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Long-stalled ‘Gowanus Green’ development will feature nearly 1,000 new apartments

reliminary plans for a barren swath of city-owned land in Gowanus would transform the site with a mix of middle- to high-rise housing, but locals are divided on the development.

An at times raucous Brooklyn Community Board 6 meeting on Monday showcased residents varied concerns on a more than decade in the making project city officials aim to shepherd through the public review process as part of the neighborhood’s forthcoming rezoning.

The 5.8-acre site, bounded roughly by Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal between Nelson and Fifth streets, was once a manufactured gas plant. The coal-tar contaminated land sat empty for decades until the city acquired it, designating the plot a “public place.”

Such a provision prohibits residential development unless the land is rezoned, and neighbors who had hoped the site would largely convert into parkland with low-rise buildings were skeptical of the latest vision for the “Gowanus Green” project with seven buildings that could rise from five up to 28 stories. Others fear the development would “wreck” the neighborhood with “too tall” structures and not enough infrastructure to support a wave of new residents. Officials stressed that the details are still in flux as they continue to strike a balance between community needs and concerns.


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The public review for the project will be bundled into the Gowanus rezoning to boost density and encourage mix-used projects along certain corridors of the neighborhood. City planners expect the rezoning to create a whopping 8,200 new apartments by 2035.

“The purpose of the new density is to make it possible for people—working class folks, low- to-moderate income folks—who cannot possibly afford a unit in the district,” said City Council member Brad Lander, who represents the area and will have an outsized influence on the final City Council vote on the rezoning. “That’s why to me this achieves a public purpose.”

The development team behind Gowanus Green, which is being designed by Marvel Architects and SCAPE, has yet to determine the amount of seats the new school will include and for which grade levels it will serve. Another section of the lot will be a park but the design of that space is expected to take shape once the project receives approvals, according to an official briefed on the project.

The Department of Environmental Protection will oversee the remediation of the land, which is a Brownfield site due to its history as a manufactured gas plant.

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CBNY