Fifth Avenue Affordable Housing Fight Intensifies
The battle over a Supportive Housing development that the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) and Department of Housing Preservation and Development would like to build on the site of municipal parking lot at Fifth Avenue and 16th Street in the South Slope is heating up. And, so is the outreach effort by the FAC to lessen opposition to the 50 studio apartments they want to build. More that half of the housing in the complext would go to formerly homeless adults. Some units would be set aside for senior citizens and young people leaving the foster care system. A meeting of the South Park Slope Community Group and Concerned Citizens of Green Wood Heights--both of them veterans of many development battles in the South Slope, Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park--will discuss the proposal tonight (2/13) at 7PM at the Grand Prospect Hall (263 Prospect Avenue.) Community Board 7 will have a public hearing on Feb. 15 at 6:30 pm at St. John–St. Matthew Emmanuel Lutheran Church, which is located at 283 Prospect Avenue.The concerned reaction of neighbors (many of whom have been up in arms about new development on 15th and 16th Streets) has led the FAC to send emails to residents and to schedule a tour of another supportive housing facility on Warren Street. FAC director Michelle de la Uz writes:
Over the past several weeks, there have been a lot of questions and speculation about FAC’s proposed development at 575 5th Avenue. Many people are wondering, what is supportive housing? Who will live in the building? Will it be an attractive addition to our community?...You are not alone in your concerns. When FAC first proposed the 551 Warren Street building more than five years ago, some of the neighbors and civic groups in the community shared several of the concerns that you all have expressed about the proposed 575 5th Avenue project. Despite those original concerns, they have come to embrace the tenants and the building and recognize it as an asset to the community.FAC is opening the facility at 551 Warren Street to residents on Saturday, Feb. 24 from 2-4PM.
Reactions of South Slope residents runs from overtly hostile to cautious to supportive.
posted by rsguskind at 7:40 AM
1 Comments:
One of the things that amazes me about the FAC plan is that groups like FAC fail to be concerned about the quality of life that they destroy in the name of helping build affordable housing. What about the overcrowding, the stressing of the electric supply system, the stressing of water & sewer and limited open space? They are taking away parking from a commercial area when every commercial area in the city is begging for parking! Bay Ridge actually had fire hydrants moved into bus stops (during the avenue's reconstruction) so that it would create one or two more parking spots every two blocks or so - that is how desperate the parking need is. Just one last note that I find ironic. FAC holds their Warren Street housing up as an example. They recently provided housing for a 94 year old guy who could no longer afford his rent increase elsewhere. Upon taking possession of the apartment he remarked - "Now I can use the money I saved up to buy a new car." Great, FAC is putting a 94 year old back on the roads. And if he came to park on 5th Avenue he would no longer have a place to park if FAC has its way....hysterical.
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