Whole Foods Faces Decisive Vote in Brooklyn New species of heirloom tomatoes have been created in the time it has taken for one supermarket to rise in Brooklyn. Eight years ago, Whole Foods Market bought a 4.2-acre site on the corner of Third Street and Third Avenue, steps from the infamous Gowanus Canal. Since then, the chain has had a ribbon-cutting and removed the toxic waste on the ground to the state's satisfaction - but still there is no store. Whole Foods adjusted its plans because of the economy and community concerns about parking and traffic. Twice in the past year it has fulfilled the city's requests for more analysis, and it has secured community board approval, even as a small but vocal opposition group says the project will hasten the end of affordability and enterprise in the industrial neighborhood. In the shadow of a Superfund site and between two neighborhoods that would seem to cry out for all things organic, the area remains vacant and underdeveloped; and Whole Foods has opened four other stores in Manhattan. That could finally change on Tuesday, when a city panel is scheduled to vote on whether to approve a special permit for Whole Foods" proposed 52,000-square-foot store, which is more than five times bigger than the zoning regulations currently allow. While local shoppers and real estate developers cheer the potential of such a bountiful store, opponents attack it as a flawed plan from a national corporation that precluded other possibilities. "There are other ways to develop a gigantic property other than developing a single style of suburban supermarket," said Jennifer Gardner, a graduate student of urban planning and a researcher at the Gowanus Institute, a group formed by developers, planners and environmental professionals after the canal's federal Superfund designation in 2010. But others see the store as a stimulus to the local economy. "It's a responsible development," said Bill Appel, the executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation. He said the area along the canal, with its concrete and recycling plants, was a virtual wasteland between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. "You're waiting for a linchpin to unite these two vibrant areas," Mr. Appel said. Lesley May, 41, shopping in Carroll Gardens recently with her two small children, said she usually drove to the Fairway market in Red Hook but would add Whole Foods to her weekly routine. Anne McBrearty, in her 60s, who has lived in Park Slope since 1971, also supported the store. "It will do nice things for Third Avenue," she said. After all of its time and financial investments, Whole Foods is more than ready to proceed to the building phase. Several people who have attended the public hearings and have been closely following the discussions said it appeared that the city panel, the Board of Standards and Appeals, was likely to approve the zoning variance. "There seems to be this vision that we're a big-box store and not building and designing the store to be a part of the community," said Michael Sinatra, a regional spokesman for Whole Foods. We want to be a local community center. The six Whole Foods stores in New York City already sell local products, Mr. Sinatra said, including from Brooklyn companies like Sixpoint Ales, Brooklyn Brine and Salvatore Bklyn, a maker of ricotta. The new store would also produce 350 jobs, he said, 262 of them full-time. Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, has enthusiastically supported the project, emphasizing its potential for job creation. Original plans called for a parking deck and for the building to be partially underground, Mr. Sinatra said, but the current plan calls for a 248-space surface lot. The store will sell fruits and vegetables grown in a 20,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse, and will have a charging station for electric cars. But members of the Gowanus Institute argue that a complex for small businesses and job training would better stimulate the local economy than one upscale store - suggesting the adage to teach a man to fish instead of giving him a piece of grilled salmon from the prepared foods section. The institute has proposed an alternative plan emphasizing these elements: a complex comprising a 10,000-square-foot Whole Foods store that would sell only local products, a building for food production and culinary arts training, and a building for green and creative industries. This approach could produce as many as 950 jobs, the institute said. Other Gowanus workers fear that small businesses could be priced out of the neighborhood if, as expected, the store caused real estate values to soar. At the Old American Can Factory across the street from the site, technology design companies share resources with neon-light manufacturers and musicians, forming a community of nearly 300 in a converted warehouse that seems to hum with creativity. Many there worry that the Whole Foods could lead to the rezoning of nearby properties. "I do think it's a slippery slope," said Martin Bisi, a music producer who has operated a recording studio in the building since 1979, and has worked on albums by independent bands like Sonic Youth. My issue with this is what happens five years down the road, maybe even a decade. There's a lot of paranoia of people around here because we've seen in other parts of the city the process of what happens. Craig Hammerman, the district manager for the local community board, cautioned that any company wishing to build would be subject to the same rigorous review and variance approval as Whole Foods. Bradford Reed, a musician in the warehouse who records music for television shows, said he was resigned to change. "It would take a lot more than Whole Foods to outrage me," Mr. Reed said. I am saddened because it would be just more sterilization of this neighborhood. From a side window of the studio he has kept for 23 years, he sees the former Jewish Press building, now a storage business painted a garish orange and navy. As for the empty lot awaiting Whole Foods, Mr. Reed shrugged. "That," he said, "should be a park."