May 12, 2016 2 min read fort greene

Community Board 2 Notes: 461 Dean, Voting Irregularities And More

The 32-story residential building at 461 Dean Street has long dominated the skyline; It also dominated the discussion at Wednesday’s community board meeting.

Neighbors bombarded representatives from Forest City Ratner, the developer behind the project, about affordable housing in the new building and construction hiccups. One resident raised concerns that the innovative modular design, which allows units to be manufactured separately and the installed at the site, could pose safety hazards.

“Modular construction has a 60 percent greater liability to have tremendous fires,” said a concerned citizen.

Forest City Ratner Senior Vice President Ashley Cotton responded forcefully to this, asserting that she had no idea of the study being referred to. Moreover, she assured community members that the building met every approval required by the Department of Buildings.

“We have absolutely no doubts about this building in terms of construction. Sure it was novel, we had a couple of bumps along the way with the business partner, things like that,” said Cotton.

There was a presentation on 461 Dean Street by Forest City Ratner Senior Vice President Ashley Cotton (right) — There was a presentation on 461 Dean Street by Ismene Speliotis (left), the Executive Director of the Mutual Housing Association of New York, and Forest City Ratner Senior Vice President Ashley Cotton (right)

Most of the conversation centered around the 181 affordable housing units up for grabs at the mammoth modular tower, which is the biggest of its kind in the country. Workshops on how to apply for the below-market units are ongoing. Occupancy is expected to begin later this year.

“These are key stakeholders, and we wanted to get the word out and make sure they know about the lottery, so it’s really key to work with the community board,” said Cotton after the meeting.

Elsewhere on the agenda, L. Joy Williams, President of the Brooklyn NAACP, presented on the voting irregularities that involved a massive purge of registered voters, especially in Brooklyn. A second official was suspended over the debacle, and she recently gave her side to the Bensonhurst Bean.

Other community stakeholders such as Mayor de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and others sent representatives to report to the community.

Finally, I had an opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting and introduce myself. Like I told the room, please feel free to contact me so we can work together on issues that are important to the community.