Every 10 years, community boards have the opportunity to request changes
to their district lines based on the census.
This time around community boards 2 and 6 are seeking changes — the
former asking for an arena while the latter seeks an island. And while
it is unlikely that either request will be granted, they have stirred
debate.
Community Board 2 voted this week to recommend amending its district lines
to include the proposed Atlantic Yards arena project at the intersection
of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues and extending over to Vanderbilt Avenue
in Prospect Heights.
Developer Bruce Ratner wants to build a professional basketball arena
there to house his newly purchased New Jersey Nets. The $2.5 billion Atlantic
Yards plan also includes four sweeping office towers and 4,500 residential
units.
The site is currently divided between boards 2, 6 and 8.
“It makes sense to centralize the arena project within a single community
board,” said Councilman David Yassky whose district includes much
of District 2, centered around Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn and
Fort Greene.
At last week’s CB2 monthly meeting the board voted to extend its
boundaries all the way over to Vanderbilt Avenue to include the entire
Atlantic Yards arena site, pending the approval of CB8.
“As the board that currently covers the rest of Downtown Brooklyn
it is appropriate that this project be included in CB2,” said Robert
Perris, district manager of CB2.
But when the board reviewed the Downtown Brooklyn Plan — a sweeping
rezoning to encourage business to build skyscrapers downtown — earlier
this year, board leadership was adamant that the arena plan not be considered
with it. That drew a lot of criticism from residents and activists concerned
about the traffic, transit and pedestrian impacts of both plans together.
Perris said this week that despite being in the same general area, “They
are different projects.”
Board 6, meanwhile, is looking to take its district out of the arena footprint,
and CB8, whose Prospect Heights neighborhood actually encompasses Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards development, has yet to decide what they want to do.
“I’m waiting until the board makes a decision,” said Robert
Matthews, chairman of CB8, which covers Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.
At the same time, CB6 is looking to acquire Governors Island, just off
the Red Hook shore. The board’s leadership is asking the city to
transfer the jurisdiction of the island over to Brooklyn from CB1 in Lower
Manhattan.
“Brooklyn is a stone’s throw from Governors Island across the
Buttermilk Channel, while Manhattan is at least twice as far away,”
wrote CB6 Chairman Jerry Armer in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Councilman Bill DeBlasio, whose district includes a good chunk of CB6,
said he supported the board’s motion and felt both were good ideas.
“If we don’t do it now we would have to wait another 10 years,”
said CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman when asked about the request
to be taken out of the arena footprint.
Not changing the lines could result in “confusion at best, and chaos
at worst,” said Hammerman, noting the importance of uniformity in
the delivery of municipal services.
The board is also concerned that the free movement of police officers
and squad cars of the 78th Precinct — located just across Flatbush
Avenue, on Sixth Avenue, next to the proposed arena site — would
be impeded by the arena development.
“We contend that it will be unsafe and irrational to maintain an
active stationhouse around the corner from an active arena,” Armer
wrote in a letter to the mayor’s office.
Noting traffic congestion with police department vehicles, the board is
advocating that if the arena plans go through, the precinct should be
relocated to Fourth Avenue and Union Street, a less densely populated
section of the district, although they have proposed no specific building
for the stationhouse.
Making changes to the district lines is no easy process and requires the
approval of the community board, borough president and City Council, said
mayoral spokesman Chris Coffey.
“For the lines to be changed would require a great deal of support
from all parties involved,” he said.
Just four other community boards put in requests for changes to their
district lines this time around.
“It is unlikely at this point that any serious changes are going
to be made, but we can’t rule anything out, the process is still
under review,” said Coffey.
Bloomberg will decide by May 1 if the requests merit a more extensive
review. If he decides they do not, the issues are dead.
