Matt Sollars

The battle to redevelop Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal has been going on since the 1960’s. By then, the canal, once one of the state’s busiest waterways, had fallen largely into disuse. Many of the warehouses, factories and other industrial sites that lined the canal’s shores were abandoned.

Now, with residential real estate booming and the city’s population expanding, the area is on the verge of a new era of residential development. But as development plans go forward, every step requires a delicate balance of the city’s enormous need for housing, the environmental cleanup required on a century-old industrial waterway, and the ongoing needs of the businesses that remain in the area.

See the multimedia project on the canal development at mattsollars.com/gowanus.

Public Place, a vacant lot between Smith Steet and the Gowanus Canal, is the latest parcel of land to enter Brooklyn’s heated affordable housing and development debate.

At a series of meetings in the community, which will continue next month, the city has begun finally to move towards developing the lot.

Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 announcement last month seemed to give a clue to the city’s thinking. A map of the Gowanus Rezoning, a highlight of Bloomberg’s plan, indicated that Public Place could be the site of a complex with over 200 units.

The site is contaminated after 100 years as a coal-fired gas plant. Keyspan has agreed to pony up some money to clean the site, to the tune of $62 million. But, some wonder if the site will be clean enough for the senior housing the city wants to put there.