Checking in with the Toll Brothers & Toxics in Gowanus

There are so many things that jump out at you in Gabby Warshawer's article about Gowanus in the new Real Deal that it's hard to know where to start. Should it be the declaration by a Toll Brothers exec that he's confident their property will be rezoned before the overall plan for and rezoning of Gowanus? The concern voiced by an environmental consultant about the Whole Foods site? Or the toxics still sitting underground beneath the Lowe's that appear to be moving toward the Pathmark supermarket?

Definitely click over for the full read, but here are a couple of teasers:

1. David Von Spreckelsen, a Toll Brothers vice president, said the development firm expects the city to rezone the Toll-owned parcels in Gowanus before a larger rezoning occurs.

"We are working with the city, and we are fairly confident that we will get rezoning for our sites within the next year," said Von Spreckelsen, adding that the site-specific rezonings would likely be consistent with larger rezoning plans.

2. Lowe's built a store on the former site of a manufactured gas plant in 2003. The home-improvement retailer did a voluntary cleanup of the site before starting construction, removing tar that was known to exist at depths of 60 to 80 feet. Lowe's did not clean up all of the tar because the company said it could not access the contamination by conventional excavation techniques. Tar contamination has now been reported on the site a few feet from the grocery store next to the Lowe's, a Pathmark.

If anyone was the community meeting in Gowanus on Thursday evening, please drop us an email with details at gowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.