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OUR DEMANDS
The coalition’s top demands for the Gowanus rezoning are the following:

UPFRONT FUNDING FOR FULL CAPITAL NEEDS AT WYCKOFF AND GOWANUS The City must dedicate enough upfront funding for full capital needs at Wyckoff Gardens and Gowanus Houses. All funding spent to improve Wyckoff Gardens and Gowanus Houses must adhere to HUD Section 3 hiring policies to ensure local NYCHA residents and low-income residents are hired to complete the work.

NET ZERO COMBINED SEWAGE OVERFLOW (CSO) Mandate net zero CSO from new construction created as a result of the rezoning, through the following actions: (1) Accurately model how increased density will increase CSO and impact local hydrology, (2) Require and enforce CSO mitigation in new development and (3) Ensure city investment in infrastructure to completely mitigate any negative hydrological impacts of rezoning.

SUPPORT AND FUND A GOWANUS ZONING COMMITMENT TASK FORCE The Task Force will monitor compliance with public and private commitments, adherence to zoning requirements, and implementation of the Rezoning. With representation from local organizations, City agencies, and stakeholders, the Task Force will receive quarterly updates from the City and other stakeholders on planning, implementation, and successful completion of commitments, and disseminate this information to the community in a transparent and accessible manner.

The below demands are priorities for the entire coalition:

GUARANTEE TIMELY REOPENING AND RENOVATION OF THE GOWANUS COMMUNITY CENTER WITH RESIDENT-LED PROCESS FOR DESIGN, ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, AND PROGRAMMING All funding spend to improve local NYCHA developments must adhere to HUD Section 3 hiring policies to ensure Wyckoff Gardens, Warren Street Houses, and Gowanus Houses (WWG) residents- especially lower income public housing residents- are hired to complete the work.

INVEST IN COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SOCIAL RESILIENCE Commit to a comprehensive package of funding to improve Social Resilience and Health outcomes for local public housing residents, by supporting an Environmental Justice and Racial Equity Assessment. Ensure all local residents are included in a Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Emergency Preparedness Plan to address local health disparities and disaster risks.

BUILD ECONOMIC EQUITY ENSURING LOCAL ACCESS TO SECTION 3 EMPLOYMENT Commit to HUD Section 3, HPD and NYC administrative code compliance and enforcement. Fund the promotion of local residents earning under 80% of Area Median Income applying for training, employment and economic opportunities through Section 3.

INVEST IN KNOW-YOUR-RIGHTS TRAININGS The City must provide funding for know-your-rights trainings, including Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, civil rights compliance and other building and tenant related trainings and services to Warren, Wyckoff, and Gowanus residents.

100% AFFORDABILITY ON PUBLIC LAND Require 100% affordability on land owned by the City of New York. The City must provide the necessary subsidies to provide permanent and deeply affordable units for seniors and people with low incomes 0-60% of AMI.

ADDRESS LOCAL SKILLS GAP WITH TARGETED MULTI-YEAR WORKFORCE INVESTMENT Programming must include bridge programming for CD6 residents with barriers to living wage employment with focus on public housing residents and an industrial sector apprenticeship program. Implement through CBOs.

STUDY, IMPLEMENT, AND ENFORCE TRANSFER OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS TO FUND FULL CAPITAL REPAIRS AT WYCKOFF AND GOWANUS NYCHA DEVELOPMENTS The City must comprehensively and transparently examine and permit the purchase and transfer of development rights from Wyckoff and Gowanus to privately owned parcels within the larger Gowanus area-wide rezoning, not to exceed the density that the City has already proposed in the Draft Scope of Work. Strong and representative local oversight of the generated funds must include Wyckoff and Gowanus residents.

