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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park FAQ, timeline, and infographics (pinned post)

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Cuomo shuts down construction, but leaves big exceptions, notably buildings with 20% or more affordable housing

From today's print Times:
 no mention of housing
Yesterday, it was big news when Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned non-essential construction, excepting health care facilities, infrastructure, and affordable housing, as covered by The City, Curbed, the New York Post, 6sqft, The Real Deal, ENR, and others.

Despite evidence--as workers, and their family members, have warned--that it's difficult, if not impossible to maintain social distancing at worksites, those violating that rule can face $10,000 fines.

Lingering most of the day was the question--as posed by The City's Rosa Goldensohn and me, as well as Council Member Brad Lander, an advocate of the shutdown--of how affordable housing was defined: did it have to be "100% affordable," or not?
Late in the day came a message from Empire State Development: affordable housing includes buildings with 20% or more below-market units. (Newsday editorial writer Randi Marshall also reported on this.)

That's a very significant exception. Now it's possible that there are subsidy-related regulations that encourage construction, but all rules--federal and state--are capable of being modified. Lander was outraged.
The B15 site this morning
Atlantic Yards construction continues?

What does this mean for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park? The two towers under construction, B4 (18 Sixth Avenue) and B15 (664 Pacific Street or 662 Pacific Street), will contain at least 25% affordable housing, and thus could continue under those guidelines.

Will they? As of this morning, neither site was operating--the developers of the B4 tower had expected to seek work permits for Saturdays, but may not have done so for this morning.

We'll see on Monday, when/if workers return, and when a new two-week project Construction Update is due from Empire State Development, after preparation by developer Greenland Forest City Partners. (It's usually issued ahead of time, on Fridays.)

That said, according to the neighbor who sent me photos, there weren't even visible staff monitoring the site.

The B4 site this morning
The state's Executive Order

From the yesterday's updated guidance, from Empire State Development, for determining essential businesses:
9. Construction
All non-essential construction must shut down except emergency construction, (e.g. a project necessary to protect health and safety of the occupants, or to continue a project if it would be unsafe to allow to remain undone until it is safe to shut the site).
Essential construction may continue and includes roads, bridges, transit facilities, utilities, hospitals or health care facilities, affordable housing, and homeless shelters. At every site, if essential or emergency non-essential construction, this includes maintaining social distance, including for purposes of elevators/meals/entry and exit. Sites that cannot maintain distance and safety best practices must close and enforcement will be provided by the state in coordination with the city/local governments. This will include fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
Reactions

The New York Post quoted the Mayor:
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on WNYC radio that he backs the new guidelines, saying “any construction that is not about the public good” like luxury condos “is going to end” because “we need to protect people.”
Presumably the amount of public good fluctuates among projects under the broad rubric of "affordable housing."
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