On Tuesday, February 17th, my group and I traveled to Cobble Hill to attend a meeting of Community Board 6’s Committee for Economic/Waterfront/Community Development & Housing. Community Board 6 (CB6) represents the neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, and our personal neighborhood of interest, Red Hook. The meeting was enlightening, to be sure – it provided not only a sense of what these neighborhoods are struggling with and how they are addressing local issues, but also a sense of how community-level activism works. In this way, seeing Community Board 6 in action was an informative and rewarding experience.
We were welcomed warmly by two guest speakers who had, like us, arrived early. They were planning fellows working for CB6, and we chatted casually with them while the board members trickled in. It seemed we were the only non-board members in attendance. The board members were a diverse group consisting of many people of different ethnicities, races, ages, and occupations. Much to my delight, there were 6 women on the board. After surveying the 15 people in the room, I buckled down to hear the planning fellows discuss their projects.
First off, one of the planning fellows discussed the feasibility of creating an Industrial Business Improvement District (iBID) within the domain of CB6. According to the NYC BID Association, a BID is a, “formal organization made up of property owners and commercial tenants who are dedicated to promoting business development and improving an area’s quality of life.” They do this by cooperating to provide supplemental services – like public safety and beautification – for the area. An iBID would be particularly beneficial for CB6 because many of the jobs in the vicinity are related to manufacturing: in NYC manufacturing accounts for 10% of all jobs, and this is especially the case around CB6. The planning fellow indicated that an iBID could be an invaluable benefit to the community, as it would do a number of things to improve the local economy and wellbeing of the neighborhoods. It would promote social cohesion between manufacturers, help advocate policies to support manufacturing, encourage the improvement of infrastructure, and help spur energy efficiency projects in the neighborhoods in question. All of these things would be overwhelmingly positive for the social and economic wellbeing of CB6’s communities. According to the planning fellow, the next step towards the establishment of an iBID would be to survey local producers to gauge interest.
The next planning fellow discussed the underutilization of housing around CB6. Specifically, he focused on opportunities for additional housing as-of-right. His statistics indicated that in Gowanus, a neighborhood within CB6, 77% of residential lots are underutilized, which means they are not built to their maximum floor area ratio (FAR). Furthermore, 60% of lots have the potential for additional units. Clearly the efficient usage of this space could do a great deal to alleviate the housing crisis with regards to CB6. The next step towards maximizing utilization would be to identify clusters with the most potential, and to conduct a comprehensive neighborhood evaluation of housing creation potential.
The presentations by these two planning fellows on some of the current developmental challenges facing CB6 were informative and helpful for understanding the locale. With an increased comprehension of the issues at hand, I am confident that my group and I can create a feasible proposal to encourage CB6’s growth.