CREATE AN AFFORDABLE HOUSING LOTTERY PREFERENCE FOR LOCAL CD6 NYCHA RESIDENTS  The City, through HPD, must make the necessary regulatory and legislative changes to create affordable housing lottery preferences for local NYCHA residents, and an increased percentage for people with disabilities as well as ensure the creation of a significant number of affordable units for seniors. The City must also commit to a significant number of Section 8 vouchers for existing NYCHA residents so they can move to newly created affordable housing. The planned Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) pilot must be in Gowanus and start as soon as possible.

MAP THE MOST AFFORDABLE MIH OPTIONS The City must map ONLY the deepest mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH) options so low-income residents and the local public housing community can afford the new affordable housing. Use existing options: option 1 - 25% of units at 60% of AMI and option 3 - 20% of units at 40% of AMI. 

MANDATE DEEPER MIH LEVELS FOR PRIVATE DEVELOPERS Developments along the Gowanus Canal must commit to deeper affordability than MIH alone by providing 25% permanently affordable housing at an average of 50% of AMI with 10% at 30% of AMI.

FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IBZ COMMITMENT The City must commit to translating the recently released IBZ Vision Plan into a zoning framework that protects existing industrial businesses and helps them stay in the Gowanus IBZ and modernize and expand, while carefully managing competing uses that can impede industrial operations such as large scale entertainment, gyms, big-box retail, and stand-alone office. The City should consider lowering the parking requirements for industrial properties; allowing increased density for the creation of industrial space and production-based uses; maintaining the prohibition on new residential uses, and examining strategies to help businesses reduce emissions.

CREATE JOBS FOR LOW INCOME CD6 RESIDENTS TO MAINTAIN NEW BUILDINGS AND PUBLIC SPACE Leverage both private and public investment in buildings and public spaces to create jobs for low income local residents in new buildings and the public realm by requiring and committing to local CBO partnerships for recruitment, training and hiring.

PRESERVE INDUSTRY AND ART SPACES by implementing an incentive of .3 FAR for specific uses groups in Gowanus Mix that are limited to production, repair, and arts uses exclusively. Require public disclosure and transparency in leasing agreements of Gowanus MIx spaces.

INVEST IN LOCAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT  Fund Summer Youth Employment Program slots to ensure access to youth from WWG communities.

INVEST IN PUBLIC SPACE Commit to investments and timelines for public realm improvements called out in the Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan and the North Canal Visioning Plan, including Thomas Greene Park, Head of Canal Park, The Salt Lot, NYCHA campuses, Greenspace on 4th Extension, MTA easements, streets, streets ends, and other city owned parcels. Develop all plans with continued public input.

POINTS OF AGREEMENT WITH CITY

Our Official Comments to City Council

October 2021: October 15 Comments to City Council on the Gowanus Rezoning

Dear Councilmember Moya and Members of the Subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises:

Thank you for taking time during Tuesday’s public hearing to listen to testimony from the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GNCJ) and other community stakeholders about the Gowanus area-wide rezoning and other actions in Gowanus. The Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GNCJ)—a racially and socioeconomically diverse coalition of local groups focused on equity, inclusion, economic and environmental sustainability and justice—continues to call on the City to meet our priority demands for the Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning.

We reiterate that GNCJ will not support the rezoning unless our top 3 demands and multiple priorities are met. Our coalition’s full demands are also endorsed by over 1,600 signers via Petition to the City of NY and DCP and can be found online at www.gncj.org/new-our-advocacy and as appendix A to this letter. As many of our Coalition members have testified throughout the ULURP Hearing the City must address our concerns before the final rezoning application is voted on by the Council.

To expound upon our coalition members’ testimony on October 12, we submit here as written testimony details regarding GNCJ’s demands and priorities and the specific funding and policy commitments we seek from the City. All of these commitments must be transparently reported to a Gowanus Zoning Commitment Task Force to ensure that these commitments identified are met.

