The New York City Council on Wednesday approved a major plan to open 21 blocks in central Brooklyn to new development, a transformation that aims to address the city’s worsening housing crisis by making way for some 4,600 new apartments.
The plan targets a part of Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant where decades-old city regulations have become an emblem of New York City’s challenges in building new housing.
Areas zoned for manufacturing as far back as 1961 left little room for residential development as neighborhood needs shifted, leaving the area pockmarked by vacant lots, warehouses and auto shops that could not be repurposed as housing.
Because the neighborhoods are close to Prospect Park and many subway lines, they’ve continued to draw residents, pushing rents up and fueling gentrification. Several one-off, luxury apartment buildings have sprouted in between industrial and manufacturing lots, a haphazard upheaval that has angered local leaders.
The City Council’s approval addresses several of the issues, and reflects how city officials are, at least in piecemeal fashion, making way for growth in the face of a housing shortage that is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of homes.
“There’s definitely been a culture shift in the last couple of years around housing,” said Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, who represents much of the area and who helped lead the plan’s development. “I think people understand a little bit better the reality of market pressures, and the housing and affordability crisis that is crunching everyday New Yorkers.”
She said she hoped the plan, known as the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, would be a blueprint for other neighborhoods.
Roughly 1,000 of the 4,600 new homes will be made affordable to people of lower incomes. They will rent, on average, for $1,747 for a one-bedroom apartment or $2,097 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the most recent city figures.
In addition, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development plans to help build 900 more units that will be even more affordable on sites owned by nonprofit groups and by the city and state.
And while housing is an important focus, civic leaders have long been clamoring for the city to make broader neighborhood improvements. City officials said they would spend $135 million to redesign Atlantic Avenue, including improving visibility at intersections and adding a bike lane.
The city aims to spend another $100 million on improvements to schoolyards, playgrounds and parks. And it will invest in job training programs for local residents. These additions were crucial to winning community support, Ms. Hudson said.
“You have to actually make people’s living conditions better,” she said.
Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement on Wednesday that the plan’s approval was a “major milestone in our mission to build a more affordable, vibrant New York City.”
The Adams administration has pushed development citywide. Last year, city officials passed a broader development plan known as City of Yes, which would make way for 80,000 additional homes over the next decade. The administration is separately moving to rezone parts of Midtown, Long Island City and Jamaica, Queens.
Mihir Zaveri covers housing in the New York City region for The Times.
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