In the community we have labeled 960 Franklin Ave project the monster, for the developers plan on destroying three decades of protection for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where there were height limits of 60/70 ft. and build up to 483 ft.  At the same time actually destroy over 50% of the plant life at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden within ten years!  
 
Mayor De Blasio’s Position

In a phone interview with, WBAI’s correspondent Jillian Jonas from the Michael Haskins Show “Living for the City”, the Mayor made his position known about this development project.  He claimed he would support this rezoning project (which would destroy a public green space) in return for “affordable housing”.  Alicia Boyd from MTOPP responded to the Mayor’s position. To listen to their comments please click here.

960 Franklin Rezoning Application

On September 22, 2020, a revised application for the 960 Franklin Ave rezoning was submitted to the Department of City Planning “DCP”.  According to DCP rules, this application should have been given to Community Board 9 five days later.  This did not happen. 

Then on October 16, 2020 Community Board 9 was given notice that the 960 Franklin Ave Rezoning application will be certified on November 16, 2020.  This notification was made to comply with a new City Charter mandate, which was voted into law November 2019 by the people.

In direct violation of this new law, DCP has simply given notification of its intention to certify the application without making the application available to the public nor giving any detailed description of the project as directed by the City Charter.
 
This means that we will miss the opportunity to first view what this resubmitted application is,  what environmental protections or constraints have been put in place to reduce the damage to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (if there are any), and any so called community benefits that are being proposed.  

Thus, neither we nor our elected officials will not be able to put pressure on DCP to make changes before the application is certified, beginning the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure “ULURP” process, which is exactly 7 months.


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