Bedford Stuyvesant Rezoning

Testimony last updated August 8, 2007

Testimony to the NYC Department of City Planning on Proposed Rezoning of the Southern Area of Bedford-Stuyvesant

Rudy Bryant
Pratt Center for Community Development
August 8, 2007

Good Morning Madam Chair, Fellow Commissioners.

I am Rudy Bryant, former Associate Director for the Pratt Center for Community Development and its continuing representative to the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford Stuyvesant on whose behalves I address you this morning.

As you may know, the Pratt Center, located in Brooklyn, is an advocacy planning and architectural technical assistance provider to many of New York City's community organizations engaged in community improvement. The Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant, first formed in 2002 as the 36th Council District Housing & Economic Development Task Force, represents more than 30 community development, planning and social service providers located in and or serving Bedford-Stuyvesant.

In 2001, Brooklyn's Community Board #3 authorized the preparation of a 197(a) plan for community district #3 and The Pratt Center was engaged to work with a Steering Community organized by community board designees to prepare it. While the proposed plan was never officially submitted to the City Planning Department for consideration, the aims and principles of the plan have guided the community and its representatives in their collaboration not only with NYC's Comprehensive Neighborhood Economic Development Initiative and the Commission for Economic Opportunity staffs' but also, the City Planning Department in the drafting of the rezoning proposal before you.

The Pratt Center and the Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford-Stuyvesant wishes to add our support for the adoption of the Bedford-Stuyvesant South Rezoning Plan, Applications # C 070447 ZMK and # C070448 ZRY as proposed by the City Planning Department. The Pratt Center especially wishes to commend the Department on the sensitivity it displayed in its interactions with the community and the work it has done, in particular, to craft the new 7D district that will enable modest population growth needed to under-gird the commercial and economic development goals the community has for Fulton Street as expressed in the Draft 197(a) Plan adopted by the Community Board in June, 2004.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Pratt Center advised modest up-zoning of north/south commercial corridors in the district, we and the Coalition fully support CPD's preservation and contextual related re-zoning proposals.

Also, the Coalition especially is aware of the misgivings about some of the proposed "E" Designations. It is our view that NYC has a responsibility to protect the public when and wherever it believes there may be a danger. Bedford-Stuyvesant youth already suffer higher than average rates of environmentally influenced ailments such as asthma. We appreciate the City's flagging these potential hazards so that they can be monitored to ensure that the sites are redeveloped responsibly. We agree with the Brooklyn Borough President's observation that the incremental development cost to ensure that a site is safe for residential or community facility use will be more than offset by the unearned higher development rights in the particular case, and a safer community in all cases.

Finally, Madam Chair, you will recall that at an early discussion about undertaking the rezoning effort, Community Board and Coalition members urged, if the district could not be considered as a whole, that the Department consider the northern part of the district first. Only with assurances that the Department would proceed with the rezoning study for the northern part of the district did the community finally agree to support the study of the southern part of the district. The Coalition and the Pratt Center urge the Chair to ensure that the Department honors that agreement. Thank you.