Designed to be more sophisticated than the CBAs at Atlantic Yards and the Bronx Terminal Market, this time around area City Council members and the community board formed a local development corporation to talk on behalf of the community--whatever that is--and persuaded the city's Economic Development Corporation to provide a mediator, John Bickerman. (Yes, that is his real name.) The Pratt Center for Community Development provided back-up.

Susan Russell, chief of staff for Councilman Robert Jackson and a member of the local development corporation, says the negotiations could last through the seven-month rezoning process that will begin shortly. She said the two sides will discuss how the project can provide affordable housing, jobs, health-care facilities and the like.

- Matthew Schuerman