Among the tenements on Linden Boulevard in Flatbush, southeast of Prospect Park, sits a vacant lot at No. 226. But not for long: two years ago, Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP) filed for a new building permit at 226 Linden Boulevard, and YIMBY now has a rendering of the project, called Ruby’s Place.
The nine-story supportive residence will contain 73 studios, averaging just 320 square feet each, on the second through ninth floors, per the architect’s website. Program spaces, counseling rooms, and a community space will round out the ground level, with a computer, laundry and bike storage room in the basement. “The deep site” – 226 Linden Boulevard is 75 feet wide and 155 feet long – “also allows for a rear yard with passive sitting, active recreation and residents’ gardening areas.”
MAP’s work mostly consists of affordable and supportive housing projects, largely in the Bronx, Upper Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Ruby’s Place is being developed by Community Counseling and Mediation, and will provide homes for single adults with mental illnesses. CCM already runs two supportive housing facilities in Brooklyn, one in Bed-Stuy and the other in Crown Heights, which provide homes for the formerly homeless as well as families where at least one member is living with HIV/AIDS.
The project will be a few stories taller than the area’s existing building stock – largely brownstones and new law tenements – but given that the last wave of development to hit Flatbush happened generations ago, a bit of extra height is nothing to be afraid of.
Just as Flatbush sees its first new construction since the 1950s, neighborhood groups have begun agitating for restrictions on new development, though spiraling prices are actually a symptom of the need for more housing. NIMBYs should keep in mind that prohibitive zoning does not discriminate between market-rate developments and projects like Ruby’s Place.
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