After some revisions, the highly-contested rezoning of the 962-972 Franklin Ave. site in Crown Heights — which would give the OK to Continuum Company’s planned multifamily development — was passed by the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises on Tuesday. The proposal will next go to the Committee on Land Use.

Under the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), this brings the development’s approval one step closer. Assuming it’s fully passed by the Council, it next goes to the mayor. Although, if the Council has modified a proposal, it can go back to the City Planning Department for further review.

The controversy, which stretches back to the 2010s, stems from the fact that the high-rise building, as originally designed, would have thrown shadows on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), only a block away, and would have deprived many of the Garden’s plants of needed sunlight. In an unusual move for a public institution, the Garden itself led the opposition, along with local residents and politicians.

On Tuesday, Adrian Benepe, president and CEO of the BBG, said in a statement, “A seven-year fight over whether a shadow-casting apartment building can rise across the street from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is expected to be resolved this week, as the developer and a local council member [Crystal Hudson] near a deal on the 10-story development in Crown Heights.

“After more than six years of discussion, debate, and vigorous public advocacy, the threat of permanent loss of sunlight for our living museum of plants is over,” Benepe added, thanking local elected officials for their tireless work on the issue. 

As of October, according to Crain’s New York Business, the project would include 355 apartments, 106 of which would be set aside as affordable units, as well as 8,500 square feet of retail. It would be financed by an investment fund controlled by the AFL-CIO labor and built with union labor.

“That support was key to reviving the project after Continuum CEO Ian Bruce Eichner threatened to withdraw his application in September — a decision that came after the City Planning Commission shrunk its height by 30 feet, making it no longer financially feasible. The AFL-CIO pushed for the addition of workforce housing [basically, middle-income housing] through a city subsidy program, which made the project viable again,” Crain’s said.

However, it may not be time to bring out the party hats yet. Councilmember Hudson, at an October hearing, said that while she supports the development of the long-unused site and the developer had proposed changes that would lessen the threat to the BBG’s greenhouses, she still has some concerns.

The controversy goes back to 2017 when Continuum CEO Bruce Eichner proposed the development of two 39-story buildings for the unused lot. After several years of stormy debate, this original proposal was rejected by the City Planning Department.

The BBG, led by its then-president, Scot Medbury, mounted a campaign against the buildings called “Fight for Sunlight.” At a hearing in 2020, Medbury said 21 garden facilities, housing 7,000 species of plants, were at risk because of the potential shadows, the Eagle’s Lore Croghan reported.

At multiple hearings, many neighbors testified against the tall buildings, but representatives of organized labor who would benefit from the construction jobs also attended the hearings and spoke in favor of the project.

Eichner last year submitted a revised proposal featuring a 14-story building that didn’t satisfy the very vocal opposition.

Now, however, the even more revised proposal features a 10-degree slope (down from 15 degrees previously approved by City Planning), allowing for necessary sunlight to reach the Garden’s plant nursery and other crucial areas, according to the BBG.

“The building is now proposed to include 355 units of housing, 30% of which are affordable. The modification by City Council at the lower 10-degree slope will better preserve sunlight access to BBG,” said Benepe.

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