Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick and Council Member Crystal Hudson recently released the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP) Community Vision and Priorities Report, a summary of more than eight months of engagement and feedback from community stakeholders in Central Brooklyn. The report will inform the next phases of AAMUP, a community-driven planning process that seeks to transform the area roughly adjacent to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, between Vanderbilt Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, into a mixed-use community with deeply affordable housing.
The plan has been in the works for a decade and seeks to transform 13 blocks of Atlantic Avenue between Vanderbilt and Nostrand avenues, along with adjacent blocks that include the industrial border-zone portions of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Clinton Hill. Its six community priorities include the creation of new deeply affordable housing along with the preservation of currently affordable housing, zoning that fosters mixed-use development, improved safety measures in the area’s redesign, new public green spaces, job training and business development; and utilization of the Bedford-Atlantic Armory with new community amenities.
“For more than a decade, the community surrounding Atlantic Avenue has called for a new vision for this dangerous corridor that delivers more deeply affordable housing, increased investments in the area’s local economy, safer streets, and greater consideration of local infrastructure needs,” said Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents the area’s district.
While the 112-page report outlines the dangers of the roadway— according to data compiled by Crash Mapper, there have been 472 reported crashes between Brooklyn and Washington avenues since Sept. 1, 2020— it doesn’t outline next steps to make the redesign a reality. Per a Department of Transportation spokesperson, the agency is reviewing the plan's recommendations.
