Windsor Terrace Locals Want a Shorter, More Affordable Arrow Linen Project

Locals called for proportional and contextual development in Windsor Terrace — rather than high-rises that could set precedent for the neighborhood and beyond — at a heated community meeting on a proposed 13-story development on Tuesday night.

More than 200 residents from Windsor Terrace and surrounding neighborhoods packed Shepherd’s Hall at Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church for the two-hour meeting on a proposed rezoning for the Arrow Linen site at 467 Prospect Avenue. The proposal would allow a large residential complex as high as 13 stories to wrap around a row of three-family homes.

It was the second such meeting held by the newly formed group Housing Not Highrises, and for the first time group members proposed what they would like to see built on the site: a five- to seven-story and at least 50 percent affordable development.

Organizers cited the nearby seven-story Bishop Boardman affordable housing complex as a good model. They also said the existing row of apartment houses, which are not owned by Arrow Linen, should be left out of the rezoning application to protect the rent-stabilized tenants who live in them.

While organizers were largely met with applause from the crowd in the hall when they talked about contextual and proportional development and “a reasonable compromise” for the area, a handful of folks booed talk of reducing the rezoning plans from the 13 stories proposed.

The group also cheered any mention of building more housing to address the housing crisis. At least a couple were members of pro-housing lobby group Open New York. Housing Not Highrises member Kate McCabe said the group’s goals actually align with Open New York’s stated goals of wanting more housing in all neighborhoods that is contextual.

(Open New York called for “contextual” upzoning in historic districts in Soho and Noho in a 2019 article, and the group’s 2024 platform supports “contextual” upzoning in the mayor’s proposed City of Yes program.)

The effect on renters

Windsor Terrace resident Melissa Olsen said as a renter in the neighborhood for more than 10 years, and many years before that in Park Slope and Prospect Heights, “I’ve seen the same thing, the same phenomenon every time: When high-rise buildings go in, the original tenants in the area get pushed out so the landlords can remodel.”

She said Arrow Linen’s proposal is being framed as a way to help renters, but said with her experience she is concerned “that won’t be the case,” and instead the rezoning will have a domino effect of increasing high-rises across the neighborhood and surrounding areas, and subsequent displacement. She added that she feels a sigh of relief every time she leaves Manhattan and steps off the subway in the area to be met with open skies and low-rise buildings, a statement met with rowdy applause.

Longtime Windsor Terrace business Arrow Linen is the owner of the site and is trying to rezone the property to maximize its value, sell it, and move their unionized workers and laundry operations elsewhere — perhaps to its second facility in Garden City, N.Y., on Long Island.

The firm is asking for the u-shaped site – and the privately owned three-family houses it surrounds – to be converted from R5A to R7-1 zoning, allowing for taller residential buildings to be developed on the already residential-zoned land. The linen company is proposing two 13-story towers with 244 apartments.

Under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program triggered by any rezoning, 25 percent of the apartments (61 units) would have to be income restricted to those earning 60 percent of Area Median Income, or 30 percent (73 units) would have to be restricted to those earning 80 percent of AMI, depending on which option developers choose. With either option, the units would be rent stabilized.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Housing Not Highrises member Jack Walsh said Arrow Linen had not engaged with the community, and instead had hired a lobbyist to communicate on its behalf and get the rezoning pushed through. People called out that it was a cynical proposal, that Arrow Linen is just trying to maximize profit, and a few called the company greedy. Walsh said the community wants to work with Arrow Linen to downsize the proposal so it fits in with the neighborhood and provides what New York City needs: truly affordable housing.

Unless developers are able to acquire land at a low cost and tap into city funding for extremely low income or senior housing, they rarely (if ever) are able to offer deeper affordability than what MIH requires because they would likely lose money on the project. At this stage, there is no developer for the site and city records show Arrow Linen is still the owner.

Walsh said Housing Not Highrises is working to get the rezoning application’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) paused to wait for the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning package to go through the same process first, given, he said, the City of Yes changes would add an additional two stories to Arrow Linen’s proposal, bringing it to 15 stories.

