On Thursday afternoon, a City Council subcommittee voted on the proposed Domino Sugar Refinery redevelopment. 17 members voted yes, with 1, Councilwoman Inez Barron, abstaining. According to Councilmember Stephen Levin, negotiations between the City Council and the Mayor’s office went late into the night, and the vote that was supposed to take place this morning did not happen until after 2 pm in the afternoon.
City Councilmember David Greenfield explained the changes that have taken place to the Domino development between the April 1st hearing, and the subcommittee vote on Thursday.
The main changes are that we now have guaranteed levels of affordability that we did not have before, and we have guarantees from the administration that all of the affordable housing will on average be below 70% of the AMI, which is reflective of the affordability and the means of that particular community. But for that, it could have been much higher. It could have been as much as 125%. …the community [also] now has guaranteed input through the modifications that we made…those are really the two most significant changes….there will also be larger mix of larger units. There will be more two and three bedroom affordable units.”
Greenfield estimates that a 70% AMI will be roughly $60,000. Councilmember Stephen Levin who was active in the Domino negotiations and played a starring role in the April 1st hearing, sees Domino as a precedent for future major developers in the City.
“I think that one thing that the City Planning Commission and the de Blasio administration have made clear is that more is going to be expected of developers…This is in a lot of ways a groundbreaking development because of what the de Blasio administration did at the City Planning Commission… 24% of the floor area has to be affordable. Normally that’s 20%…really upping the ante in terms of affordable housing.
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