After some revisions, the highly-contested rezoning of the 962-972 Franklin Ave. site in Crown Heights — which would give the OK to Continuum Company’s planned multifamily development — was passed by the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises on Tuesday. The proposal will next go to the Committee on Land Use.
Under the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), this brings the development’s approval one step closer. Assuming it’s fully passed by the Council, it next goes to the mayor. Although, if the Council has modified a proposal, it can go back to the City Planning Department for further review.
The controversy, which stretches back to the 2010s, stems from the fact that the high-rise building, as originally designed, would have thrown shadows on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), only a block away, and would have deprived many of the Garden’s plants of needed sunlight. In an unusual move for a public institution, the Garden itself led the opposition, along with local residents and politicians.
On Tuesday, Adrian Benepe, president and CEO of the BBG, said in a statement, “A seven-year fight over whether a shadow-casting apartment building can rise across the street from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is expected to be resolved this week, as the developer and a local council member [Crystal Hudson] near a deal on the 10-story development in Crown Heights.
“After more than six years of discussion, debate, and vigorous public advocacy, the threat of permanent loss of sunlight for our living museum of plants is over,” Benepe added, thanking local elected officials for their tireless work on the issue.
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