The film charts the saga of a Brooklyn site called Industry City.
A new documentary, Emergent City, highlights zoning as it recounts the saga of a 35-acre Brooklyn industrial complex that served as a hotspot of anti-gentrification and environmental justice activism.
As Oscar Perry Abello explains in Next City, the consortium of developers that bought the complex in 2013 requested zoning changes that would make their proposed redevelopment more profitable. Local residents opposed the changes, saying that “Local landlords were already increasing rents beyond what existing residents and small businesses could afford in order to capitalize on the hype that Industry City was bringing to Sunset Park as a destination for high-end retail, leisure and office space. They argued a rezoning would only throw gasoline on that fire.”
Some community members proposed an alternate plan that would keep the site industrial and prepare it for solar and other alternative energy uses. The local city council member sided with the community, and the developers withdrew their rezoning application. “Although the community organizers won this particular zoning battle, the film also shows how the war for the future rages on.”
FULL STORY: The Drama of Zoning Finally Makes It to the Big Screen
A Planning Showdown in New York City
The proposal to rezone the Industry City redevelopment area in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn has won a key approval, but a controversial showdown in the City Council still awaits.
Councilmember Nixes Rezoning Request for Massive Brooklyn Redevelopment Project
Gentrification and displacement concerns won the day over a plan to rezone a former industrial area in Sunset Park, Brooklyn for new retail, offices, hotels and restaurants.
NYC Planning Head Defends Growth-Oriented Policies
Acknowledging anti-development sentiments currently simmering at an "all-time high," New York's planning director Marisa Lago defended de Blasio administration policies like mandatory inclusionary housing.
New Florida Law Curbs HOA Power
The legislation seeks to cut down on ‘absurd’ citations for low-level violations.
New Tennessee Law Allows No-Cost Incentives for Affordable Housing
Local governments in the Volunteer State can now offer developers incentives like increased density, lower parking requirements, and priority permitting for affordable housing projects.
Planners’ Complicity in Excessive Traffic Deaths
Professor Wes Marshall’s provocatively-titled new book, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer," has stimulated fierce debates. Are his criticisms justified? Let’s examine the degree that traffic engineers contribute to avoidable traffic deaths.
City of Madera
City of Santa Clarita
Borough of Carlisle
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Colorado Energy Office
Pima County Community College District
City of Piedmont, CA
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