Applicant Stark introduces Park Avenue rezoning team and purpose

Thank you, Chair Lewis.

My name is Benjamin Stark.

I'm a partner at Hershen Singer Epstein for the applicant Park Avenue Rezoning Partners.

Right off the bat, just the deepest thanks.

Really, words can't express the thanks that this applicant team has.

It's not the support of Councilmember Ressler.

It's the commitment of Councilmember Ressler to recognizing very early in this process the deep community benefit of this application.

And being a partner in that advocacy from every step of the way.

Really, the words...

that I'm saying right now cannot capture the gratitude that this community feels for that degree of leadership and really just being

at the forefront of understanding why there's need here and what needs to get done to deliver on that need.

So without that further ado, I'll get to this presentation.

I will make every effort to keep it brief.

As it was introduced, this is an application by a coalition of property owners and Jewish educational institutions with very deep roots in the South Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities.

They're seeking to rezone five blocks of a legacy 1961-era manufacturing district along Park Avenue,

zoning that no longer reflects how this neighborhood lives, works, or grows in order to deliver two urgent public benefits, the aforementioned school seats and affordable housing.

This is not a conventional rezoning.

There's no single developer or property owner behind it.

Park Avenue Rezoning Partners is a group of property owners and educational institutions.

Next slide, please.

The Beth Chana School, Central United Talmudical Academy, Yeshivas of Ahavas Israel, Yeshiva Litziram Satmar, institutions that have served South Williamsburg community for decades.

They're educational and spiritual anchors of this neighborhood, and they share a common problem, a serious problem, that the zoning has not kept pace with the community that they serve, a community that has been and will continue to grow exponentially.

The owners of the residential sites in this application are not controlled by outside investors.

They are owned by outside investors.

community members, and community affiliate entities who have also been on these blocks for years.

This application addresses community needs in a single coordinated framework, and it does so without displacing a single existing resident.