QUESTION
Why are housing developments prioritized over parking, and what are the sizes of the proposed units?
0:24:06
·
7 min
Council Member Darlene Mealy questions the prioritization of housing over parking and seeks clarification on the sizes of the proposed housing units, receiving answers from Aleena Farishta and Katherine Gray.
- Aleena Farishta acknowledges that parking was an option but emphasizes the project's priorities, including affordability and providing community amenities.
- The sizes for studio to three-bedroom units are detailed, ranging from 368 to 1,041 square feet, with efforts to exceed standard HPD size requirements.
- Concerns regarding the community's satisfaction with the project are expressed, highlighting the need for clear communication and adherence to community expectations.
- The dialogue underscores the challenges of urban planning in balancing housing demands with other community needs like parking and adequate living spaces.
Darlene Mealy
0:24:06
Because you take you build in housing, and this is the last opportunity to have parking.
0:24:14
Other than that, you could do parking there.
Aleena Farishta
0:24:17
So I think, you know,
Darlene Mealy
0:24:19
I That is the required just because it's the housing now.
0:24:23
But other than that, you could have done parking.
0:24:25
Yes or no?
Aleena Farishta
0:24:27
Yes.
0:24:27
Parking is an option.
0:24:29
We and I know we've had this
Darlene Mealy
0:24:30
option for that option to be included in this proposal.
0:24:35
I saw.
Aleena Farishta
0:24:35
Yes.
0:24:36
We understand.
0:24:36
And I think, you know, we've had this discussion before that HPD and the team have been thinking about various alternative scenarios.
0:24:44
There are many things that we have to prioritize, including deeper affordability, larger units, making sure we have really low of like, affordable rents for the nonprofit space and cultural partners as well.
0:24:58
For the long term, all of those things affect the financial feasibility of the project as well.
0:25:05
We also have a public plaza.
0:25:08
We have, you know, other residents financial amenity spaces, including amenity spaces for the community facilities, while balancing all of these needs, we were prioritizing a lot of the feedback.
0:25:21
We heard from, you know, the the years long worth of feedback from the Bronzl plan.
Kamillah Hanks
0:25:25
But also
Darlene Mealy
0:25:26
she just heard out of her mouth that the community when you went last night.
0:25:31
It was last night.
0:25:32
They still not satisfied.
0:25:34
They feel they they we could get much more from this, talking about talking about the MWA's.
0:25:40
Y'all already had that set already.
0:25:43
Y'all came and told me how many people gonna be in it already.
0:25:47
And for the record, everyone should know, the space will be free.
0:25:52
Right?
0:25:53
You said it's free.
0:25:53
Y'all got $12,000,000, and everyone who wanna go into space will be for free.
0:26:00
So, Let's give them just a little bit more.
0:26:04
And one other thing I wanna talk about is how big is the apartments.
0:26:08
You didn't put that in here.
0:26:11
And you should be celebrating it.
0:26:13
I came in here to think that y'all were doing the right thing in which y'all said y'all was gonna do That's a celebratory lap you could have done.
0:26:24
But now I'm not having how much how much space that y'all extended for 2 bedroom apartments, and I really need to know how much the 3 bedroom apartments.
0:26:37
How big is that space?
0:26:39
And if it's any way you could go down a floor.
0:26:43
Sure.
Aleena Farishta
0:26:43
So next slide, please.
0:26:46
So, you know, the ranges of the each of the units
Darlene Mealy
0:26:50
would be.
Aleena Farishta
0:26:51
Yes.
0:26:51
Next next slide, please.
0:26:54
So the studios range from 368 square feet to 416 feet.
0:27:00
The one bedrooms range from 501 square feet to 574 square feet.
0:27:06
The two bedrooms range from 656 square feet to 765 square feet, and the three bedrooms range from 874 Square feet.
Darlene Mealy
0:27:16
The bed
Aleena Farishta
0:27:17
A 1000 feet.
Darlene Mealy
0:27:19
A 100 square feet.
0:27:21
Next slide, please.
0:27:22
Oh, my god.
