Thanks to the 2000+ of you who signed the petition!

(A quick note – contributions made through Change.org when you sign the petition do not go to the Conservancy, they go to Change.org. If you choose to support the Conservancy’s efforts, please donate here instead). 

UPDATE: The Eds and Meds Planning Framework will not be published! 

The Eds and Meds Planning Framework will not be presented to the City Planning Commission on Monday March 27 and will not be published on their website.

Council Member Crystal Hudson agreed with us and all of you that the community must be engaged before any planning document is released. Thanks to Crystal for her leadership in advocating that the voices of the Fort Greene community be heard!

We look forward to a community-led process going forward.

What will happen next?

We await news of the selection of a developer by The Brooklyn Hospital Center. 

In the meantime, the Conservancy plans to participate in Council Member Hudson’s new initiative in collaboration with Hester Street, where they will lead the development of a new approach to land use decision-making in our communities. The process will help ensure that local priorities are integrated in the land use process in District 35––from start to finish. We encourage you to take the short survey her office recently shared and join the Public Meeting on D35 Land Use on April 1, 1-3pm (location TBA).

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Stop the Eds & Meds Planning Framework | Demand Community Input!

What’s Happening?

Did you know that discussions are underway about potential real estate development along the western border of Fort Greene Park? Brooklyn City Planning’s Eds and Meds Planning Framework is a set of recommendations intended to shape potential developments on sites owned by The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Long Island University. The hospital, adjacent to the park, is in the final stages of selecting a developer to partner with them in rezoning and developing their property.

In this most recent Eds and Meds Planning Framework presentation, our remarks begin shortly after 1:00:02 with public comments following, ending at 1:36:20. If you want to see the Eds and Meds presentation and the CB2 member comments before the public Q&A that begins on 4:10 and then 38:56.

The City Planning Commission will review the framework on 3/27 to approve it as a policy document. 

Sign this petition to:

1. Demand that the City Planning Commission NOT approve and publish the Eds & Meds Planning Framework as a policy document
2. Request that Brooklyn City Planning work with Council Member Hudson and Borough President Reynoso on a community-led and City-led rezoning process—inclusive of The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Long Island University sites—that would REQUIRE the participation of local residents, businesses, and neighborhood organizations from the outset

NOTE: YOU DO NOT NEED TO LIVE IN FORT GREENE TO SIGN THIS PETITION. If you know and love the neighborhood and Fort Greene Park, that is what counts. We understand that many people have been displaced from the neighborhood and might want to ensure that doesn’t happen to others. 

*Please verify your e-mail address after signing to make sure your signature counts!

More Information:

• The Fort Greene Park Conservancy started this petition because we think the Eds and Meds process and framework are insufficient:
• The process is not transparent enough and has no requirements for community engagement and participation;
• The framework presumes the rezoning and development of The Brooklyn Hospital Center and Long Island University campuses;
• The recommendations prematurely offer public/community benefits with no enforcement mechanisms;
• By signing this petition, WE COLLECTIVELY SAY that a single City-led rezoning process versus two private rezoning processes w/the Eds and Meds recommendations would be better because it would at least require engagement with the broader community from the outset. All residents, local business owners, and neighborhood organizations deserve a voice in the process, including the residents of Ingersoll, Whitman, and Farragut Houses, which account for nearly half of the population of Fort Greene
• WE SAY that the rezoning of these sites is not inevitable
• AND WE SAY that the Fort Greene community should get answers to its questions on the developments first, and, if open to negotiation, lead discussions on community benefits

Whatever your position on these potential developments may be and the housing units they could provide, the community deserves a voice in the process!

What is the Conservancy’s position on the potential development?

The Conservancy plans to strongly oppose any future rezoning and development of The Brooklyn Hospital Center property that would cause irreparable harm to the park and community. 

Towers would create additional shade across the park that would threaten its trees, landscape, and wildlife. This would affect the health of the community and further harm people living in the environmental justice area north of the park. 

New market-rate residential units–in the thousands–would contribute to even larger deficiencies in green space in the area and widen existing gaps in housing and income within Fort Greene.

We have great respect for The Brooklyn Hospital Center and the work of its doctors, nurses and staff. Their work has been critical to the community, since their founding in 1845 to today. We are not opposing the hospital, only their decision to proceed in developing and rezoning their property in a way that could negatively impact the park and community.

We want answers to a number of questions so we all can determine together whether the negative impacts of the developments are worth the benefits the community could gain:

• What is the planned massing for the hospital’s development project? The community needs to see how the placement and height of the towers shades the park.
• How many units of housing are being proposed? And are the developers promising to create additional green space given the number of units they would add? Open space is not the same as green space, which people and their pets gravitate toward using. And we all know that the community did not get enough green space out of the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn.
• What percentage of the units would be affordable? Much of Downtown Brooklyn was built up without mandatory inclusionary housing. Do we need to correct this imbalance?
• What level of housing affordability do people in the community need? “Affordable housing” as defined by the Area Median Income (AMI), is not necessarily the same thing as low-income housing.
• What type of housing units do people in the community need? If the community wants to prioritize keeping longtime, low-income families in the neighborhood then we might need fewer studios and one-bedrooms and more family-sized units.
• What other sites and City/State initiatives might provide opportunities to achieve needed low-income and/or affordable housing in the area? Everyone needs to do their due diligence to see if the housing units we need can be accomplished on other sites to avoid unnecessary harm to Fort Greene Park.
• Would the hospital stay on-site, offer all current services, and serve, at a minimum, the same number of people and demographics? The hospital plays an important role in addressing health inequities in the neighborhood. Any change in location, capacity or services could negatively impact the community.

*Please verify your e-mail address after signing to make sure your signature counts!