Submitted by FROGG, Jan 11, 2007 16:50

Gowanus IS a manufacturing district! Toll can build here, just not houses.

By the way, it was not FROGG that first looked to designate this building as "archeologically sensitive", but it was the US Army Corp who singled this building out along with four others as the historical buildings which marked the importance of the industrial history of the Gowanus. New York State also approved the Army Corp application for historic designation. The Army Corp Gowanus project leader is now serving in Iraq, helping defend the American idea of the "rule of law". Zoning law is law and a developer--who makes use of significant communal shared services and funds--can not do as they please. There are communal and environmental issues here.

Here in a city, everyone's land infringes on the land of another in many ways, which is why we have zoning laws and community input in making those laws. And land that sits on designated coastal waterfront brings up questions of Public Trust Law. So if our zoning law drives this suburban developer out of Brooklyn because he can't build as he pleases, maybe that is because the law is doing what it should be doing. Maybe if there was as strong a zoning law out in our farm land, Toll might have been made to build livable, pedestrian communities that work as well as Brooklyn.

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