OUR OFFICIAL COMMENTS TO THE BOROUGH PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

July 2021: July 22 Comments to Borough President’s Office on Gowanus Rezoning

Dear Borough President Adams,

Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice (GNCJ) is a racially and socioeconomically diverse coalition that strives to elevate the voices of our community not yet heard in the City’s planning process, seek consensus on community priorities and make the case for a community plan based on principles of social, economic, environmental and racial justice.

As our Coalition members testified at your public hearing on June 30, 2021, GNCJ continues to call on the City to meet our priority demands for the Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning. Our demands below have been endorsed by over 1,500 signers at Support GNCJ. This letter reviews our priority demands and both expands on their justification and suggests specific strategies to meet them. The City must provide programmatic commitments and investment for these demands in the Points of Agreement.

GNCJ NYCHA Demands

June 2021: City Planning Commission Hearing- Before You Rezone Fix Our Homes!

OUR OFFICIAL LETTER TO CB6 AND DCP

October 2020: Oct 22 CB6 Meeting on Gowanus Rezoning

We are writing to express our extreme concern about the format and content of the initial “public” pre-certification meeting for the Gowanus Rezoning that CB6 hosted on October 22.  As we have previously stated, DCP and partners, including CB6, must facilitate equitable participation for local stakeholders and provide an informed, safe and transparent review process. 

For future meetings, there must be clear expectations shared ahead of time for community members taking part, both in terms of the format of the meeting, and the content that will be shared.  People are taking time out of their busy lives during especially stressful times, and need to know what they are dedicating time to.

Format - Community members must be able to actively participate in public meetings

There is no doubt that the Covid crisis has made community engagement more difficult, but community members must have clear and transparent ways to make their voices heard. More people may be able to attend a Zoom call, but the quantity of people is insignificant if the quality of engagement is lacking. 

The “webinar” style at the October 22nd meeting left community members voiceless, without knowledge of who was in the room, and unable to communicate. There was no question feature enabled, leaving attendees to pile their questions into the chat, which were then not addressed by the speakers/presenters. It was not possible to identify the person making posts in the chat (visually or through affiliation); and this anonymity seemed to encourage personal attacks. Asking participants to put questions into a google form, where no one can see them but the people who created this form, is not transparent. You must do better.

In the forthcoming pre-certification meetings, CB6, DCP and other agencies must ensure that:

  • Attendees can see who else is in the meeting, whether on video or by participant list.

  • There is a transparent and fair way for people to sign up to ask questions and give comments, either by using the Q&A function in a way that all attendees can see the questions, or a google form of which the results are shared with attendees

  • There is a transparent and fair way of letting attendees speak, ideally by order signed up during the meeting time, similar to the process in an in-person meeting

  • There is significant time allotted for public questions and input. If questions are not answered during the meeting, questions and answers should be distributed to participants afterwards.

  • All speakers are identified by their name and affiliation.

Content - We need answers to the questions we have been asking for the past 4 years

The October 22nd meeting lacked any new information. In fact, there has been no new information on any of GNCJ's priorities or demands for a year. This is dismissive of, and disrespectful to, the community that has put years of work into this process. Upcoming pre-certification meetings must provide new content to address the questions we have asked over and over. The title, announcement and promotion of these meetings must make it clear what content the community can expect to learn.

There must be an additional meeting scheduled before ULURP begins on the following content:

Wyckoff Gardens and Gowanus Houses

  • A clear and transparent plan for how the rezoning will provide full capital funding for Wyckoff Gardens and Gowanus Houses, beyond existing funds that have already been committed

  • Details about the funding commitments for mold and lead remediation under the federal order that the City is already required to provided at Wyckoff Gardens and Gowanus Houses

  • Information about what will happen if NYCHA does not address mold and lead by the court-mandated date

OUR OFFICIAL LETTER TO DCP

September 2020: GNCJ request to DCP for equitable participation and transparent Gowanus review process

We ask that the City take the following three actions before starting the Gowanus rezoning ULURP:

1.) Release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) at least two months before starting the ULURP clock. There is no legal reason that the release of the DEIS and start of ULURP need to happen at the same time — historic precedent does not serve well in an unprecedented time of crisis. In order to ensure that the community is adequately informed and engaged, the City should release the DEIS at least two months before starting ULURP to give the community ample time to understand the environmental impacts of the proposal, how the City plans to mitigate impacts, and how responsive City Planning has been to the community’s comments on the draft plan to date.

