Plan approved to transform Red Hook, Columbia Street Waterfront into new neighborhood

"The vote allows the city's economic development authority to proceed with a vision to build 6,000 new apartments along the shore of Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District while bypassing the city's typical land-use process through what's known as a "general project plan." The broken affordable-housing promises of another such plan at Atlantic Yards have loomed over the Brooklyn Marine Terminal negotiations."

"The city's Economic Development Corporation organized a 28-member board to review and approve its plan with a two-thirds majority. Members of the board - chaired by U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat representing the area - objected to the proposed creation of about 12,000 new units of housing, the potential impact on traffic in a transit-starved section of Brooklyn and the loss of industrial space at one of the borough's last working waterfronts."

Plan approved after months of delays and five postponed votes, with significant modifications. Approval allows the city's economic development authority to pursue construction of 6,000 apartments in Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District using a general project plan that bypasses the usual land-use review. Past failures to deliver promised affordable housing at Atlantic Yards influenced concerns about accountability and delivery. Board members raised objections to an earlier, larger proposal of roughly 12,000 units, to traffic in a transit-poor area, and to the potential loss of industrial space at one of the borough's remaining working waterfronts. A key official reversed opposition after agreements to consider preserving manufacturing and port operations and to allow ongoing oversight.

Read at Gothamist