So, is the Atlantic Yards CDC supposed to "facilitate progress of the project," or to monitor and evaluate it? Time to talk reconfiguration and new oversight?

So, what's the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), established after a settlement in 2014 that also set a May 2025 timetable for the project's affordable units, about? 

According to the parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, the AY CDC "is charged with reviewing and making recommendations on proposed changes to the Project Plan, and monitoring construction impacts and quality of life issues for the Atlantic Yards Project."

I've argued that the AY CDC's record is troubling. It's elicited some useful information, but has met infrequently, with hastily scheduled meetings, and faced stonewalling from ESD and/or been enlisted to rubber-stamp changes.

Perhaps that record is explained by the ESD's more candid description in certain bi-annual reports. As I wrote in July 2016, the state authority stated, dubiously, that "the creation of AYCDC is expected to facilitate continued progress of the project."

I commented that the entity's creation was supposed to channel public input and advise, rather than "facilitate progress," which is a very developer-friendly way of putting it.

The problem persists

Well, that verbiage continues. Consider the ESD's June 2022 board materials, which state:

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn Project

ESD continues to be actively involved in the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn Project, which is the redevelopment of 22 acres of underutilized land in downtown Brooklyn. The general project plan that was adopted in July 2006 and modified in June 2009, includes the Barclays Center, transit and infrastructure improvements, an upgraded Long Island Rail Road (“LIRR”) train yard, 16 residential and commercial towers, and eight acres of open space.

The residential development includes an affordable housing component. Six residential buildings are open and two more are under construction with 43% as affordable units. Publicly accessible open space is active and commercial and retail tenants are in place.

The Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation continues to facilitate progress of the project. Construction activities at the site are monitored in coordination with an owner’s representative. A mitigation monitor ensures the Developer’s compliance with the project’s Memorandum of Environmental Commitments.

(Emphasis added)

That's not the AY CDC's official role. Today, of course, even that generous interpretation is more dubious, since the AY CDC, which is supposed to meet quarterly, hasn't met since June 2022 (the monthh of the document) and won't meet until March, at minimum.

Such limited oversight may, in one sense, "facilitate progress of the project." But it does not mean reviewing proposed changes--which surely are percolating--or monitoring impacts.

The original plan

As announced in June 2014 (see document below), the AY CDC was set up "to improve oversight and monitoring of the Project," including:

• Reviewing proposed changes to Project plan and agreements, and advising ESD board accordingiy in advance of votes;
• Monitoring developer compliance with ail public commitments;
• Monitoring, reporting on and responding to construction impacts and quality of life issues;
• Evaluating the quality and effectiveness of monitoring, support and other services;
• Making recommendations to ESD on ways to improve and expedite developer responsiveness to public obligations and increase transparency of Project development;
• Assuring effective communication between the developer, government agencies and officials, elected officials and community and civic organizations; 
• Developing recommendations related to the Project, including in relation to unanticipated issues; and
• Complying, as appropriate, with the Public Officers Law as it appiies to members of the board and the conduct of business by AYCDC.

Fulfillment of those obligations might facilitate progress in a holistic way. But "progress" is defined by the developers and their allies in state government.

Improved project oversight and governance?

Note that community planner Ron Shiffman, co-founder of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development and former chair of the Pratt Institute's Department of City and Regional Planning, has just been named as the Brooklyn Borough President's representative on the AY CDC.

One person, even with a few allies, on a 14-member board (at full strength), cannot effect a sea change when the Governor controls nine seats, but note that Shiffman last year advised the coalition BrooklynSpeaks on its proposal for a new ESD subsidiary, the Brooklyn Crossroads Local Development Corporation, to oversee the project.

Local stakeholders would have more sway than the Governor, which is why that proposal would be a heavy lift; it would require significant political juice, based, presumably, on a tradeoff involving some public concessions to the developer, which faces $2,000/month fines for the 877 (or 876) units of affordable housing that must be delivered by May 31, 2025 but which haven't launched. 

(Another tradeoff could involve shifting bulk to Site 5, catercorner to the arena block, from the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" tower, aka B1, once slated to loom over the arena.)

Shiffman last year said that he thought expected new public help for the project would justify a broader reconfiguration of the project. 

Since then, BrooklynSpeaks, which did not issue an expected report on its early-2022 series of charettes, said in January that it was "soliciting additional third party input, with the goal of producing a more detailed vision of challenges and opportunities at the site."