Gowanus Whole Foods Gets Some Land Use Setbacks
Whole Foods has been trying to finish up their development for years now on the corner of Third and Third. Last year, we analyzed their traffic study, which was laughable in that it proposed the minimum required “improvements” for the community, and also their pathetic responses to traffic generation concerns. In fairness to them, the response from Community Board 6 to their application was perhaps even more laughable than the application itself. Tomatoes were of larger concern to the Land Use Committee than transportation impacts.
Well, earlier this week, Whole Foods heard back from the BSA on their Variance application. Both Patch and the Brooklyn Paper covered this development. Unfortunately, both sources misidentify the reasons for the BSA’s continuation of the matter as having to do with environmental concerns related to the Gowanus Superfund cleanup.
While it is true that opponents of the project cited environmental concerns, the BSA correctly did not cite them in their statements. What they did cite, however, is the lack of appropriate parking mitigation and comprehensive land use analysis. The most important reason though, is that the BSA wanted Whole Foods to adequately demonstrate that their site is materially different from all other sites along the Gowanus Canal. This will be harder to prove, and is more important for the future of the Canal Corridor. If the BSA finds that the Whole Foods side is unique, that precedent could be used to justify a variance for ANY lot along the canal, which would then, of course, make none of the sites unique.
Also, there’s this.
