Flashback 2006: what the Atlantic Yards Final EIS said about the blocks east of Vanderbilt Avenue, now facing a rezoning

The burgeoning transformation of blocks east of the Atlantic Yards site, from Vanderbilt Avenue to nearly Nostrand Avenue, first with spot rezonings and now with the pending Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (my coverage) sent me back to the November 2006 Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement, or FEIS.

The excerpts below are attached specifically to the Prospect Heights subarea.

From Chapter 3: Land Use, Zoning and Public Policy:

Manufacturing and Industrial Uses. Lower-density industrial uses such as warehouses, hardware/building suppliers, and smaller factories are located in the subarea just south of the project site between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues. Storage facilities are also located throughout this subarea, most notably Brothers Moving & Storage at 900 Atlantic Avenue near Underhill Avenue, and Peter F. Reilly Storage at 491 Bergen Street near 6th Avenue, adjacent to the 1.3-acre Dean Playground. Other industrial uses include warehouses and a bridal shop/stained glass factory on St. Marks Avenue east of Vanderbilt Avenue, adjacent to P.S. 9, the Teunis G. Bergen Elementary School. Auto-related industrial uses, which include repair shops, junkyards, tire shops, and detailers, are located among vacant lots north of Bergen Street and east of Grand Avenue. As mentioned above, the manufacturing areas in this subarea contain a mix of low-density industrial uses interspersed with recent residential redevelopment, indicative of the transitional character of the Dean Street corridor between Flatbush and Vanderbilt Avenues.

From Chapter 16, Neighborhood Character,:

Atlantic Avenue to the east of the project site, which acts as the northern border of Prospect Heights, is lined with auto-related and other light manufacturing uses. This light manufacturing area, which lies mostly south of Atlantic Avenue and up to four blocks deep in some areas, contains a mix of low-density industrial uses interspersed with recent residential redevelopment, indicative of the transitional character of this corridor. These uses located along Pacific and Dean Streets and the southern boundary of the project site, in addition to the rail yard, have prevented the northernmost areas in Prospect Heights from achieving the residential character possessed by areas farther south.

(Emphases added)

I'm not sure it was the "uses" that prevented the transformation of a light manufacturing area into a residential area, but rather the zoning, which shackled residential development, and the city's failure to plan for any transformation, which, as we've learned, requires not just housing but also streetscape improvements, open space, and civic investment.