We'll have a full story up on the blog and on the Norwood News Web site by this afternoon, but for now, we wanted to report the news that Community Board 7 voted last night to approve The Related Companies' city-backed and publicly-subsidized project to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a giant mall.
The vote was only advisory, but it moves the project up the food chain.
There were a handful of dissenting votes, but a large majority of the 27 board members in attendance voted to recommend the project with a list of conditions, including the signing of a binding and enforceable Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
It remains far from certain what community benefits that agreement will include, but Chairman Greg Faulkner and the bulk of board members said they felt voting yes with conditions would be the best way to stay involved in and have input in the project as it goes forward.
Earlier in the day, Related sent a letter to the Board agreeing, in very broad (some said vague) terms, to the Community Board's conditions.
Speakers at the meeting, including members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), representatives of the Jerome Avenue-based supermarket chain Morton Williams, Assemblyman Jose Rivera and a couple of people who said they'd been burned by Related in the past, sternly implored Board members to vote it down.
The Board now has 13 days to send their voting record and other materials to Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. who will then have 30 days to deliberate on whether or not to support the project. After that, the project goes to City Planning and then to the City Council.
Tune in later for the story on last night's hearing, which turned very interesting toward the last hour and a half.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Community Board 7 Conditionally Votes To Approve Armory Mall Plan
2 comments:
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the writing was on the wall. now let's see if the borough president is going to take a stand.
ReplyDeleteThis is commonly known as passing the buck. Now it's the borough president's turn because the community board didn't get it done.
ReplyDeleteIf Greg Faulkner and the community board had any guts at all, we wouldn't be in this mess.
They have abdicated their responsiblity to this community. It's worse than shameful.