Howard Slatkin. Image Credit: DCP.

Howard Slatkin, the director of sustainability for the New York City Department of City Planning, was a frequent visitor to NYC while growing up in New Jersey, but it was not until he moved to the City after studying history at Brown University, that he became interested in architecture and the social life of places. He earned a master’s degree in urban planning at Columbia University in 2000. At that time the concept of sustainability, though embedded in the course curriculum, had not yet gained the notoriety it has today.

From City planning to City sustainability. Slatkin joined the Department of City Planning immediately after graduation in the summer of 2000; he started as the community planner for Brooklyn Community District 1. His first task was to look closely at the Williamsburg, Brooklyn area and how the community was changing around the L subway line. His work eventually became part of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning. The rezoning addressed population growth in the area and the disparity between the actual and legal uses of industrial buildings that were increasingly being used as residential and commercial spaces. The experience exposed Slatkin to many important issues including mixed-use development, waterfront redevelopment, and affordable housing, which became one of Slatkin’s areas of expertise and focus. The Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning created the City’s current tool for affordable housing development – the Inclusionary Housing Program, which allows developers to take advantage of a floor area bonus in exchange for creating or preserving units of affordable housing for targeted income levels. The program has been used to encourage affordable housing development in many of City Planning’s rezoned areas, including Hudson Yards, West Chelsea/High Line, and West Harlem. From there, Slatkin became increasingly involved with the policy side of city planning and eventually became deputy director of strategic planning, where he oversaw the special projects, and in particular the green initiatives, for all of City Planning’s divisions.

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Stephen Levin, District 33 Council Member. (Official NYC Council Photo by William Alatriste)

District 33 – Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, parts of Williamsburg, Park Slope, Boerum Hill

Council Member Stephen Levin grew up just outside of New York City, in Plainfield, New Jersey. He knew he wanted to be in Brooklyn even while he was attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. To get there though, he dabbled with various jobs including working as a waiter (he was fired), a book store clerk, and an artist’s assistant. About a year after graduation from Brown, he was living in Bushwick, Brooklyn and starting his political career, although maybe he didn’t quite know it at the time. He got his first advocacy experience at the Lead Safe House Program in Brooklyn, which gets children with elevated lead levels out of danger and into a safe space. Levin ran the program and worked with families and building owners from across the borough, as well as State and City agencies. He also helped families tackle various other issues, such as education and health, during their stay at the Lead Safe House. Seeing families through a sometimes difficult bureaucratic process, he couldn’t help but make the connection between government policy and effective direct service. It was here that he first thought that if the opportunity to actually conceive and implement good policies presented itself, he would take it.

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Development site in Williamsburg

City approved developer’s request to rezone 15 tax lots to facilitate the development of two, six-story buildings near site of Domino Sugar project. Bruce Terzano (through JBJ, LLC) sought City approval to build a two-building mixed-use project at the corner of Wythe Avenue and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. To facilitate his proposal, Terzano asked the City to expand a nearby MX-8 special mixed-use district to include 15 tax lots on the eastern portion of the block bounded by South 2nd and South 3rd Streets between Wythe and Kent Avenues, and rezone the blocks from M3-1 to MX8:M1-4/R6A. Terzano needed the rezoning in order to replace a parking lot and low-rise plumbing supply store with two, six-story buildings, providing 18 affordable apartments, 61 market-rate apartments, and ground floor commercial space.

The proposal was met with opposition from the local community during the ULURP review process. Brooklyn Community Board 1 opposed the proposal, recommending that the area be rezoned to M1-4/R6B, and that Terzano record a deed restriction excluding bars and restaurants from the development’s commercial space. At the City Planning Commission’s public hearing, Brandon Cole, president of the Williamsburg Community Preservation Committee, asked the City to postpone the “spot” rezoning and perform a comprehensive study of the neighborhood similar to the study carried out prior to the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning plan.

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North Williamsburg restaurant requested rezoning in order to reestablish sidewalk cafe. On July 28, 2011, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified and approved Teddy’s Bar and Grill’s rezoning proposal for a portion of Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Teddy’s is located at the corner of Berry and North 8th Street. Teddy’s originally proposed applying a C2-4 overlay from the northwest corner of North 7th Street to a mid-block point between North 9th and North 10th Streets. The plan would have impacted 22 lots, nine of which are occupied by commercial businesses. The area was rezoned from an R6/M1-2 mixed-use district to an R6B district as part of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning. 2 CityLand 67 (June 15, 2006). Teddy’s proposed the rezoning to re-establish a sidewalk cafe it lost after the 2005 rezoning.

Brooklyn Community Board 1 approved the rezoning. Borough President Marty Markowitz recommended modifying the plan to apply a C1-4 commercial overlay to an area extending only to North 9th Street. According to Markowitz, the more restrictive C1-4 district would still permit sidewalk cafes, but prevent uses less desirable to nearby residents, such as home maintenance and repair businesses.  (more…)

Brad Lander

Council Member Brad Lander, chair of the City Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee, draws from his experience as a public policy advocate when executing his duties.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Lander in 1991 earned a liberal arts degree from the University of Chicago. He then earned a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the University College London in the United Kingdom, where he worked with community groups to research how a controversial plan to redevelop the London Docklands would impact local maritime communities.

Lander in 1993 returned to the United States and joined the Fifth Avenue Committee, a Brooklyn community group that advances economic and social justice. During his tenure Lander earned a second master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the Pratt Institute. In 2003 he was named director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. He was also involved in advocating for the use of inclusionary zoning, which allows developers to construct larger buildings in exchange for allocating a portion to affordable housing. The campaign helped spearhead the City’s use of inclusionary zoning in neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. (more…)