After more than 18 months, state officials will schedule a Quality of Life meeting to hear neighbors' concerns about project impacts and operations.

This is the fifth of five articles about the Sept. 26 meeting of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). The first concerned BSE Global's plans to use the closed Modell's store for a youth basketball program. The second concerned the expected entry of Related Companies and the obligations for affordable housing. The third concerned plans for a giant, two-tower project at Site 5. The fourth concerned the plan to make the arena plaza permanent.

Let me cover a few issues unmentioned in previous coverage.

For many years, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, held bi-monthly Quality of Life meetings to update neighbors on project changes and to answer questions from them.

The last such meeting was in February 2023, more than 20 months ago. The meetings slacked when vertical construction finished, and also, I suspect, because ESD personnel had departed.

However, the reason for such meetings, with ESD having the ability to bring representatives from various agencies and companies to field questions, has not waned.

One public commenter at the August meeting of the AY CDC, who noted honking and congestion associated with arena events, was advised, by AY CDC Chair Daniel Kummer, to bring her concerns to the Quality of Life meeting--but there aren't any.

Concerns pending

Barclays Center activities cause ongoing impacts and impediments, as noted above. See below for a line of trucks on Dean Street on the early evening of Sept. 28.

Also, complaints about the noisy dog run outside 595 Dean, operating after hours and without much of a buffer to douse sound, provoked questions about the phantom Pacific Park Conservancy that should be overseeing the open space.

 

Meeting coming

"We do plan on having a Quality of Life meeting in the near future," said Anna Pycior, Senior VP, Community Relations, at the meeting.

Asked when, she said, "In weeks, not months."

It's unclear whether the meeting would be in person, or online. During the pandemic, ESD moved such meetings online, stifling the ability of attendees to communicate with each other and ask follow-up questions.

So an in-person meeting offers far more give and take, as well as accountability.

Other issues

A new school, known as the Pacific Park Campus, opened in September at 491 Dean Street, the base of the B15 building, with the residential address of 662 Pacific Street. 

How is that working out, in terms of parking and egress?

Also, what's going on with what the city calls "Pacific Park Project Phase II – Combined Sewer Installation and Water Main Replacement on Dean Street between 6th Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue"? 

How far is it along? Is it on schedule? If it ramps up, what next?

Moreover, residents of the troubled 38 Sixth Avenue (B3) apartment building and the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development have separately sued the landlord, Avanath Capital, over conditions in the building, including lack of hot water. I'll write more about that shortly.

Maybe that's not for ESD to oversee or coordinate, unlike the other issues, but ESD officials should at least care--and avoid saying, as as ESD lawyer claimed recently, that all the project buildings are "successful."

AY CDC future

The next AY CDC meeting is expected to be in November, with Directors told Nov. 14 was a tentative date.

That would make three meetings in four months, a notably intensive schedule, given that the board, which is supposed to meet quarterly, has rarely met that target.

But there's a lot going on, with the expected entry of Related Companies.

Electeds present

I'm not exactly sure why, but this attracted not just Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, as cited, but also state Senator Jabari Brisport and staffers from Assemblymember Bobby Carroll and Council Member Shahana Hanif.

It's surely easier to attend a meeting held in Brooklyn, rather than Manhattan. But they were likely on alert that something big regarding the project's future might service. It didn't, but it's all pending.

Executive session?

Prospect Heights resident Robert Puca, in the public comment period, asked why the board, in its previous meeting in August, went into executive session.

ESD lawyer Matthew Acocella told AY CDC Chair Daniel Kummer that a public comment section is "not a question and answer session, so we're not under any obligation to answer every question that's put to us." 

That said, Kummer acknowledged that he had invited questions, and that reasons for executive session were in the minutes. 

Acocella said that one basis was the possibility of litigation and the other was "to discuss a real estate transaction for which a public discussion would affect the value of that transaction."

As I wrote, case law suggests that those seeking to invoke litigation must identify the potential litigation. 

Also, I noted, while there is an exemption regarding real estate transactions by "such public body," the AY CDC is not involved in those transaction because it's purely advisory. The transaction would involve the parent ESD.