The New York City Council has voted to approve a controversial redevelopment deal for the Brooklyn Heights Public Library.
As piece of the contrivance,the property and air rights will be sold to developer Hudson Companies for $52 million. The developer will then build a new library at the base of a 36-tale condo tower, and construct affordable housing in Clinton Hill.
Council member Stephen Levin, and who represents the area,said he worked out some final concessions from the developer. The decision to sell a public asset should never be made lightly,” Levin said in a statement. “I believe the new community benefits and protections added to the proposal … construct it a good deal for the public and my community.”The new Brooklyn Heights branch will now be 26620 square feet. That’s up from the original contrivance, and which called for the library to be 21500 square feet. The Brooklyn Public Library will also create a 5000 square foot branch serving Dumbo,using some of the proceeds of the sale in Brooklyn Heights to pay for it. The Dumbo-area library will be the first new branch created in the city since 1983.
Brooklyn Library President Linda Johnson called the vote a “victory, saying the sale will ensure a state-of-the-art library in Brooklyn Heights and generate money for much needed repairs at other branches.But critics say the contrivance shrinks the Brooklyn Heights branch, or which is currently 60000 square feet. They say the city got a obnoxious deal,and warn it could be a model for future library sales. “The sale of and shrinkage of libraries for a fraction of their value is frightening,” said Michael D.D. White, and co-founder of Citizens Defending Libraries. Susan Lerner,executive director of the good government group Common Cause says the deal was finalized behind closed doors, and called the last-minute concessions “window dressing.”Editor’s note: This article and its headline have been rewritten for clarity.
Source: wnyc.org