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Community Board 2's Land Use Committee says no to development plan for 141 Willoughby St. in Downtown Brooklyn

No. No. No.

A 49-story luxury-apartment tower with affordable units that developer Savanna wants to build at 141 Willoughby St. would be bigger and taller than previously planned.

Community Board 2's Land Use Committee — upset about increasingly overburdened infrastructure in Downtown Brooklyn due to a slew of residential development — gave Savanna's proposed project a thumbs-down on Wednesday night.

After a public hearing, the committee voted not to approve zoning changes that Savanna needs in order to increase the amount of space it would be allowed to build at the site.

“We're seeing additional stress on our infrastructure,” committee member Bill Flounoy said at the hearing, which was held at NYU Tandon School of Engineering's Dibner Building.

Community Board members were displeased to discover that the development plan for 141 Willoughby doesn't include any improvements for Downtown Brooklyn's infrastructure, or a school.

Mark Spector, a city Economic Development Corp. rep, said at the hearing that the floor plates of the proposed building would be too small to be suitable for a public school.

Community Boards advise city agencies on a wide range of civic issues but do not have actual veto power over development projects.

As the Brooklyn Eagle previously reported, Savanna bought 141 Willoughby for $28 million in January 2014. The site is currently occupied by a small building that houses the Institute of Design and Construction. It's across the street from City Point, a mammoth mixed-use development.

At the public hearing, Greenberg Traurig attorney Jay Segal, who represents Savanna, gave the dimensions of 141 Willoughby's proposed design:

* It would be 49 stories tall and nearly 420,000 gross square feet in size.

* There would be apartments on the top 40 floors of the building.

* There would be 270 apartments — and 81 of them (30 percent of the total) would be affordable units.

* Beneath the apartments, there would be seven floors of office space.

* Retailers would use the first two floors of the building and the cellar.

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http://www.brooklyneagle.com/article...-willoughby-st