Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Task force addressing quality-of-life issues won't emerge until Sept. 6, after liquor license meeting, rather than before, as once requested

There will be a task force addressing quality-of-life issues regarding the Barclays Center arena, but it did not meet, as Community Board 6 initially requested, before the State Liquor Authority (SLA) held a hearing on the arena liquor license, nor will it meet before the SLA board votes on the license.

(There is a meeting tomorrow night at the 78th Precinct regarding somewhat more narrow public safety issues. A quality-of-life committee presumably would also address things like parking and sanitation, among other things..)

As part of its conditional support for the Barclays Center liquor license, Brooklyn Community Board 6 requested in May "that the applicants establish a community advisory task force whose purpose would be to meet periodically and on a regular basis to monitor and discuss quality of life impacts that the arena will have on its surrounding communities."

Such a task force could come out of an existing entity such as the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, stated the letter, which stressed that the advisory body "should be appointed and convened without delay and we believe it should meet at least once prior to the 500-foot hearing we are expecting the SLA to schedule on this application."

A response letter in June from the lawyer for the applicant stated, "As part of the existing Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet structure, Forest City Ratner Companies has agreed to a sub-committee on quality of life issues."

When is meeting?

But when will it meet? After all, the 500-foot hearing, in two parts, was held in June, and the SLA board will meet August 29 in Harlem regarding the liquor license.

Craig Hammerman, District Manager for CB 6, recently reported:
We've been in discussion with the State (Arana Hankin) and City (Lolita Jackson) about such an entity and for the time-being are content to work through the existing Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet group until a succession plan is finalized.
Hankin stated, "Information about the Quality of Life group will be shared at the next District Service Cabinet on Sept. 6th."

That bimonthly meeting will be at 9:30 am at Borough Hall.

Comments