City’s IBZ draft plan needs work.
In mid-September, the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP), the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) released the NYC Industrial Plan draft report.
As it applies to North Brooklyn, NYC Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez and Evergreen, a local champion for industrial and manufacturing, have important concerns.
Gutiérrez posted a video on her Instagram on October 14. There she stated, “The City’s new plan for our manufacturing zones puts good jobs and local businesses at risk. Instead of protecting food production, recycling, logistics, and construction jobs that keep NYC running, this draft opens the door for developers to push them out. North Brooklyn alone is home to the third largest Industrial Business Zone — companies like Cooper Recycling, Boar’s Head, and hundreds more. These are union jobs, local jobs, accessible jobs. We can’t afford to lose them.”
Evergreen put out a statement that clearly lays out their issues with this draft plan. They observe, “The proposed maps published on the NYC DCP website omit protections for large portions of industrial land, signaling to the market that rezonings are imminent. This encourages vacancy and displacement, just as we witnessed in the lead up to the 2005 Greenpoint–Williamsburg rezoning, when industrial tenants were pushed out in anticipation of redevelopment. By proposing mixed-use zoning in unprotected industrial areas, the plan creates a blueprint for gentrification. Such actions would drive out industrial employers and erase accessible, family-sustaining jobs. The resulting housing would not be affordable to the very residents whose livelihoods are being displaced.”
Evergreen’s statement offers seven recommendations: (1) Reaffirm the value of Industrial Business Zones (IBZs), (2) Remove draft maps from all City websites immediately — due to their fueling real estate speculation in active industrial areas, (3) Eliminate references to mixed-use zoning in IBZs and ombudsman areas — as this zoning has repeatedly proven incompatible with industrial retention as it invites speculation, raises land values, and pushes out the very employers NYC wishes to protect, (4) Adopt Evergreen’s proposed map for the North Brooklyn IBZ, (5) Designate the Greenpoint-Williamsburg IBZ as a secondary industrial area pending further study, (6) Set clear industrial growth targets — North Brooklyn’s industrial areas is defined as those in zip codes 11206, 11211, 11221, 11222, 11237, and 11249. They currently support approximately 28,600 direct jobs and 19,300 indirect and induced jobs representing $9.9B and $5.1B of economic output respectively. NYC should commit to a positive overall industrial job growth rate over the next eight years through targeted land use policy and investment. (7) Pair land use protections with real investment — The IBZ tax credit should be expanded, incentive programs like ICAP, CEP, REAP, and more should be increased, and the Industrial Developer Fund should receive a new allocation to stimulate affordable industrial development.
The Greenline 