The 33rd Council District covers the neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, the Navy Yard, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Greenpoint, Vinegar Hill and Williamsburg. Incumbent Stephen Levin was elected to represent the district in 2009 and is term-limited out of office by the end of 2021. Since Levin took office, the district’s built environment has changed dramatically, with luxury developments rising in Downtown Brooklyn — which was rezoned by the city in 2004 — and similar towers cropping up along the Greenpoint and Williamsburg waterfront, which also underwent a major land-use change in 2005. Affordable…
Community board rejects Vinegar Hill rezoning citing local concerns of over-development
Civic gurus shot down a developer’s proposal to build a four-story mixed-use building in Vinegar Hill, with locals fearing a rash of new, oversized building projects in the low-rise historic district. “These new buildings could be more than twice as high as the historic brownstones and be forever totally out of character with the low-rise houses of Vinegar Hill Historic District, which we so much want to protect,â€� said Monique Denoncin, a longtime Vinegar Hill resident. “The unguided explosion of development that we experienced in Dumbo will then come our way. We do not want to be a reflection of Dumbo.â€� A lawyer representing the Spinard family, which owns a roughly 6,500 square…