Sunset Park activists and neighborhood residents rallied on Monday to urge their local councilmember to reject a proposed rezoning of the Industry City waterfront complex, warning of rapid gentrification and widescale displacement if powerful real estate players get their way.

Carlos Menchaca, the term-limited councilmember representing Sunset Park, convened a contentious public meeting at a local public school to discuss options for a long-delayed rezoning of a seismic scale—more than one million square feet, far larger than most privately proposed rezonings in New York—and pushed back on a recent press report that he had already cut a deal with the landlords who control the 35-acre, 16-building property.

The meeting, billed as a town hall to hear from both proponents and detractors of the rezoning, was cut short after protesters jeered during Menchaca’s slideshow presentation and he walked off the stage. Before leaving, Menchaca said he would not support the current proposal by Industry City's owners to add two hotels for business travelers, additional retail and office space, and 1.3 million square feet of new construction, but left the door open for an alternative plan, one that included a public technical high school, fewer retail outlets, and no hotel.

It remains unclear if or when developers Jamestown and Belvedere Capital and investor Angelo Gordon & Co., will submit an amended proposal. No new deadlines were announced.

“I was not able to finish the presentation, and that is okay," Menchaca said afterwards in a statement. "Industry City has a mixed record of success, and has almost certainly exacerbated gentrification, displacement, rising housing and commercial rents, and the loss of manufacturing on our waterfront. However, while Industry City has certainly contributed to the trends that have hurt our community, saying no without a plan to confront those challenges will not fix those issues but allow them continue.”

Menchaca argued a rezoning could present an opportunity to demand new concessions from Industry City that otherwise would be unavailable. He called for organizations in Sunset Park to band together to form a formal association that would make up one end of a community benefits agreement, as well as City Hall to fund initiatives to prevent tenant harassment.

Activists were peeved Menchaca left before 8 p.m. when the town hall was billed to last until 10.

“We weren’t going in expecting him to shut down the meeting. I was disappointed in Carlos that he actually walked out,” said Jeremy Kaplan, a neighborhood activist and documentary filmmaker. After the meeting, many attendees remained behind in the auditorium, sans Menchaca.

Before the town hall, those demanding Menchaca veto the rezoning clashed with dozens of counter-protesters, who waved identical yellow signs that read “Say Yes To: Jobs Opportunity Community Reinvestment.” While the opponents of the rezoning hailed from readily identifiable organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, UPROSE, and Protect Our Working Waterfront Alliance, many of Industry City’s supporters did not.

The exceptions were the men clad in red T-shirts, who came from the New York City Council District of Carpenters at the behest of their union leadership, said Edward Walsh, a veteran carpenter from nearby Bay Ridge.

Walsh, who used to live in Sunset Park, said he and other union members backed the rezoning for the promise of well-paying jobs, though he stopped short of condemning those who opposed Industry City’s designs. “I empathize with the people who are against this," he said. "The gentrification of the neighborhood, the prices of housing being pushed up. Unfortunately, it feels like the people who need the most are getting the least on both sides of this issue.”

The Industry City developers have lobbied Menchaca and the de Blasio administration to dramatically alter the fabric of the traditional manufacturing hub, which now boasts a growing retail base. Andrew Kimball, the CEO of Industry City, has promised the rezoning would generate 15,000 jobs.

That final tally is especially attractive to officials in the de Blasio administration, who are straining to meet the mayor’s ill-defined mandate to create 100,000 “good-paying” jobs citywide. Menchaca, a Democrat who belongs to the city council’s progressive caucus, has tussled with the de Blasio administration before, but is now facing increasing pressure to shepherd through a rezoning on a scale usually reserved for entire neighborhoods.

In March, Menchaca asked for a six-month delay, threatening to kill the rezoning if Industry City moved forward. Opposition from neighborhood organizers has only swelled since then. Since all rezonings must pass through the city council, and members almost always defer to the local lawmaker, Menchaca has the power to virtually single-handedly jumpstart or derail the project.

Activists are deeply wary of Industry City’s landlords, who once tried to lure Amazon to its spacious grounds. They believe the developers and investors want to secure a rezoning to increase the value of the land and flip it to another buyer in the near future.

“Industry City doesn’t have a long-term interest in Sunset Park,” said Jorge Muñiz, a local activist affiliated with the coalition Protect Sunset Park. “They want to rewrite land rules for profit. The land rules don’t let them put in luxury hotels and bring in large commercial stores. They want Modell’s and Amazon.”

UPROSE, which used to enjoy a closer relationship with Menchaca, has advanced a plan for Industry City embraced by neighborhood leftists: a return to full-scale manufacturing while building wind turbines and solar panels as part of a national Green New Deal. “We’re talking about an industrial waterfront that serves the region and this community, that builds for climate adaption, mitigation, and resilience,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, UPROSE’s executive director.

Lee Silberstein, a spokesperson for Industry City, argued that the landlords can be trusted to keep their word and deliver benefits for the surrounding community because the sprawling property, since its revival as a retail hub several years ago, has already generated economic opportunity for Sunset Park. He pointed to the developers' claims of 8,000 jobs created at Industry City and $100 million invested in local businesses since 2013.

“As is the case in many neighborhoods where a rezoning is proposed, project opponents express anxiety about what a development could mean for the future of a neighborhood,” Silberstein said. “No one has to take our word, all can look at what has already been done.”