The Developer for the Staples Lot Met With Justin Brannan and Kayla Santosuosso
At tonight’s Community Board 10 meeting, the developer for the Staples lot led with that he met with both former Councilman Justin Brannan and current NYC Council representative Kayla Santosuosso.
The developers were so arrogant and spoke as if they were doing our community a favor by developing this underdeveloped parking lot.
Kayla Santosuosso has only been in office for three months. She must not have much to do for our community that she had time to meet with the developer.
Neither Santosuosso or Brannan thought they should mention to the community this rezoning or that they were meeting with developers for the Staples lot.
Currently, the developers have the right to build a smaller building (even if they don’t receive the rezoning). The back of their building has no concern for the existing neighbors (a lot of apartments whose backyards face the current lot.) While these developers met with two elected leaders, neither politician advocated for a better design for the existing residents in the area.
There was no mention of the Staples store returning to the new building. The developer thinks that adding a daycare or a supermarket on the first floor of the building will help Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge has plenty of daycares.
This project will take 24-36 months (yikes they are going to be building for three years!)
If they include a supermarket, they will have parking within the building. Neither the daycare, supermarket or parking lot inside the building are in the building’s design.
The developers are going to fast track this project – that means there are no reports (traffic, the environment and school). They don’t have to do these reports because they are allowed to fast track the construction.
A traffic study was not done. Politicians should have pushed for a traffic study as there is a huge problem on the Avenue when the bridge gets stopped (especially on Friday evenings). How did Brannan or Santosuosso not update these developers on the two new supermarkets coming to the area (Tim Ziss’ new building has a supermarket as well).
Community Board 10 members added facts about the area including the Verrazano Bridge backing up and flooding. This is a bus route and the area can’t handle the traffic from a huge building. (Anne you were great!)
The developers talked about JJCarty Park and said they wanted to put $20,000 in upgrades because they railings were outdated and the trees are all dead. (They didn’t know that the park had a $5.4 million dollar upgrade in 2024! It’s sad that the park is already looking worn. Residents said that the park is full of rats.
Former Councilman Vinnie Gentile was at the meeting remotely and as always he knocked it out of the park. Vinnie loves Bay Ridge and is opposed to this development. He said the developers stating that this is an underdeveloped area is incorrect. Gentile was a leader who was present when the Bay Ridge district zoning was set. He suggested to the developers to build within the current zoning district because tripling the zoning will have a serious impact on the community. GO VINNIE!
After Gentile spoke, a man who has been in Bay Ridge for a year came and spoke for this community. He said he pays $4000 in rent and his daughter does as well. He said a traffic study needs to be done. PS. Neighbor, I love you!
A resident on 94th Street off 5th Avenue said that the sewers are a problem. She described horrible flooding that caused $25,000 in damage her basement. She said the Staples parking lot is pitched and that would flood Staples basement and then her home. She contacted inspectors, Staples corporate and received no help. This residents doesn’t want her home to be flooded from the new development. Later, Josephine, the manager of Community Board 10 said that other residents of 94th Street and other streets contacted CB 10. The sewers had been redone there already.
Thank you to the Bay Ridge resident, who attended the meeting and passionately said that this matters because Bay Ridge is a special place for our community.
The committee will have another meeting on Thursday, May 7th. At the Monday, May 18th general board meeting, this will be a public meeting.
Hugs,
marlene
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