Thank you all for taking the time on Sunday to participate in the conference call with Council Member Levin.  The high level of interest we sustained throughout this rezoning issue has been recognized by Levin and his staff and they welcomed our input on this issue.  I would like to build upon this coalition so that we can address similar issues that affect Downtown Brooklyn, and by extension, Brooklyn Heights.

I spoke to Levin last night to get an update on the 141 Willoughby rezoning action.  He commented that the City (by which he likely meant EDC) was curious and a bit alarmed that a rezoning on Flatbush mobilized such concern within Brooklyn Heights.  I took that to be a good omen for the future.

Levin reported that the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises approved the ULURP application at the 15 FAR, in which 9 FAR is residential, 1.5 FAR is retail, and 4.5 FAR is office.  He was assured that the school will be built at Albee Square, although the 141 Willoughby project was no longer relevant to that deal being made.  Clearly the City was using the school as a threat to get the Willoughby project through the Council. Levin was supportive of the 15 FAR since he sees the outcome as a plus in terms of lowered residential density (9 vs. 12 under what they could get if the zoning matched the rest of downtown Brooklyn) and getting the office component.

Steve believes that the higher FAR on this project will also not set a precedent for other developers for two reasons:  1) a rezoning application on their properties costs them considerable money, and 2) they would be spending this money to get less residential FAR than they can build to under existing zoning. 141 Willoughby is unique in that they were operating under an existing 6 FAR.

He believes that the City will support an FAR of 18 in future rezoning applications to get a tradeoff from developers for other school projects.    This is an issue we will have to consider as a coalition, in my view, depending upon the specific sites involved.

I look forward to our working together on areas of common concern in the future.