The CB6 land-use committee voted yes to the Toll Brothers' request for spot rezoning back in October, which would allow them to construct a complex of buildings, some 12-stories high (along with creating a public park along the canal and some permanently affordable housing). Not surprising to many, the full board met for a general meeting last night and gave their collective thumbs up, too, says PMFA and Curbed. Much of the pro-rezoning sentiment came from a Field of Dreams vision for the polluted canal: If you build it, they will clean (they, ostensibly, being the city, which would be pressured by local residents; therefore you need local residents). But the consortium of local groups known as FROGG was staunchly against the rezoning. They sent a letter to CB6 (reprinted on the Carroll Gardens Petition blog) stating that "the environmental concerns are in themselves sufficient reason to predicate any change of use, involving a dense residential development along the FEMA flood way, upon a known and verifiable cleanup of the canal waters that include limits on the pathogens levels." There's also the problem of “un-mitigatable smells." Clearly, that didn't change the minds of CB6 members, but all is not lost for those who oppose it. The next ULURP step is an 11/19 meeting with the Borough Prez.
Photo from PFMA.
