Want to put in one
last word on the Brooklyn Bridge Park? Make sure to speak quickly or write
in simple sentences because the development’s planners won’t
have much time for close reading.
The state agency overseeing the proposed $150-million commercial, recreational
and residential development has given itself just over 12 hours between
the close of the “public comment period” on Jan. 17 at 5 pm
and a scheduled vote to approve the plan’s environmental impact statement.
The plan for a two-mile waterfront development remains controversial because
it includes luxury condos, a hotel, restaurants and shops that would subsidize
park area.
Yet despite the controversy, two weeks into the public comment period,
the Empire State Development Corporation has received a whopping zero
comments. The empty mailbags surprise those who remember the public comment
period for the draft EIS this fall. The ESDC received everything from
alternative plans to emotional handwritten critiques of a proposed 30-story
apartment building to a professional study done by a Manhattan environmental
engineering firm.
That comment period led to a revised plan that offers alternative schemes
for the 430-unit apartment building at the development’s Atlantic
Avenue entrance.
Critics of the plan view the current public comment period and vote the
next workday as a final nail in the coffin.
“You could call it a ‘public comment fraud,’” said
Roy Sloane of the Cobble Hill Association. “They’ve already
read all our criticisms and responded with all the superficial changes
they could.”
The ESDC expects that letters will trail in before the close of the period,
but declined to comment on how those letters could influence a process
that will end the next day.
“We will insure that all comments are taken into consideration before
the vote,” said Deborah Wetzel.
