The City Planning Commission will vote Wednesday on whether the highly contested Bruckner rezoning proposal will continue on to the City Council for consideration, yet the commission and the applicant aren’t entirely on the same page about how many units are being proposed.
The controversial plans that have garnered attention throughout Throggs Neck would develop four sites on Bruckner Boulevard, replacing Super Foodtown with a new grocery store and bringing community space, as well as 309 parking spots. Most of all, the plan would bring more than 340 new apartments to the area. Yet the City Planning Commission (CPC) and applicant Throggs Neck Associates LLC — an entity representing a handful of local property owners — could not confirm the same number of units with the Bronx Times on Monday.
According to CPC Deputy Press Secretary Joe Marvilli, the plan includes 361 units, 168 of which would be affordable. He told the Bronx Times these numbers are the latest, provided by the applicant after the commission’s public hearing, the most recently completed stage in the application process. But since the proposal is still in public review, the numbers are approximate as the process continues, he added.
Yet this totals 12 more units than the 349 units cited in Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson’s June 27 recommendation (her document in two places cites a total of 339 units, but provides breakdowns that total 349) and 22 fewer affordable units than the 190 previously cited. The difference in affordable units seems to come from not counting the 22 units of veteran housing, which will fill a proposed 3-story building. Project spokesperson Sam Goldstein, of Marino PR, said the veteran housing, run by the Tunnels to Tower Foundation, will be privately subsidized for tenants. Goldstein refuted CPC’s total of 361, saying the numbers from Gibson’s recommendation of 349 are actually correct.
While it’s unclear where the 12 extra units cited by City Planning would be situated, both breakdowns include 99 units of permanently affordable apartments under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, spread across the four buildings.
The affordable housing counts also encompass 99 units of senior housing built through the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Senior Affordable Rental Apartments program in an 8-story building.
The other two buildings — five stories and eight stories tall — will have a mix of affordable and market-rate units.
Four-building Bruckner rezoning proposal ‘a very uphill climb,’ but developers persist
Residents have consistently rallied against the proposal, citing fears of their neighborhood being transformed beyond what its low-density zoning intended to preserve. There was a protest at the Super Foodtown last August, which is owned by Peter and Joe Bivona, who are part of the team proposing the project. A loud crowd also made a showing against the project at a Community Board 10 public hearing in April. The board rejected the proposal with just one member supporting the project in an advisory vote, and a board member even encouraging a boycott of Super Foodtown. There has been online petitioning and fundraising, and even a”Rosary Rally” prayer group that gathered across the street from the grocery store on July 23.
Last month, John Cerini, one of the resident organizers against the project, showed up at a neighboring community meeting about a separate project seeing similar opposition, drawing parallels between both fights.
“We need to stop them from upzoning and building and building everywhere,” said Cerini, a Throggs Neck businessman.
Following CB10 rejection and uproar from residents, what’s next for the Bruckner rezoning proposal?
After holding two public hearings, Gibson, the borough president, lent her support to the project with conditions, including a reduction of one of two eight-story buildings — the tallest structures in what has been branded by local opposition as a harmful upzoning — to five floors. She supported keeping one of the eight-story buildings for senior housing.
Borough President Gibson outlines conditions for her Bruckner rezoning support
The developers’ initial proposal had been amended prior to Gibson’s recommendation, which resulted in the fully senior affordable housing building and veteran building. The senior building was previously a mix of market-rate homes and affordable homes and the veteran building was previously market-rate housing.
While the theme of the opposition has been against “upzoning,” the building heights of three, five and eight floors remain as initially proposed, Marvilli confirmed with the Bronx Times.
The vote Wednesday will be streamed on the NYC Department of City Planning’s YouTube channel at 10 a.m. If the commission approves the proposal, it will proceed to the City Council for a public hearing and vote.
If the project was to be approved by the 51-member City Council, Mayor Eric Adams would have the ability to veto the project — which the council can override. But local Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, a Throggs Neck Democrat, has been against the project, a position that holds an unspoken influence through council deference, where members typically vote according to the local representative’s view.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
