In city's Draft EIS for Gowanus rezoning, as MAS points out, Pacific Park is wrongly seen as contributing open space. (Also: Atlantic Yards residents will use it first.)

The Municipal Art Society, in its extensive (and mixed) comments on the city's proposed Gowanus rezoning, warns that a proposed Waterfront Access Plan for the Gowanus Canal, however positive, "will not be enough to address Gowanus’ severe shortage of public open space, which would worsen with the rezoning."

The summary:

Currently, Gowanus has only 0.34 acres of public open space per 1,000 residents, less than 14 percent of the City goal of 2.5. The proposed rezoning would result in 5.46 acres of new publicly accessible open space including a 1.48-acre park at the Gowanus Green Site and 3.98 acres of publicly accessible waterfront open space. According to the DEIS, the combination of limited new open space and an influx of additional residents would cause the area’s open space ratio to fall by an additional 1.45 percent, thereby creating a significant adverse impact. The area’s active open space ratio would decrease even more, by 2.66 percent.

MAS points out that the environmental review may be misleading people:

Moreover, the decline in these ratios may be more pronounced than the DEIS predicts. This is because the DEIS includes in its analysis future open space that appears to be located beyond the residential and non-residential study areas. Specifically, in the non-residential study area (the area within a quarter mile of the project area), the DEIS includes the eight-acre Pacific Park as open space when it appears to be completely beyond the study area. The park includes almost a third of the non-residential study area’s open space acreage, leading to the conclusion that the area’s open space ratio will rise and even exceed the City’s goal with the rezoning. Further, Pacific Park is included in the analysis of the residential study area (the area within a half-mile of the project area), even though much of the park is outside this area. This has a similar effect in terms of raising total, active and passive open space ratios, thus minimizing the projected impact of the rezoning on the residential study area population.

(Emphases added)

MAS recommends not only a revised proposal with "significantly more open space within the study area" but also:

A thorough explanation for determining that Pacific Park should be included in the residential and non-residential study areas. This should include a detailed open space plan for the Pacific Park development overlaid on the census tracts and study areas. Additionally, the numbers of residents and workers contributing to the residential and non-residential study areas by the Pacific Park development should be disclosed.

Taking a closer look

OK, let's look at the DEIS Chapter 5, concerning open space, and the map below that I have annotated, with the green oval near top right indicating the block with the lion's share of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park open space, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues and Dean Street and Atlantic Avenue.

That depends on decking the Vanderbilt Yard and building three more towers, with the demapped Pacific Street serving as perhaps three acres of the overall eight-acre open space  (not a "park"). The area between the buildings will add some more acres.

Green oval annotations have been added

A much smaller segment of the open space will occupy the railyard block to the west between Sixth and Carlton Avenues, north of Pacific Street, which won't be demapped. That's the smaller green oval at left, which would go over the first of the two railyard blocks to be decked.

Indeed, as MAS points out, the entirety of the open space is completely past--east of--the heavy black line, which indicates the non-residential study area. And the lion's share of the open space would be east of the heavy purple line, which indicates the residential study area.

Beyond that, two significant caveats are required. While, yes, the time frame is 2035, by which the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park open space could indeed be finished, that's only if they finish the project, which remains up in the air.

More importantly, even if that open space is built by 2035, it's hard to think that residents of the Gowanus rezoning arena--in red--would make the trek to the Pacific Park open space, which would first attract residents of the planned 6,430 apartments within the project.

It's far more likely that many of them would rather choose Prospect Park, which is farther away--from some but not all blocks of the Gowanus rezoning--but vastly more capacious.

The city's explanation

From the Draft EIS:

The CEQR Technical Manual recommends establishing a study area or areas as the first step in an open space assessment. The study areas are based on the distances that users—both workers and residents—are likely to walk to an open space. Workers are assumed to walk approximately 10 minutes, or a quarter of a mile, from their place of work to an open space, while residents are assumed to walk approximately 20 minutes, or a half-mile, to an open space.

But streets like broad, busy Flatbush Avenue would also pose a barrier.

Expected open space resources

From the Draft EIS:

As shown in Table 5-8, the future with the Proposed Actions would result in 9.95 acres of new publicly accessible open spaces including a new, approximately 8-acre open space at the Pacific Park development, a 1.6-acre open space at the Head End CSO Facility, and an additional 0.35-acre open space at the 625 Fulton Street development that would benefit the residential study area. As a result, within the non-residential study area in the No Action condition, total public open space would increase from 15.66 acres in the Existing condition to 24.94 acres. In the residential study area, total publicly accessible open space would increase from 48.14 acres in the Existing condition to 58.09 acres in the No Action condition.

The Pacific Park description

From the Draft EIS:

The Pacific Park development located along Atlantic Avenue in the Prospect Heights neighborhood is anticipated to add an additional eight acres of public open space within the residential study area by 2035. Preliminary plans for the open space call for a linear park from Vanderbilt Avenue in the east to the Barclays Center and Flatbush Avenue in the west.8 Open space within Pacific Park will be primarily passive, with small active open space features including a children’s playground, basketball court, and bocce courts. The public open space associated with Pacific Park is assumed to be approximately eight acres. Seventy-five percent of the open space is assumed to be passive and 25 percent is assumed to be active.

As noted, most would be outside the residential study area, east of Carlton Avenue, as seen in this presentation by the project's landscape architect (which is cited in the Gowanus Draft EIS as a source).

Open space adequacy

Assessing the non-residential study area, the Draft EIS states:

As a result of additional public open space developed in the No Action condition (primarily the eight acres of public space anticipated to be developed as part of Pacific Park), as shown in Table 5-9, the total open space available to area workers would increase to 24.94 acres, compared with 15.34 acres in the Existing condition. Total passive recreational space would increase to 11.31 acres in the No Action condition, compared with 3.87 acres in the Existing condition. While the total open space available for study area workers would increase in the No Action condition, the total worker population is also anticipated to increase by approximately 9,124 workers. As a result, the passive open space ratio in the No Action condition would increase from 0.122 acres per 1,000 workers in the Existing condition to 0.278 acres per 1,000 workers in the No Action condition. In the No Action condition, study area passive open space resources adequately meet the CEQR Technical Manual goal of 0.15 acres of passive open space per 1,000 workers.

But that's only if workers in the Gowanus area decide to walk/bike/bus to Pacific Park.

Keep in mind that, as journalist Anne Schwartz wrote in 2006 for Gotham Gazette, the new population expected in Atlantic Yards would lower the available open space per capita, even with the new open space. 

That surely needs an adjustment, given that the calculation was based on a proposed 6,800 apartments, not the 6,430 currently approved, and seven acres of open space, not the current eight acres.

But the basic point was this: the new residents would dominate the open space. And, by extension, people in Gowanus wouldn't be visiting that much.