If you live in Bay Ridge or the surrounding neighborhoods of Brooklyn, here is something that directly affects your block: a public hearing is scheduled for Monday, May 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM on a proposal to rezone a site at 9305 5th Avenue for an 11-story, 292-unit mixed-use residential building. The hearing is your opportunity to weigh in before the application moves through the city approval process.

The hearing will be held in person at Bay Ridge Center, located at 15 Bay Ridge Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. This is a community-level public review, and testimony from residents, business owners, and community members is officially part of the record.

What Is Being Proposed

The applicant, 9305 5th Avenue LLC, is seeking two changes from the city. The first is a zoning map amendment that would rezone the property from R6B/C2-3 to R7X/C2-4 — a shift that allows for taller, denser residential construction. The second is a zoning text amendment to facilitate the development itself: an 11-story mixed-use building with 292 dwelling units and roughly 13,000 square feet of commercial and community facility space at the ground level.

In plain terms, this would be one of the taller buildings in that stretch of Bay Ridge, a neighborhood currently characterized by three- to six-story residential buildings and a commercial strip along 5th Avenue. Under the current R6B zoning, the height limit is considerably lower. The proposed R7X zone permits significantly taller structures along transit corridors.

How Brooklyn Land Use Decisions Actually Work

Rezonings like this one go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure — known as ULURP — which is the city’s standardized public process for major land use changes. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso’s office plays a key role: his staff holds public hearings, accepts written testimony, and issues a formal recommendation before the application proceeds to the City Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council.

The 2026 ULURP hearing schedule holds borough-level hearings every second Wednesday of the month at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn. Those hearings are open to the public and can also be attended virtually via Webex. Anyone can testify in person, online, or by submitting written comments to the Brooklyn Borough President at bpreynoso@brooklynbp.nyc.gov, as long as they arrive by 5 PM of the hearing day.

The May 18 Bay Ridge hearing is a community board-level hearing, which is actually an earlier step in the ULURP pipeline — taking place before the Borough President hearing. If you cannot attend the community board hearing, you can still participate later at the Borough President level.

Why Bay Ridge Is in Focus

Bay Ridge has been one of the more active neighborhoods in Brooklyn for rezoning proposals over the past several years. The neighborhood is well-served by the R train, and the city’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform — which took effect in late 2024 and early 2025 — has encouraged more transit-adjacent density across all five boroughs.

The proposed R7X zoning is designed for areas near transit that can accommodate taller buildings, typically with ground-floor retail and community space. If approved, the 292-unit building would represent a significant addition to Bay Ridge’s housing supply. Community members at previous Bay Ridge hearings have raised concerns about infrastructure capacity, parking, and the compatibility of high-rise development with the neighborhood’s existing streetscape.

Brooklyn has been an active site for development proposals this year. You can read more about another recent rezoning effort in our coverage of the 200 Kent Avenue rezoning in Williamsburg, which went through a similar public review process earlier this year.

How to Participate on May 18

The public hearing is open to all Brooklyn residents, not just those who live in Bay Ridge. You do not need to register in advance. Show up to Bay Ridge Center at 15 Bay Ridge Avenue before 7:00 PM, or contact the relevant community board (Brooklyn Community Board 10, which covers Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, and Dyker Heights) to ask about written testimony options.

To understand how your community board and city council member fit into this process more broadly, our guide to NYC City Council districts and community boards in 2026 walks through the full structure of local government review.

What You Need to Know

• A public hearing on a proposed rezoning at 9305 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge is scheduled for Monday, May 18, 2026 at 7:00 PM at Bay Ridge Center, 15 Bay Ridge Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220.
• The proposal would rezone the site from R6B/C2-3 to R7X/C2-4 to allow an 11-story building with 292 residential units and roughly 13,000 square feet of commercial and community facility space.
• ULURP is the city process that governs major land use changes — community boards review first, then the Brooklyn Borough President, then the City Planning Commission, and finally the City Council.
• Brooklyn ULURP borough-level hearings are held every second Wednesday of the month at Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street. Written testimony is accepted by email at bpreynoso@brooklynbp.nyc.gov by 5 PM on each hearing day.
• City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, adopted in late 2024, has spurred a wave of transit-adjacent rezoning proposals across Brooklyn.
• Contact Brooklyn Community Board 10 for more information on the May 18 hearing and how to submit testimony.

Sources: Brooklyn Borough President Land Use and Planning page; NYC City Record, May 13, 2026.