NEW YORK | One Third Ave (80 Flatbush) | 725 FT | 63 FLOORS

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As Brooklyn Towers Reach for the Sky, How Big Is Too Big?

The proposed project for 80 Flatbush would provide housing and schools, but critics point to 'unprecedented scale' near row houses

Corner, the question keeps coming up: how big is too big? And the follow-up question is never far behind: can developers, community members and public officials reach a happy medium on that issue?

A new test case for both questions is at hand: 80 Flatbush, a two-tower, five-building project containing two schools, office space, and apartments priced at both market and affordable rates. The complex, with towers reaching 74 and 38 stories, is proposed for an irregular block not far from Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Atlantic Terminal Mall (and its transit hub below).

At that spot, 80 Flatbush could serve, as the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership CEO Regina Myer has suggested, “as an exciting southern entryway to Downtown Brooklyn.” Certainly the borough has a need for all that the complex contains, from housing to schools. Alarmed neighbors, however, especially those on row-house State Street south and west of the 1.4-acre site, prize their neighborhood scale, and say the “over-loaded” plan ignores context. In protest, the Boerum Hill Association launched a petition that now has more than 900 signatures. Their slogan: “No Towers Over Brownstone Brooklyn.”

Without asking for any zoning changes, developers could put up a significant building of up to 400 feet, “as of right” in legal terms. But 80 Flatbush, with its towers rising 560 feet and 986 feet, would contain 1.1 million sq. ft. of floor area, or 2.8 times the as-of-right scenario. A rezoning would nearly triple the site’s Floor Area Ratio (FAR), which assesses bulk as a multiple of the lot size, from 6.5 to 18, what critics have called “unprecedented” development density in their neighborhood. So 80 Flatbush poses enduring questions about the benefits and burdens of building big.

The debate is about to begin in earnest. Approval—or modification of the plan—will emerge in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which launched Feb. 26 with the issuance of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Public hearings before Brooklyn Community Board 2 and Borough President Eric Adams will presage votes by the City Planning Commission and City Council.

“This is an exceedingly complicated project,” Council Member Stephen Levin, whose district contains the site, told The Bridge, “because it’s trying to do a lot on a very small portion of land” in what he calls a “transitional block,” including but not limited to Downtown Brooklyn.

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https://thebridgebk.com/brooklyn-towers-reach-sky-how-big-too-big/