[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...stone-brooklyn

Developer attempts to push the limits on border of brownstone Brooklyn
Some locals oppose tower project, but it's one block from major transit hub


Joe Anuta By Joe Anuta
April 30, 2018

...arguments in favor of respecting the low-rise environment are colliding into a central tenet of the city's planning strategy: build housing near public transit. In this case, there are few mass-transit hubs in the city more vital and connected than the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station a block away.

Placing dense housing near subways and commuter rail is one of the basic ways to serve a growing city beset by rising housing costs. Residents who live close to train stops have easier commutes and do not require as many cars or parking spaces. With the N, Q, R, W, B, D, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines and the Long Island Rail Road all stopping at Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center, the station provides easy access to Queens, the Bronx, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and every part of Manhattan.

It is hard to get a full sense of the consequences of each choice at the community meetings and hearings that are part of the public review process, which will put the 80 Flatbush Ave. proposal in front of stakeholders at an April 30 public hearing hosted by the borough president and before Community Board 2 in mid-May.

"Decisions made at a more local level tend to reject development," Romem argued in his paper, "because negatively impacted stakeholders are usually concentrated nearby, whereas the beneficiaries are not."

In other words, households that might move into the future units or those facing development pressures elsewhere in the city are unlikely to weigh in on a project.

How the new City Council handles those competing objectives will be a test for Speaker Corey Johnson. His predecessor helped trim back a 2016 proposal a few blocks north that sought the exact same density as Alloy. The reason? Neighborhood character.