Gowanus, Explained

Zoning determines what can legally be built on a piece of land. A rezoning changes what is and isn’t allowed.

Zoning determines what can legally be built on a piece of land. A rezoning changes what is and isn’t allowed. In New York City that means the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, ULURP, and in the case of Gowanus the applicant was the city itself. The result changed more than 80 blocks that were mostly industrial into a mixed-use district with over 9,000 units of housing, around 3,000 of them permanently affordable, more than six acres of new open space, and space for artists and industry.

Fourth tool in the Use of Land Hub: bkcb6.app/gowanus. It has a readable guide to the Special Gowanus Mixed Use District, Chapter 9 of the zoning resolution, with the full chapter one click away. It has the timeline from the first hearings through the Borough President’s approval and the Council vote in 2021. It sets CB6’s resolution side by side with the Points of Agreement signed by Mayor de Blasio and negotiated by Council Members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin, including the NYCHA capital investment, and it tracks the Gowanus Oversight Task Force that is supposed to hold everyone to them. Maps show land use, zoning districts, NYCHA sites, and current and future permits, so you can watch it get built.

If you want to understand the biggest change to this district in a generation, or hold people to what was promised, start here.

Open the Gowanus rezoning page → · The Use of Land Hub