Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The big news yesterday at the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting yesterday was the Barclays Center's scramble toward the finish line , with a delay in the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy and silence about once-promised pre-opening events. However, government officials also shared other significant information, including not-yet-clear plans for a "Day 2 Task Force" to address arena operations and a transformation of the District Service Cabinet--a bimonthly morning meeting that included agency officials, elected officials and developer Forest City, with no public input--into a committee meeting in the evenings to focus more narrowly on quality-of-life issues. While that transformation should increase input from neighbors, both as committee members and visitors, the impact on accountability is less clear, given that the District Service Cabinet has sometimes been the venue for Forest City to face probing questions from elected officials about Atlantic Ya...

Tonight, a Neighborhood Protection Plan meeting with Forest City Ratner When: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - 7:00pm Where: Iglesia Latina Evengelica, 506 Bergen Street (between 6th and Carlton Avenues) Protecting quality of life for residents around the arena Join Ashley Cotton and Jane Marshall of Forest City Ratner in a discussion about protecting the quality of life of those living and working near Barclays Center once it opens. Issues include crowd control, safety, clean streets and sidewalks, traffic, parking and more. Bring your questions and concerns. Local elected officials and civic groups have proposed a Neighborhood Protection Plan, modeled on plans of other sports facilities around the country. The plan can be read here . The sponsors are the  Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council ,  the  Park Slope Civic Council , and the  Boerum Hill Association . What will happen? As I wrote recently, there have been a couple of qui...

The big news at yesterday’s Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting concerned the city’s preliminary rejection of residential permit parking and the still unresolved plans for the first residential tower, B2. But several other issues came up at the Borough Hall meeting, including a “Day Two” task force, a progress report on hiring for part-time jobs, plans for parking to serve TV trucks, and updates on ongoing issues. Unresolved issues For example, a final Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan is due in early August, said Arana Hankin, Director, Atlantic Yards Project, for Empire State Development, the agency overseeing the project. “We received a number of great comments” and are “trying to figure out the best way to tweak the plan.” Comments and responses should be posted with the final plan. Also, a plan to re-order police precinct boundaries--the arena likely will be policed by a supplement to the 78th Precinct (nearby) or 88th Precinct--is in the works. A l...

Graphics from  DOT's "Analysis of Parking Conditions Around Yankee Stadium and Atlantic Yards"   The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) has released its study (also embedded below) of the potential for residential permit parking (RPP) around Yankee Stadium and the Barclays Center, concluding that the available parking spaces around the arena, as well as the pattern of use in the Bronx, suggest that such permits would not work--though the agency will revisit the issue after real-time usage figures are available. The findings provoked dismay from Council Member Letitia James, who said the impact on parking is the most frequent fear/complaint she hears from constituents. And they provoked pushback from some locals at the bimonthly Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet Meeting, who questioned the DOT’s methodology. For example, if only 10% of those driving to Yankee Stadium try on-street parking, that doesn’t necessarily apply to the area near the ar...

Forest City Ratner this week began what its construction chief called “very very minor” work on the foundation and piles for Building 2, the first residential tower. But it hasn’t decided whether to pursue modular construction, as negotiations with unions--who, expecting higher-paying jobs on site, aggressively supported Atlantic Yards--are unresolved. Meanwhile, the New York City Housing Development Corporation is proceeding with the issuance of nearly $92 million in tax-exempt bonds to support construction. A hearing July 18, during which public comment will be accepted, will be held at 1 pm in Conference Room 4 A/B at 110 William Street , 4th Floor, in Lower Manhattan. No further information is available as of now, which kind of retards public comment. The NYC HDC apparently published the notice in the New York Post this weekend, but no community people--including Council Member Letitia James--knew about it until Forest City Ratner executive Jane Marshall volunteered it at the Atl...

Y'know those bi-monthly Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meetings, where Forest City Ratner shares updates with involved agencies, and provokes few questions beyond (usually) Council Member Letitia James? The ones where video and photographer are banned tas? The next one is 9:30 tomorrow at Borough Hall, and Borough President Marty Markowitz's office, for the first time, decided to share the agenda with the press. I've interpolated commentary in italics. 1. AY “Day Two” Task Force: Lolita Jackson, Mayor’s Office CAU This sounds like a task force to respond to opening conditions. 2. Parking Conditions Study: DOT This is likely the long-awaited study of whether residential permit parking might be feasible. 3. Project Updates: FCRC a. Jobs ( presumably arena jobs )  b. Construction  § Arena ( will the arena be done by the first week in September? )  § Carlton Ave Bridge ( will the bridge be open when the arena opens? are there contingency plans? )...

(Here's coverage from the evening meeting, with Q&A .) Sam Schwartz While the MTA and LIRR will add transit service after Barclays Center events to encourage use of the adjacent transit hub, and arena operators are trying hard to educated and encourrage event-goers to use such transit, the long-delayed Transportation Demand Management plan released today by developer Forest City Ratner still left arena neighbors worried. Without residential parking permits or other disincentives to drive, “I think the risk to the community has been elevated,” commented Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association after the bimonthly meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, which involves agency stakeholders. While the reduction in the on-site surface parking lot--to 565 spaces (including 24 for the NYPD) from a potential 1100 spaces (with stackers)--”is a good thing,” Krashes said, there’s no “insurance” that the reduction won’t lead to more people seeing free pa...

This morning's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting was almost exclusively about the Transportation Demand Management plan that aims to get arena-goers to use public transit. But Lolita Jackson, the mayor’s director of special projects (and not quite ombudsman  on quality-of-life issues), for the first time spoke publicly at moderate length, though her remarks were relatively brief and a bit cryptic. A task force of agency officials, Jackson said, has done “three walkthroughs” (presumably beyond the Atlantic Yards site itself) and “did discover some conditions we were able to alleviate very quickly.” The response includes “ some enforcement from NYPD,” presumably to limit parking violations; outreach from Department of Health rodent export Dr. Bob Corrigan to businesses; and an effort to more efficiently collect information regarding project-related issues delivered via 311 calls. Beyond that, Jackson said, work is ongoing to establish protocols regarding arena...

In his second meeting with Atlantic Yards stakeholders in eight months , Kenneth Adams, CEO of Empire State Development (Corporation), the state agency overseeing the project, last night had some welcome news: the planned surface parking lot for the southeast block of the project, which was estimated to have up to 1,100 spaces, would have fewer than half that amount, obviating the need for noisy stackers that could compound gridlock. (L-r.) Carlo Scissura, Arana Hankin, Ken Adams, Justin Ginsburgh. Photo and set by Tracy Collins.  The news was welcomed, albeit somewhat warily, by the two dozen people at Borough Hall, representing various neighborhood and merchant groups in the orbit of the Prospect Heights project. While the lot, according to state documentation, could hold up to 1,100 spaces, and an application to the city Department of Buildings said 722 spaces , the genial Adams, a Brooklynite familiar with nearly all of the two dozen people in the room, said it would ...