by
SOUND: the bustle of Manhattan Avenue and various discussions in foreign languages
NARR: On a sunny Saturday afternoon Greenpoint's main strip is bustling. Manhattan Avenue is a long, narrow thoroughfare of tightly packed mom and pop stores with signs in Polish and English. No building is over four stories high and at the intersection of Greenpoint Avenue one can look west to catch a glimpse of the East River beneath the Manhattan skyline. One day this view may be blocked by hi-rises.
SOUND: start to fade over this sentence
Under current rezoning plans more than 20 buildings, up to 40 stories high, could line the waterfront all the way to the Williamsburg Bridge. Residents are concerned about high buildings being out of scale with this low-rise community, but the Department of City Planning wants to offer developers the chance to build even bigger buildings, if they include between 10 and 20 percent low and moderate income units. Such a voluntary program will not work, say advocates like Cathy Herman of Los Sures, a housing development organization. She points out that developers won't take the incentive because the bonus is small and they can already build big without it.
TAPE: Herman: The alternative for the builder would be to say ' I'm not going to take this incentive, therefore I'm not gonna build the affordable housing, I'm happy enough with being able to build a 35 story building on the waterfront and I'm gonna do all luxury towers.
The numerous tall buildings could bring over 23,000 new housing units, but community studies have found that with the current plan, nearly all of this would be luxury housing. Residents are worried that Greenpoint and Williamsburg will become neighborhoods that only the very wealthy can afford to live in.
That's why the community is calling for a mandatory affordable housing requirement. They are demanding that 40 percent of all housing created by the rezoning plan be affordable to current residents at a variety of income levels. This could be done through a combination of new on-site units, off-site rehabilitation, and government subsidy programs. Cathy Herman says they would prefer no development to development without an affordability guarantee.
TAPE: Herman: Our feeling is that we'd rather not see the plan go ahead then see it go ahead without something tantamount to a mandate.
The Department of City Planning declined to comment for this story, but they have told community members that they will not agree to a mandatory plan because it may discourage developers from building at all. The city's voluntary program could work, says Brad Lander of the Pratt Institute, if the developers are limited to smaller buildings with much bigger bonuses if they include affordable units. He believes the city will eventually move in this direction.
TAPE: Lander: I mean I think eventually there's gonna be an offer where the bonus is more significant so you can believe developers will actually choose it and it will probably require 20, 25 or 30 percent affordable units.
But even with a program like this, the community fears that developers could still pass up the incentives and just build luxury low-rises if some kind of mandate is not provided. What everyone agrees on is that an influx of high-income residents could permanently alter the community. Franko Gotte runs a manufacturing business near the waterfront and expects to be pushed out by high rents in the next 5 years. He foresees a mass displacement of creative businesses and the artists they employ.
TAPE: Gotte: The neighborhood will not be the same. I suspect that in 10 years it's not going to be as vibrant as it is now.
The Department of City Planning will decide whether to approve the plan in March. It then goes to the City Council for a final vote later this spring. Adelia Honeywood, Columbia Radio News.