Atlantic Yards CDC set to meet (virtually) June 7; agenda vague (platform? affordable deadline? Site 5?), but public comments required a day before meeting

The next meeting of the Directors of the (purportedly advisory) Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AYCDC) will be held next Tuesday, 6/7/22, at 3 pm, via video conference and teleconference. The meeting will be webcast here.

The AY CDC, which is supposed to meet quarterly but often has not, last met in March. I call it purportedly advisory because most directors are uninformed and/or uncurious about the project.

(Update 8:30 pm)

The agenda has been posted, but it's vague, unsurprisingly, pointing to a Community Relations Update and Construction Update.  No agenda has been posted yet, and typically it's not posted until the day before. The lack of specificity limits the opportunity for public comment.

Public comments may be submitted in writing to AYCDCBdMtg@esd.ny.gov by 4:30 pm on Monday, June 6. All comments received by the deadline will be distributed to the Directors prior to the meeting and will be posted on-line.

Of course, the requirement that public comments come before public discussion requires clairvoyance regarding the content of the discussion. .

What's the agenda?

Surely the directors will be told about the sale, by master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, of two buildings, 535 Carlton Ave. and 38 Sixth Ave., to Avanath Capital.

Presumably, the directors will be told about the developer's plans to start the long-awaited platform over the first block of the Vanderbilt Yard, which would support three towers. That start has been imminent.

Perhaps they'll be told about plans to build the B5 tower, 700 Atlantic Ave., with the platform, since foundations must be started by June 15 for the developer to take advantage of the current 421-a tax break.

Will there be any update on the developer's obligation to complete 876 more affordable housing units by May 31, 2025 to meet the requirement of 2,250 units? That deadline seems every less likely.

Might there be discussion of any plan or attempt to revise or relax that deadline, perhaps along with a new plan for Site 5, across Flatbush Avenue from the arena? 

At Site 5, the developer has long aimed to build a huge, two-tower project, once Empire State Development agrees to modify the project's guiding General Project Plan, allowing transfer of (some of) the bulk from the "Miss Brooklyn" tower once slated to loom over the arena.

Will there be any update on the precarious state of Greenland Holdings, the parent of Greenland USA, the dominant partner in Greenland Forest City Partners. As I noted today, the developer's spokesperson last fall said “Greenland Forest City Partners is fully committed and resourced to complete Pacific Park Brooklyn" but more recently left out "resourced."