The 750,000-member Sierra Club — which normally concerns itself with global warming and the federal Clean Water Act — has backed a comparatively small local lawsuit claiming that the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park is actually a handout to real-estate developers.
The Empire State Development Corporation’s 85-acre waterfront development — which calls for open space financed by on-site residential towers — has incited bitter controversy in Downtown Brooklyn.
But Sierra Club officials, who submitted an amicus brief in support of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund’s lawsuit on Thursday, say this local issue has much-wider ramifications.
“The Sierra Club’s interest concerns not only the construction of residential units in Brooklyn Bridge Park, but the ramifications nationwide if such private use and development is allowed on land conveyed for the public’s use as a park,” the club said in its brief.
The suit alleges that the state’s plan violates law by including private housing in a public park, fails to adequately consider traffic impacts, and ignores an existing plan for a “community” park that would not include on-site development.
“This is a test case impacting the future of all public parks,” warned Fund President Judi Francis. “If housing is allowed to happen in this great park, it will run roughshod over the entire city, state and nation.”
