NYC Council Approves Brooklyn Rezoning Set to Create 4,600 Homes

The New York City Council has approved a plan that would allow a roughly 21-block stretch of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue to be developed into new housing.

The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, which was pitched by Mayor Eric Adams in 2023 and approved by the City Planning Commission in March, is designed to allow the development of approximately 4,600 new apartments — including 1,900 income-restricted, affordable homes, according to a Wednesday announcement about the City Council’s approval.

In addition, the project expects to bring 2,800 permanent jobs and 800,000 square feet of commercial space to a section of Atlantic Avenue between Vanderbilt and Nostrand avenues near Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, where “outdated zoning rules have long limited housing and job growth,” the announcement said.

“The Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan marks a major milestone in our mission to build a more affordable, vibrant New York City, and today marks an exciting victory for Central Brooklyn as we take the next steps towards building more housing and creating more jobs in the five boroughs,” Adams said in a statement.

A portion of the new housing — around 900 units — will be built on sites across the neighborhood owned by the city, the state and nonprofit organizations. These include 457 Nostrand Avenue, 542 Dean Street, 516 Bergen Street, 1110 Atlantic Avenue, 1024 Fulton Street and 1134-1142 Pacific Street, according to the announcement.

Those apartments will be reserved for older, low-income households, families and formerly homeless people.

As part of the plan, the Adams administration will also provide approximately $235 million in investments to “improve open space and traffic safety, bolster tenant protections, and enhance other neighborhood infrastructure and amenities,” according to the announcement.

That includes widening sidewalks, upgrading stormwater and sewer infrastructure, enhancing the Franklin Avenue subway station, and updating public spaces such as the Lefferts Place Community Garden, Hancock Playground and St. Andrew’s Playground.

“With updated zoning and smart investments, the [Atlantic Avenue] corridor will offer more of the homes, jobs, safe streets and open space that Brooklynites urgently need,” Dan Garodnick, director of the city’s Department of City Planning, said in a statement.

The City Council’s approval of the plan comes after Adams announced in April that his administration would spend $24.7 billion for more affordable housing across the city, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Adams’s recent pitches for housing include his proposal for 1,500 new homes in Brooklyn’s Coney Island and his plan to build an 840-foot-tall residential building at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn.

And Adams has been pushing several other rezonings across the city to help tackle New York’s housing shortage, including in Midtown South and Long Island City, Queens.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.