Rendering of the proposed True Holy Church. Image Credit: Heritage Architecture

The City Planning Commission approved a new ten-story building to contain 67 affordable units and a new house of worship for the True Holy Church. On April 5, 2017, the City Planning Commission voted to approve an application from the developer Atlantic East Affiliates LLC, an affiliate of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, to rezone 1860 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn’s Ocean Hill neighborhood. The developer sought to rezone portions of two blocks on the south side of Atlantic Avenue at its intersection with Eastern Parkway which includes the proposed development site. The application would facilitate the construction of a new ten-story mixed-use building with ground floor community facility space and about 67 affordable dwelling units. In a concurrent application the developer applied to have the area designated as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area.

The area to be rezoned is currently developed with a mix of low- to mid-rise nonresidential buildings as well as two- to four-story residential buildings. The entire area falls within an R6 district with a C2-3 commercial overlay over most of the area. The developer proposed rezoning the entire area to an R8A district with a C2-4 overlay. The change in residential zoning would increase the floor area ratio permitted for buildings with both residential and commercial facilities from 4.8 to 6.02, but that number can rise to 7.2 in Mandatory Inclusionary Housing areas. The upzoning would also increase the maximum building height and street wall height allowed.

The development site is an 8,000-square-foot corner lot and currently contains a house of worship for the True Holy Church. The proposed ten-story building was designed by Heritage Architecture and would contain 50,856 square feet of residential floor area and 6,731 square feet of community facility floor area, with an additional 4,874 square feet of community space in the cellar. The building would total 7.2 in floor area ratio.

The developer proposed to designate the project area as a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area. The developer will utilize the City’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability program to make all 67 dwelling units affordable for residents with a household income of 60 percent of the area median income. The unit distribution would include 17 studios, 25 one-, 16 two- and nine three-bedroom units. The developer intends to set aside 15 percent of the units for formerly homeless veterans.

 On January 24, 2017, Brooklyn Community Board 16 voted 25-1 to recommend approval of the application. On March 2, 2017, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams agreed and issued his own recommendation of approval with the condition that in lieu of the proposed R8A zoning district designation, the partial block, west of the Eastern Parkway Extension, remain designated as an R6 zoning district.

In its report, the Commission found the application to be appropriate. The report noted that the True Holy Church currently occupies an underutilized site. “The new housing would help address the dire need for more housing in Brooklyn and in the City overall and would be consistent with City objectives for promoting housing production and affordability.”

The application will move to the City Council for consideration in the coming weeks.

CPC: 1860 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn (C 170142 ZMK, N 170143 ZRK) (April 5, 2017).

By: Jonathon Sizemore (Jonathon is the CityLaw Fellow and a New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2016).