2.) Provide an improved and expanded virtual engagement process to address the above issues and for additional opportunities to provide comments and public testimony. We are currently witnessing a historic community conversation around how to safely re-open schools and use outdoor spaces to foster effective education. This conversation has centered on the need for equitable access, and an understanding that virtual learning works for some children and their parents, but not at all for others. This is no less true when we look at community engagement in reviewing and commenting on major zoning changes whose impacts will be felt for generations. The city should provide additional opportunities and methods for the community to give comments and public testimony, including:

  • Setting up opportunities for smaller group in-person gatherings to provide public testimony during public hearings using large open spaces (parks, streets, school yards, public housing community centers) throughout the neighborhood, using screens and projectors (this technique has been frequently used at rallies and marches, where screens are set up in a variety of locations), which could be tied into additional opportunities for virtual engagement training and distribution of PPE etc.;

  • Setting up places within the community for people to record testimony to be played at hearings and allowing recorded testimony to be played at hearings;

  • Broadcasting public hearings on live public access television with call-in opportunities for public testimony;

  • Prioritizing installation of free internet, with resident approval, at NYCHA developments in Gowanus prior to formally beginning ULURP;

  • Providing tablets, internet hot-spots and training for individuals not currently able to access virtual meetings adequately;

  • Allow for tech-savvy family members’ to provide support for individuals whose virtual participation might be compromised and/or allow for proxy testimony.

3.) Release data necessary for an independent Racial Impact study of the proposed Gowanus area-wide rezoning prior to ULURP certification. Given the current economic crisis brought on by the pandemic, the rise in housing insecurity and the significance of up-to-date health related information, we urge DCP to collaborate with other agencies such as HPD, NYCHA and DOH (Department of Health) in the release of disaggregated data. This ensures the community and stakeholders have a comprehensive understanding of outcomes and informed decision-making in the planning process. There is no need for these processes to be separate or siloed from each other particularly as the goal is to have a comprehensive neighborhood rezoning.

GNCJ Workforce Demands

April 2020: Equitable Workforce Investment

OUR OFFICIAL COMMENTS

April 2019: GNCJ comments on the Draft Scope of Work for the Environmental Impact Statement

1. The City must ensure that public housing residents benefit from the rezoning. It must address the capital funding gap in the three local New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments: Gowanus Houses, Wyckoff Gardens and Warren Street Houses as well as create increased opportunity for public housing residents.

2. The City must strengthen the “Gowanus Mix” proposal by requiring industrial / art space instead of making it “optional” and must ensure enforcement through community oversight in the form of a nonprofit, mission-driven steward.

3. The City must study the impacts of the neighborhood rezoning on the adjacent Industrial Business Zone (IBZ)

4. The City must expand the proposed Gowanus Special Mixed-Use District to an Environmental Special District that addresses the unique environmental conditions in Gowanus.

Additional comments on the Draft Scope of Work from coalition member organizations:

BACKGROUND

March 2017: Survive and Thrive: Towards a Justice-Focused Gowanus Neighborhood Plan

The Gowanus neighborhood is slated for significant land use changes and new public investment by the City of New York as part of the Mayor DeBlasio’s affordable housing plan to build and preserve 200,000 units over 10 years. Historically, City actions and inactions have accelerated the displacement of existing low- and moderate- income residents and industrial and small commercial businesses, and have otherwise had a major impact on the area. Current neighborhood planning efforts in Gowanus present an opportunity to curb destructive real estate forces and to combat negative trends that continue to displace members of our community.

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