PROSPECT HEIGHTS/CROWN HEIGHTS/BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick on Tuesday announced the start of the public review process for the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, a community-led proposal for new housing, jobs, and infrastructure investments in Central Brooklyn.
The city says the plan would create approximately 4,600 new homes — including 1,440 permanently income-restricted, affordable homes — and 2,800 permanent new jobs to a roughly 21-block stretch of Atlantic Avenue, including neighboring blocks in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, where restrictive zoning regulations have prevented residential development and job growth.
The plan would also install traffic safety projects — including planters, bike corrals and daylighting — at intersections along Atlantic Avenue to improve pedestrian visibility, safety and accessibility.
“The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan is a bold, visionary reimaging of what our neighborhoods can — and should — look like,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “Safer streets, more affordable housing, community spaces for our older adults and young people, jobs for communities in need — this proposal is the result of multiple agencies, City Hall and everyday New Yorkers coming together to transform and build the neighborhoods of tomorrow today. As it goes through the public review process, I encourage all New Yorkers to make their voices heard.”
A map of the impacted areas within the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan. Map courtesy of Mayor’s Office
“After years of calls from the community to fix outdated zoning along Atlantic Avenue, our administration is taking real action to rejuvenate the corridor and transform the area into a place where hardworking New Yorkers can live, work, and play,” said First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.
“For far too long, this stretch of Atlantic Avenue has been stymied by outdated zoning that has limited opportunities for new homes and jobs. It’s past time for a change, and this plan delivers on a community-driven roadmap for the homes, jobs, safe streets, and investments that Central Brooklyn needs,” said Dan Garodnick, director of the Department of City Planning.
“The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan rezoning has been a long time in the making,” said Councilmember Crystal Hudson. “For more than a decade, the community surrounding Atlantic Avenue has called for a new vision for this dangerous corridor that delivers more deeply affordable housing, increased investments in the area’s local economy, safer streets and greater consideration of local infrastructure needs.”
The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan focuses on a section of Atlantic Avenue and neighboring streets between Vanderbilt Avenue on the west and Nostrand Avenue, where the Long Island Rail Road emerges from its tunnel, on the east.
Since the 1960s, this area of Atlantic Avenue has been zoned for one-to-two industrial buildings and storage, despite its proximity to a major commercial area and transit hub. The Atlantic Avenue-Mixed Use Plan offers an opportunity to create needed housing, including affordable housing.
Along Atlantic Avenue, the plan calls for high-density housing and a mix of commercial uses to create active ground floors. Through this change, the area will transform from a corridor of vacant lots, self-storage facilities, and auto-shops to a mix of residential, commercial and manufacturing.
The plan is slated to create nearly 4,600 new homes, including approximately 1,055 permanently affordable homes through the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, and an additional 380 units of permanent affordable housing on city-owned or controlled sites found throughout the neighborhood.
Utilizing existing HPD programs, the city has committed to building over 380 income-restricted affordable homes at several sites in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. These units will include set-asides for older New Yorkers and the formerly homeless.
As far as safety is concerned, this work will include painted “neckdowns,” which are raised curb extensions that narrow the travel lane at intersections or midblock locations to expand curbside protections; daylighting to improve visibility at intersections; planters; and bike corrals along medians throughout the neighborhood; as well as a new bike lane on Bedford Avenue.
To better serve pedestrians, new developments within the plans would be required to set their buildings further away from the street to create up to a 20-foot-wide sidewalk — an increase from the 8-to-15-foot-wide sidewalks that exist today.
The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan also provides $24.2 million in improvements to St. Andrew’s Playground, including adding a new, synthetic turf multi-use field with a running track, upgraded basketball and handball courts, renovated playground spaces, a remodeled public restroom, new seating, shade trees, plantings and other green infrastructure.
Since the official Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan study kicked off in early 2023 with facilitator WXY Studio, the Department of City Planning has closely collaborated with Councilmembers Hudson and Chi Ossé, the New York City Council Land Use Division and others to craft the plan.
Tuesday’s certification begins the roughly seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which includes recommendations from Community Boards 3 and 8 as well as Borough President Antonio Reynoso. This will be followed by hearings and binding votes at the CPC and then a City Council vote.
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
