An ambitious plan to transform Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue creeps forward

Jul 06, 2023

An ambitious and long-debated plan that would transform a stretch of Brooklyn's Atlantic Ave. that now features a number of low-slung industrial buildings and auto body shops into a new corridor of apartments and businesses is inching closer to reality.

In describing the so-called "Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan," planners point to nearby neighborhoods such as Boerum Hill as an example of what the 13-block span of Atlantic between Vanderbilt and Nostrand Avenues might look like. While details remain scarce, there could be shops, restaurants and a mix of market rate and affordable housing.

The intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

But at the final public working group meeting last week and with the plan moving forward, facilitators acknowledged that many local residents have told them they fear it would do what other similar efforts across the city have — push out lower-income residents who have long called the neighborhood home while gentrification takes root.

"I’m 100% concerned, which is what made me turn out," said Mimi Mitchell, a tenant advocate and member of Brooklyn Community Board 8 who attended the workshop. "What I’m concerned about is the ongoing loss of people of color, specifically brown and Black people, in these neighborhoods and small brown and Black business owners."

She also worried about the district losing its character as longtime residents pushed out.

"[I’m concerned about] the types of neighbors who are now moving into the area and their understanding of the rich history of the area and the old inhabitants, and hoping that they can respect some of the traditions that the neighborhood has already established and not want to come and change them completely," she said.

The plan, would rezone the key east-west hub of Atlantic Ave. and neighboring blocks to allow for higher density and mixed-use development of residential, commercial and industrial properties in the largely low-rise stretch. The area's current zoning rules — largely unchanged for over 60 years — prevent new housing from being built and mostly limit industrial buildings to just one or two stories, according to City Planning. Parts of adjacent Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights are also part of the plan.

The map above shows the primary study area where land use and zoning changes are being considered, along with buffer areas to identify other neighborhood plan opportunities, especially for public realm and capital investments. (NYC.gov)

The Atlantic Avenue revamp is one of several neighborhood-level rezonings being undertaken by the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. A rezoning in parts of the Bronx where new Metro-North stations are planned is expected to enter the formal review process later this year, while a rezoning of Jamaica, Queens announced last week remains in its early stages.

"We want to be a community that people can both live and work in," Crystal Hudson, the local councilmember spearheading the Atlantic Ave. project told the Daily News. "I think this is an example of what could potentially be a great plan for a very problematic corridor from both [a] streetscape and street safety perspective … It could really be more of a connector between all of those communities and neighborhoods as opposed to a divider."

The 13-block section in question is ripe for overhaul in the eyes of many planners. And while specifics about how exactly the neighborhood could transform won't be known until further in the rezoning process, the project's website includes an image of a bustling, tree-lined Boerum Hill street with ground-floor businesses as an example of a mixed-use future for Atlantic Ave.

Facilitators at recent meetings highlighted what the community has told them they want: more affordable housing, more open space and more well-paying job opportunities, particularly for people without college degrees.

Previous working groups that are part of the planning process also discussed potential uses for additional space in the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, a city landmark that serves as a men's homeless shelter. Suggestions included social and mental health care resources to support the shelter or even a public library or indoor marketplace.

But as with many similar proposals across the city, locals have expressed serious concerns that the rezoning would contribute to the displacement and gentrification already underway, especially in communities of color.

Bed-Stuy, for instance, went from having a nearly 75% Black population in 2000 to 40.4% by 2021, according to the Furman Center, while the white population went from 2.4% to 32.7% in the same period. In 2021, 27.7% of renter households in the neighborhood spent more than half their income on rent.

Hudson said the hope is the rezoning would create more deeply affordable housing in response to the city's ongoing housing crisis.

"The goal here is to keep as many residents who currently live in the district, in the district," she said in response to displacement concerns. "We know that the systems that currently exist are deeply flawed and we’re trying to use the tools that we have at our disposal within those current systems to actually address these needs and address the threats of displacement."

The plan builds on years of planning work conducted by Brooklyn Community Board 8 as part of their "M-CROWN" initiative and a number of smaller rezonings along Atlantic Ave. With the last round of public meetings on the subject concluded this week, the process will advance to the draft plan and environmental review analysis stage. The final land use process will likely take place sometime next year.