Tight schedule: second workshop on project's future announced for Dec. 8. "Project Briefer" omits key information re planned density.

The first of four public workshops on the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18 from 6-8 pm, covering the demanding topics of Density, Affordability, and Open Space, as I've written.

Yesterday we learned that the second public workshop--and the last one in-person--will be held on Monday Dec. 8 from 6-8 pm, covering Streetscape and Public Realm, Sustainability and Resiliency, Community Serving Retail and Facilities.

That's a tight schedule, especially since the incoming master developer, a joint venture involving Cirrus Real Estate Partners and LCOR, have yet to reveal any plans for the site and Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, has only released limited information.

While the first workshop will be held at the former Modell's site, now the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center, at 140 Flatbush Avenue across from the Barclays Center, the location for the second workshop is TBA. (The third and fourth will be virtual, though the dates/times have not been announced.)

"Project Briefer" remains misleading

Information about the second workshop came in a new page, Presentations and Materials, on the ESD's new Atlantic Yards site, though ESD hasn't formally announced it.

The Project Briefer (bottom) is essentially the same as the one I published last week, in Workshop on Height & Density Ignores Plan for Two Towers Across from Arena, Hints at New Configuration Over Railyard, putting aside the announcement about the second workshop.

So it includes the enigmatic map below, which somehow leaves the two railyard blocks empty of the six towers approved. (Why can't they tell us that six towers are approved, or their approved scale?) 

From ESD website

The Briefer also contains the deadpan statement, "Site 5: The PC Richards/former Modell’s Site on Flatbush Avenue across from the Barclays Center. While currently planned for commercial use, feedback will be solicited for a potential mixed-use development."

That, as I wrote, ignores ESD's support, since 2021, of a giant, two-tower project at Site 5. So this does little to equip attendees to grapple with what's already been approved, and what might be proposed. Couldn't they share their own version of my unofficial graphic below?

Unofficial graphic includes current approvals

Thus, as I wrote, the process seems disingenuous, aimed to ratify or tweak plans already proposed by a new development team, as it omits key information like the Site 5 plan and also hints—but does not explain—at a new plan for the two-block railyard site.

Timing and topics

One other small change from the Briefer: the topic for the fourth public workshop, in early February, is unlisted in the document below, while an earlier draft, circulated to stakeholders, stated the topic was "Community Engagement Report." That left open the possibility that attendees would be addressing a quickly prepared draft.

That said, the schedule remains tight, with the engagement report due in mid-February, not long after the fourth workshop, according to the timeline on the second page of the document below.

After that, ESD and the project developers are supposed to reach a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding project contours. That precedes a formal process, including public hearings, to modify the guiding project plan.

Also coming: a survey will be posted online and shared by ESD via social media.