Neighborhood not sweet on Domino condo project - NYPOST

by Rich Calder for the New York Post 1/5/2010

Hold the sugar!

An influential North Brooklyn civic group came out swinging today against a $1.5 billion plan to bring 2,200 new apartments to the former Domino Sugar factory site in Williamsburg, saying the ever growing neighborhood can’t handle such a population boost.

"We just don’t have the infrastructure and services to handle all these new people," said Phil DePaolo, president of the New York Community Council.

He pointed out there are at least three other projects in the works or seeking city approval that would bring another 4,000 units of housing to North Brooklyn. This includes the controversial 1,851-unit Broadway Triangle development approved by the City Council last month.

But that doesn’t include about 10,000 units of housing anticipated to be generated through the city’s 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning, which allowed for high-density residential buildings along the waterfront.
Many units have already been built, although the economic recession has put some of this development on hold.

DePaolo was responding to Domino project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was certified by the city Planning Department Monday kicking off an eight-month public review process. The application heads next to the Brooklyn Community Board 1 and will ultimately be decided by the City Council.
He said the 1,100-page DEIS fails to properly consider the impact that co-developers CPC Resources and Isaac Kataan’s project has on neighborhood services – such as police, fire, medical and transit.
His group also questioned whether many of 660 apartments set aside as below-market-rate affordable units are truly affordable for residents in the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area, based on a study it did relying on U.S. Census data.

The DEIS claims that most city services wouldn’t adversely be impacted by the project. This even includes local schools despite the fact that the DEIS estimates the project would bring 696 elementary, 288 intermediate, and 336 high school students to the area by 2020.

The DEIS, however, does acknowledge that the project would significantly impact certain parts of Williamsburg, such as nearby Grand Ferry Park.

The document says the new glass and brick buildings the development would bring, which range from 6 to 40 stories high, would cast more than three hours of new midday shadows on the 1.8 –acre waterfront park.
This, the report states, would cause "a significant adverse impact to the users of this open space during the fall, winter and early spring, and would likely also adversely impact the park’s vegetation."

The DEIS also revealed that part of the existing refinery could be used for a 150-room hotel. Under that option, 57 market-rate condos would be cut from the development.

The mixed-use project on the Williamsburg waterfront also includes four acres of public recreation space, 274,000 square feet of retail space, and an esplanade overlooking Manhattan.

It needs city approval for a zoning change to allow for residential use because the 11.2-acre footprint was not part of the 2005 neighborhood rezoning.

The project, the second-biggest in Brooklyn behind Atlantic Yards, came under fire last year over the possibility that the illuminated "Domino Sugar" sign would be lost. But the developer opted to keep it following massive opposition from residents.