Hunts Point Rezoning

Committee on Zoning and Franchises

June 17, 2008

My name is Jennifer Barrett and I am the Research and Policy Associate of the New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN). NYIRN is a citywide organization dedicated to saving and creating wellpaying manufacturing jobs and to promoting environmental justice and sustainable development.

For decades, the community of Hunts Point has been the victim of many egregious land uses in the form of waste transfer stations, junk yards, and other noxious activities. To address this history and to
capitalize on the job creation and the opportunities created by the community’s proximity to the Hunts Point Market, the City began an ambitious, collaborative planning process with the community which
built good will and respect. One of the points of consensus was the need for additional industrial space, as well as a way of allowing for better supermarkets to serve the community. While we support the rezoning application, in general, we are concerned about the allowance for unlimited retail uses along Garrison Avenue.

More specifically, we support the rezoning proposal for the following reasons:

1) It increases the FAR for industrial uses, thereby doubling the allowable density for light manufacturing businesses.

2) It preserves existing industrial business yet creates a buffer to allow residential and industrial uses to co-exist. And

3) It eliminates hotels in the Special District, a use that is allowed as-of-right in M1 zones. The proliferation of hotels in other manufacturing areas is becoming a problem, because they are displacing viable manufacturing businesses and could provide a smokescreen for residential development.

Despite these important changes, we are still deeply concerned about the potential for large retail stores in the rezoning area. The community needs more supermarkets, and we support the allowance for food stores from Use Group 6A (as stated in the zoning modifications to include supermarkets, grocery stores, meat markets and delicatessens). However, we are opposed to provisions for large superstores, such as those in Use Group 10A that are made possible in the zoning proposal, as-of-right and without size restrictions.

Zoning that encourages big box retail has been shown to overtake manufacturing zones, creating instability for existing businesses and causing other less-desirable outcomes. For example:

1) Big box retail pays less in wages but more for land, so they displace well-paying manufacturing jobs resulting in downward mobility and bad policy; and

2) Big box stores generate incredible traffic and consume large amounts of space for surface parking. Even with the reduced parking requirements proposed for this area, a typical store could require 300 parking spaces.

Finally, the Hunts Point community needs jobs, the types of good jobs that are provided in manufacturing. Yet the City has a terrible shortage of industrial space to support these jobs. Over the past 5 years, the city has rezoned at least 19 million SF and proposed re-zonings threatening an additional 12 million SF.¹ Moreover, even more space is at risk because of speculation in other areas
that the Department of City Planning anticipates rezoning. In these cases, property owners hold land off the market or only offer month-to-month leases creating real estate instability for existing businesses.

However, if the City makes a firm commitment to maintaining Hunts Point as an area for industrial use, the market will stabilize at a price point that is attractive for legal uses.²

For these reasons, we urge you to protect industrial uses as much as possible by removing the provision that would allow as-or-right, retail development of unlimited size within Use Group 10A and to limit large, unrestricted retail along Garrison Avenue to food-only stores.

Thank you.

¹ City Planning often argues that manufacturing will continue to decline. However, in other projects throughout the City where there is a firm commitment to manufacturing, such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, there is no vacant space; in fact, both organizations are at capacity.

² In particular, there is expected growth in food manufacturing. A recent study by NYIRN found that there were approximately 19,300 people employed in food manufacturing, of which 2,500 were self-employed entrepreneurs illustrating the energy and vitality of that sector.