0:27:23
I'm done.
Arvind Sindhwani
0:27:24
Sorry.
0:27:25
You have to keep going till the unit layout.
Aleena Farishta
0:27:27
In TriNet.
0:27:28
Yeah.
Kamillah Hanks
0:27:30
Can I just ask you a question?
0:27:31
Oh, there you go.
0:27:32
Thank you.
0:27:34
Can you talk about this slide, please?
0:27:40
As it relates to the 3 bedroom as opposed to the 2s.
Aleena Farishta
0:27:46
Yes.
0:27:46
Next slide has the 3 bedrooms.
Darlene Mealy
0:27:51
Thank you.
Katherine Gray
0:27:51
So this Department of Housing Preservation And Development has a design guidebook with maximum and minimum sizes for apartments that they apply when developers seek subsidy for affordable housing.
0:28:11
We've been studying the layouts of the building and have been doing our best to push for the layouts of the apartments to be on the maximum end of the size guidelines and in many cases exceeding the standard HPD space requirements.
0:28:34
This is an example of a three bedroom.
Kamillah Hanks
0:28:36
Hold hold off one second.
0:28:37
I'm sorry.
0:28:38
Pardon me.
0:28:38
Can you repeat you were saying the standard Can we just go back to that for a moment?
0:28:44
Can we just for the public and for my notification?
0:28:47
What is the standard size for an HPD unit that is considered affordable for each
Katherine Gray
0:28:55
apartment size.
0:28:56
Apartments size, please
Arvind Sindhwani
0:28:57
go through the lid information.
Kamillah Hanks
0:28:58
Because I think that's a really important chart to display here.
Amanda FarÃas
0:29:04
I appreciate
Kamillah Hanks
0:29:04
we have serious questions from the council member who is duly elected it in that district to represent her constituency, and her constituency is saying that this is not acceptable.
0:29:17
So what we wanna get to is yes.
0:29:21
And so we really need to have explained to satisfy not only counsel member, but satisfy the community board members and members of the community that have the questions.
Arvind Sindhwani
0:29:31
Absolutely.
0:29:31
So if
Kamillah Hanks
0:29:32
we could just have a slide like that at some point, so because this is a little confusing.
Arvind Sindhwani
0:29:36
Absolutely.
0:29:37
And we'll pull up the the numbers right now.
0:29:40
In the meantime, calcium release these apartment layouts that you're seeing on the screen are the same ones that we showed you at your district office with a commissioner.
0:29:50
And we are showing the new
Darlene Mealy
0:29:53
But your testimony just said a three bedroom apartment was 800 Square Feet.
0:29:58
So that mean the 2 bedroom apartment is even pretty much 600.
0:30:04
You didn't say anything about 1000 as of yet.
Aleena Farishta
0:30:09
Yes.
0:30:10
Council member, I I I wanna reiterate the 3 bedroom ranges.
0:30:15
From 874 square feet to a 1041 square feet.
0:30:20
So there's a range for each of these different, not all the things here
Darlene Mealy
0:30:25
to be here today.
0:30:26
This is the time for everything to be put out on display.
0:30:31
Respectfully to my colleagues that they don't think that This is a farce here.
0:30:37
But you just vocally said, 800 square feet for a three bedroom apartment.
0:30:44
Who can live in that?
0:30:45
That's a box.
0:30:47
A two bedroom is a box.
0:30:50
800 no.
0:30:51
600 square feet.
0:30:52
So I feel y'all need to revamp and bring forth what you're really gonna do and let everyone see it.
0:31:02
This is not the time to be confused.
0:31:08
I feel chair, I'm not accepting this, and the community already stated they're not accepting this.
0:31:16
This is the opportunity for them to really put their best foot forward and show the city what she trying to do in Brownsville.
0:31:24
And I'm not gonna let you just come in and rape and put us in boxes in which you say one thing and now it's totally different things.
0:31:33
Thank you, Cheah, for giving me the leverage and allowed it to to say this, but I have no more questions because this is not nowhere near what the community requested.
