DUMBO Tower Reaches Final Hurdle
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A controversial project that many argue would block views of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge is now before the City Council as residents on both sides of the plan make their final push. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.Gaze out at the Brooklyn Bridge as you look toward Manhattan and you can't miss it -- the big, boxy Verizon Building, towering overhead. Those for and against a proposed tower to be built on the Brooklyn side of the bridge agreed on one thing -- that it shouldn't look like the Verizon building.
After two years at the drawing board, the DUMBO Dock Street project will include an 18-story tower with an adjoining part closer to the bridge at nine stories. The building would have luxury and affordable housing, retail, a parking garage and a middle school. The public sounded off at a City Council land use committee hearing Thursday.
"I have a second grader, an eight-year-old daughter, it would give her the opportunity to attend a diverse new middle school within the community," said Ed Brown of the Ingersoll Houses Tenants Association.
"The proposed rezoning and subsequent 18 story building will have an overwhelmingly negative impact on the surrounding neighborhoods of DUMBO, Fulton Ferry Landing as well as the Brooklyn Bridge itself," said Doreen Gallo of the DUMBO Neighborhood Alliance.
Two Brooklyn City Council members, David Yassky and Letitia James, agreed to disagree. Inside the hearing, Yassky urged the committee to reject the proposal.
"We have to oppose any building within the radius of the bridge," said Yassky.
Outside, James led a rally in support of the project.
"I recognize that although this project may block the view of a few, it benefits the greater good," said James.
The City Council is the last hurdle for developer Two Trees in the public review process. The project has already been approved by the community board, the borough president and the city planning commission with some slight modifications.
"We've located that element of the building, the mass of it, as far away from the bridge as the site would permit," said Two Trees Management Company architect Jack Beyer.
Opponents got a big boost from filmmaker Ken Burns, who made a documentary about the bridge.
"I've studied this bridge probably more than anyone else from every angle in every vantage point, in every time of day and year and I know it," said Burns. "And I understand what kind of visual pollution this new proposed building would represent."
The land use committee is expected to vote on the proposal within the next two weeks. It then goes to the full City Council for a vote on June 10th.