A mix of complaints and praise were showered upon the planners of Brooklyn
Bridge Park Monday night in the only public hearing scheduled on the effect
the development would have on the surrounding area.
Members of the Empire State Development Corporation and Brooklyn Bridge
Park Development Corporation (BBPDC) patiently listened to four hours
of public testimony.
And they got an earful.
While much of the earlier testimony, which seemed to have no time limit,
was given by elected officials — who repeated their message of both
urgency and revision [see story] —
and leaders from related organizations or city agencies, as the night
wore on the voices of the public became increasingly prevalent, if time
constrained.
The purpose of the hearing, held in the Dibner Auditorium of Polytechnic
University, at 6 Metrotech Center in Downtown Brooklyn, was to review
the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) that was presented for
community review in July.
The deadline for written public comment to be submitted to the BBPDC is
5 pm on Oct. 19. It can be submitted to: BBPDC, 33rd floor, 633 Third
Ave., New York, NY 10017.
Testimony began at 5 pm, with very positive reviews of the project, and
included representatives from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
— which owns most of the pier property to be ceded to the state for
the development, of Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff
— the Prospect Park Alliance and the state historic preservation
office.
But as the meeting reached its midway point, at 7 pm, with 100 speakers
left on the list, critical views emerged on many of the specifics of the
environmental impact study, and its omissions.
Speakers mentioned oversized buildings, including a 30-story luxury condo
tower planned at Pier 6 and a 16-story tower in DUMBO, as being out of
scale, and the park’s major entrances, at Atlantic Avenue and Old
Fulton Street, as being obstructed by buildings.
But other issues, such as a proposed greenway bicycle path along the waterfront,
view planes and the role a marina would play in revenue generation also
came up as did the absence of diagrams and financial analyses in the DEIS.
Howard Gottlieb, a member of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, said, “We
think this is a wonderful park, and has the opportunity to be the jewel
but we did not see the Brooklyn Greenway in the environmental impact statement.”
He noted that the bike path was planned to connect Greenpoint and Williamsburg
with the south and central areas of Brooklyn.
Chris Bastian, who owns a home on Sidney Place in Brooklyn Heights, said
that a proposed boat marina was all but ignored in the draft EIS. He recited
information from a state agency’s Web site about what the EIS was
supposed to contain.
“The purpose of an environmental impact statement is to give policy
makers a comprehensive review of the impacts of their proposed actions
and to assist them in making an informed decision on how to proceed and
to defend that decision,” said Bastian.
“Agencies must establish a clear and supportable record of the agency’s
decision making. In that regards I believe that this [DEIS] is deficient
in providing a clearly supportable record of the [development corporation’s]
controversial proposal to create residential and hotel space,” he
said, also pointing out the addition of a 185-slip marina for sail boats
and motor boats, with a visitor’s center and off-season boat storage
that he said was not discussed during the scoping sessions in 2000.
“Nowhere in the EIS can I find any reference to any potential revenue
that’s being created by this,” said Bastian who pointed out,
“My wife and I own a car. We use it for recreational purposes. For
us it’s a luxury. We pay to keep it in storage. We do not expect
somebody to provide parking spaces for us.
“I don’t know if the revenue generated by the marina would significantly
reduce or even eliminate the proposed need for the proposed commercial
or residential development. However, with the information provided from
the DEIS, it appears you don’t know either.”
A large portion of the audience of about 300 applauded Bastian loudly.
George Janes, an analyst with the Environmental Simulation Center, an
offshoot of the New School for Social Research that seeks to apply state-of-the-art
technology to community-specific planning, something he said was sorely
missing in the DEIS.
“The applicant cannot merely assert that their action does not cause
an impact, as they do in the [draft] EIS, but rather must present evidence
supporting its claims,” said Janes.
“For an action of this size, applicants typically perform visual
simulations as a way of demonstrating impact, and most lead agencies write
such requirements into the scoping document. This DEIS is notable for
its lack of such simulations.”
Otis Pearsall, a preservationist and member of the Brooklyn Heights Association,
pointed out that the 110-foot-tall hotel at the base of Old Fulton Street
would obscure views of the arch and cable-work of the Brooklyn Bridge
from Brooklyn Heights.
“Please remember, there are views, and then there are views. This
is one of the world’s classics. Let’s not nibble at it,”
said Pearsall.
Judi Francis, a member of the Willowtown Association in Brooklyn Heights,
and petitioner of a lawsuit against the development corporation, testified
that the agency was being deceptive in its representation of the park
in the document.
“The mayor and governor agreed to the creation of a 67-acre, 1.3-mile-long
Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2002,” she pointed out, saying the same park
was promised as 70 acres in 2003, 80 acres in 2004, and “it didn’t
stop growing until last month, when the DEIS set it at 85 acres.”
Meanwhile, she said, the actual park’s outline hadn’t changed,
except to include more water.
“This is a flawed number count,” she said, saying that by counting
only land uses, 32 percent of the park’s footprint would go to commercial
uses. The development corporation’s figures include acres of space
that is underwater.
“I want you to know this is the scale of the surrounding buildings,”
she said, holding up a sheet of standard 8-1/2 by 11 paper folded width-wise
three times.
She set it next to one of the models of the high-rise condos to show its
small size in comparison.
