Brooklyn to Add Affordable Housing near Navy Yard

New project would add residential units in industrial zone next year.

Former Navy Jail Site to Become Affordable Housing in Brooklyn

A former naval prison site in Brooklyn is slated to house a mixed-income housing development under a project overseen by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The city agency earlier this year selected Navy Green Joint Venture, a partnership of Dunn Development of Brooklyn, L&M Equity Participants of Larchmont, N.Y., and the Pratt Area Community Council of Brooklyn, to develop the $127.6 million project, slated to start construction in late spring or early summer of next year. The developer has not yet selected a construction manager.

The 103,000-sq-ft Navy Brig was originally constructed in the 1940s as a jail for the U.S. Navy and subsequently used as a United States Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center until 1984. Most recently, the site in the Wallabout section of Brooklyn housed volunteer workers for the cleanup effort following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Lower Manhattan. The brig itself was demolished in August 2005.

 A team consisting of New York’s FXFowle Architects, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects of New York, and Architecture in Formation of New York will design the new development, which will occupy an entire block across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The complex will house 434 residences, including both rental and co-op apartments, a visual arts center, a day care center, and commercial space housing a restaurant or other retail services.

More than 75% of the units are reserved for tenants earning between 30% and 130% of the area media income, which is $21,250 to $92,170 for families of four and $14,900 to $64,480 for single tenants. The remaining units will be market-rate co-ops and rentals.

N.J. Legislators Consider Land Use Process Amendment

An amendment to existing state land use process laws has pinned real estate developers against municipalities in a struggle for control in New Jersey.

Assembly bill number 3870 – cosponsored by State Assemblyman Jerry Green of Plainfield and four colleagues – would amend the state’s land use process laws to shield pending applications for land development from changes in municipal ordinances. State Sen. Ronald Rice of Newark is the primary sponsor for the Senate’s bill, S-457. The bills were sent to the committee level in both houses, but Green says he does not know when it may advance.

The amendment would change the “time of decision” rule, granting protection, or “immunity,” to any application that has been submitted for consideration to the municipal planning or zoning board.

The current rules permit “municipalities to change the rules of the zoning game to suit the purposes of the moment,” says Michael Elward, a land use attorney with Becker Meisel, a law firm in Livingston, N.J.

Elward cites a 1995 New Jersey Supreme Court case, Manalapan Realty, L.P. v. Township Committee of Manalapan, in which the developer proposed to add 500,000 sq ft of commercial and retail space to an existing facility, which the local land use ordinance allowed. But the municipality amended the ordinance to exclude the expansion, and the court later deemed the municipality’s actions legitimate.

Passage of the new bill is “in the interest of major developers of any projects that may face public opposition,” Elward says. The amendments would not apply retroactively to pending applications, however.

New York City Adopts Building Code Change

New York City legislative leaders finally ratified a new building code for the city, which will get its first major revision to the rules governing construction since 1968. The City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg approved the new law, which will finally align the city’s building rules with national and international standards.

The adoption is part of the closing chapter for the code revision effort, which began four years ago and involved participation of more than 400 construction industry representatives. The new rules that will go into effect in July 2008 are based on the International Building Code, which is used in 48 states.