timing wasn’t right because he lacked leverage. No way could he get NIMBY neighbors in the low-scale community to welcome a few hundred apartments. And without local support, persuading the City Council to rezone for such density was not even worth trying.

So Grinshteyn, who runs BWH Group, waited.

Last year, the strategy paid off: An Adams administration panel proposed City Charter revisions, which were then approved by voters in November.

One of them allows developers to appeal City Council rejections to a board consisting of the mayor, borough president and Council speaker. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Borough President Antonio Reynoso backed the revisions and are enthusiastic supporters of adding housing, especially in high-opportunity areas where little has been built for decades.

Bay Ridge, for example.

Their two votes would be enough to override the City Council. With that leverage, Grinshteyn can expect the local Council member, Kayla Santosuosso, to negotiate in good faith to rezone 9305 Fifth Avenue for more density. The developer applied to build 292 units, 12,000 square feet of commercial space and 75 underground parking spots.

To make it more attractive to the community, he offered to include more family-size apartments, put a supermarket on the ground floor and reduce the height from 14 stories to 11. It was a hopeless attempt.

Locals who showed up at a community board meeting complained that the project, Fort Hamilton Mews, would bring flooding, congestion, grocery deliveries, and problems for a firehouse next door.

“There’s a bus route there,” said area resident Doris Cruz, quoted by BK Reader. “There’s a firehouse that needs room. Fourth and Fifth avenues merge at the Fort Hamilton Triangle. The increased traffic will be devastating.”

Housing next to a bus route — can you imagine?

Former City Council member Vinny Gentile checked in via Zoom to say that the community board had worked hard to keep the neighborhood exactly the same (the very problem that new apartments would address) and that the project “threatens the character of Bay Ridge.”

Gentile is right out of central casting, except that his promising political career was wrecked by a sexual harassment scandal. But I digress.

If Santosuosso balks, and for some unexpected reason Grinshteyn can’t get two votes from the Affordable Housing Appeals Board, he has another card to play: He could refile the application in 2027, when another charter reform will kick in.

That revision grants an easier, faster approval process in community districts ranked in the bottom 12 for housing production. The “dirty dozen” list will come out in the fall, and Bay Ridge is certain to be on it. Community District 10’s population grew 9.2 percent from 2010 to 2020, but its housing supply increased just 1 percent from 2010 to 2024.

Next year BWH Group’s application would therefore only need a thumbs-up from the City Planning Commission — a 13-member body controlled by the pro-housing mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who appoints seven members including the chair.

But it won’t come to that. The Council member will likely want to make her own deal rather than leave it to Reynoso or Mamdani.

Without the appeals board ever meeting, and before the fast track even exists, the charter reforms are working brilliantly. Location, timing and leverage, baby.