Spot rezonings in question

The group has been trying to lobby local pols to help them negotiate the rezoning, but Walsh said Borough President Antonio Reynoso and State Senator Zellnor Myrie haven’t been receptive, and Community Board 7 hasn’t been very responsive. A rep from the board did come to Tuesday’s meeting and said she looks forward to hearing more from locals at community board meetings.

Assembly Member Robert Carroll, who has no real impact on the rezoning decision given it’s a city issue, has been supportive of the group’s efforts and dialed into the meeting from Albany. He told the crowd that while some people may disagree with him, he thinks six to eight stories is an appropriate height for the development.

“We can all agree, I hope, that New York does face a legitimate housing crisis and that our neighborhoods are never set in stone, and that we do have to adapt and evolve as our neighborhood and our city changes,” he said. “That being said, of course, we should not allow for one landowner by fiat to propose rezonings not just for his or her land, but for other people’s land and not expect for the community to want to meaningfully engage.”

Carroll, whose comments were met with applause, said spot rezonings should “at a bare minimum” be contextual, and developers should be ready to balance community needs.

One member of the public, who said she is a lifelong Windsor Terrace resident and has served New York City under four administrations, said what she and many of her neighbors object to is “what we see as an egregious abuse of the spot zoning permit.”

“That state law was intended to convert community and citywide benefits, not benefits to an individual property owner,” she said, adding any deal Arrow Linen entered with the community would likely disappear when they sold the property. “Why are we entertaining the idea of a spot zoning permit change without a developer at the table?”

Community Benefits Agreements

Despite what other pols say, the person with the most power in the room is Council Member Shahana Hanif, whose stance will likely inform how the City Council votes on the proposal. Hanif, who spoke at the meeting, said she would ensure the development will not be 15 stories, and that it will not go through ULURP before the City of Yes. But said she wouldn’t try to reduce the height from the proposed 13 stories. The statement was met by loud claps from a small group and boos from others.

She said, instead, she would be working with the community and Arrow Linen to ensure the apartments achieve maximum affordability through a Community Benefits Agreement. As it stood, she said, there is a high need for housing, Windsor Terrace residents have a low displacement risk, according to city indicators, and local schools are currently facing under-enrollment.

“What’s about to happen in Windsor Terrace will be so good for the future of our city, not just Windsor Terrace,” she said. “I’m going to work with all of you, that is a commitment. We may not see eye to eye on all of the various facets of this project but there will be so many parts of this proposal that we will be aligned on and as your council member I am committed to, one, showing up as many times as I can.”

Walsh and others questioned whether a Community Benefits Agreement made with Arrow Linen would be transferable when the property is sold, which Hanif said she would look into. In what seemed like a moment of agreement, Hanif and members of the public said Arrow Linen should have to find a developer the community can work with. Other issues raised at the meeting concerned parking, flooding, and infrastructure.

While most spoke out in favor of the Housing Not Highrises plan rather than what Arrow Linen has proposed, one speaker said he is in full support of the development as conceived at 13 stories.

“My daughter goes to P.S. 10 and our school is in danger of losing funding because it’s under-enrolled, and that’s because families can’t afford to live in this neighborhood anymore,” he told the crowd.

“Personally, I’d like to see this proposal approved because we need new families…My question is, how are we going to get hundreds of families to move to our neighborhood, if we don’t build hundreds of homes for them to live in?”

Housing Not Highrises reps told the crowd they would stay in touch as the rezoning application moves through the ULURP process and urged everyone in attendance to show up to local meetings and public hearings as they are scheduled.

The application has not yet officially entered ULURP, which takes around seven months. Arrow Linen submitted its environmental impact statement on April 9, city records show.

Related Stories

• ‘Housing Not High Rises:’ Group Opposing 13-Story Arrow Linen Project Says Local Context Missing
• Homeless Shelter With 27 Units to Open in Greenwood Heights Factory Building
• English to Its Core: How Windsor Terrace Got Its Name

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