SBLS Files Petition to Stop Sunset Park Rezoning

Rachel Hannaford, Staff Attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services, along with
Bethany Li of the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, represents five local churches, the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association and two
long-term residents in the fight to stop the rezoning, which will encourage more luxury development and large chain stores,
resulting in widespread residential and commercial displacement and
gentrification among Sunset Park's low-income Asian and Latino
communities.

The amended petition filed October 1st follows earlier efforts by the coalition of residents and community groups to halt the rezoning last August. The New York City Council passed the rezong bill in late September over the objections of activists.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“The city likes to tout the inclusionary housing as something that’s
going to help the poor and working class, but in reality, it’s not
going to ameliorate the displacement of the residents of Sunset Park,”
[SBLS Attorney Rachel] Hannaford said.
Hannaford explained that the income guidelines for “affordable housing”
apply to the moderate middle class — not poor or working-class
residents.

She said that “inclusionary housing” is an option that developers have
been unlikely to choose in other parts of Brooklyn, and one that can be
widely interpreted — it can be developed “off-site, which could lead to
ghettoization,” she said.

Hannaford said that while height limits don’t currently exist in Sunset
Park, building bulk limits that effectively kept heights down will be
removed, and that new buildings in the area could be much larger.

Read the rest of the article at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle website. 

Read more about the lawsuit, along with additional coverage of the August Sunset Park press conference.