Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The reason the Atlantic Yards documentary  Battle for Brooklyn is screening on Friday ( link ) is because organizers at Resilient Red Hook are trying to alert neighbors and others about the challenge of responding to a large redevelopment plan with an enormous amount of momentum. The Brooklyn Marine Terminal plan involves housing, port infrastructure, park space, and more on a 122-acre waterfront site, starting below Atlantic Avenue just beyond the southern border of Brooklyn Bridge Park, stretching through what's known as the Columbia Street Waterfront District well into Red Hook. Notably, as explained below, it took more than half a year after the BMT project announcement, which was on a very fast track, before it emerged that market-rate housing was needed to cross-subsidize pier reconfiguration, maritime investments, parks, and more. The deadline for a plan has been extended from end-of-2024, which was unrealistic, to March, which is still very fast, even compared to another...

The passage of time suggests that the fight over Atlantic Yards--a dramatic private rezoning to increase density coupled with significant-but-overblown promises of jobs and housing, plus an arena--might have proceeded differently if it had not been a one-off. What if it had proceeded from a widely recognized commitment to increase density, with broad public benefits as well as protections for locals from significant untoward impacts? What if there had been an equitable framework, and process, rather than an environmental review aimed to disclose, but not necessarily mitigate, impacts? What if the money and energy that went into rallies and renderings had delivered more civic value? Well, we know better know, and if the next Atlantic Yards is unlikely, that's not to say that unwise or heavy-handed projects won't proceed, since the template--offer public benefits in exchange for an upzoning--seems widely recognized. (Other projects, like the huge, complicated, and pending...

From Steve Cuozzo in the New York Post NYC development surge to continue under de Blasio : [New mayor Bill] de Blasio was no knee-jerk anti-development advocate, but more of a pragmatist. He voted for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal and several major up-zonings. No, actually, de Blasio--neither as Council Member nor as Public Advocate--didn't vote for Atlantic Yards. He supported it, but he didn't vote for it. Because the city agreed to let the state override zoning and the city's land use review process.

So, did any city planners object to the fact that Atlantic Yards bypassed all city review, with the city ceding its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) to the less stringent state process? It's one of those lingering questions in the Atlantic Yards saga, given that even former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, in hindsight, agreed that was a mistake. In March, I filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Department of City Planning and the City Planning Commission, during the years 2002-2006: Specifically, I request documents, including correspondence, from or to DCP staff/officials and CPC staff/officials, regarding whether and why the Atlantic Yards project should go through ULURP or not. (It did not go through ULURP; the Empire State Development Corporation overrode zoning.) I thought I might get something substantive; surely someone within the city's planning firmament might have been slightly peeved that such a major project bypassed any city review. Request gran...

After spending the day today at Land Use and Local Voices , a conference co-sponsored by the Municipal Art Society and Manhattan Community Board 1, I can safely say that both experts and engaged citizens know there's something wrong with the current process. There's a significant need to give local voices more credence (though not a veto), while recognizing that land use has borough-wide and city-wide implications. And while the Charter Revision Commission doesn't have time this year to address land use, if it's reappointed, it should--though some at the conference were doubtful the commission would go beyond the promised issue of term limits. (I'll have a report on the conference, in which Atlantic Yards was again invoked as an example of a Community Benefits Agreement gone wrong, at a later date.) At the Charter Commission The marquee issue at the Charter Revision Commission hearing Monday night (featuring a Citizens Union presentation ) at Brooklyn College was n...

New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, essentially a sports columnist, periodically writes about local and national politics; today he turns his attention to the implied inevitability of Mayor Mike Bloomberg's campaign for a third term in the wake of the controversial extension of term limits. The signal example of such inevitability is Bloomberg's enormous campaign spending, which is evident from the advertisements that wrap the column. (Note that the ostensible URL for the column, linked from the home page, is somehow disabled, but Lupica's columnist page and another URL do offer the column. Click on graphics to enlarge.) Lupica writes: Bloomberg is going to spend so much of his own money on a third term there will be times over the next six months when you'll barely be able to notice he's running at all. It's why the real theme of Bloomberg's reelection campaign - one begun with $4.5 million worth of television commercials - is this, whether the ma...

The Courier-Life chain reported last week, in an article headlined Community input may be on the outs - City looking to re-examine uniform land-usage guidelines that revisions to city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure ( ULURP ) will be looked at by a City Charter revision panel Mayor Mike Bloomberg is expected to establish next year. Such a change has been talked about for months, including in a 5/11/08 Daily News column, as I reported . The Courier-Life article quoted an anonymous "informed source, who attended a discussion of the issue at a meeting held by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the goal may be to shorten the lengthy ULURP process." The goal: to move development much faster. Stringer's office is likely not in favor of such a change. At a panel last May, as I reported , Anthony Borelli, Stringer's Director of Land Use, called the 7.5-month timeline in New York “not that burdensome,” noting that 99% of projects don’t go through ULURP becaus...

In talking about development trade-offs, a top official in the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Wednesday night provided an (implicit) indictment of the process behind Atlantic Yards. HPD Deputy Commissioner for Development Holly Leicht spoke matter-of-factly during a panel discussion, titled Housing New Yorkers in the 21st Century , sponsored by the Municipal Art Society and underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation as the First Annual Jane Jacobs Forum. (I’ll write tomorrow about the broader issues raised at the forum.) She even declared that the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP)--which Atlantic Yards critics stress was bypassed in the state approval process--doesn’t work for large projects. Balance and transparency Leicht acknowledged the challenge in balancing neighborhood character and the need for increased density to accommodate a growing population and additional affordable units. In the rezoning of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg wat...

As Election Day approached--not one with much choice for New Yorkers in local election, as City Limits reported --Mayor Mike Bloomberg, for the first time, yesterday had to listen to members of the public scold and rebuke him in the four-hour "comment period" before he signed an extension of term limits into law. At least one person commenting yesterday, Prospect Heights activist Patti Hagan, managed to shove Bloomberg's own unequivocal words--five separate statements--in his face while connecting his "power grab" to Atlantic Yards. She commented: After your strong-armed, knuckle busting performance last month to get term limit extended, I'd like to refresh your memory on the subject of term limits extension--in your own words. You said: "The public has spoken twice and they have spoken quite clearly. I don't know that you should keep shopping for a different answer." ...Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor, you have a bad habit of ignoring the People of ...

As noted in the discussion May 14 at the Municipal Art Society, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has advanced ahead of the other borough presidents in stressing the importance of land use issues and in training Community Board members on land use issues. A series of screenshots (click to enlarge) helps tell the story. Note, for example, how Community Boards and Land Use get two tabs at the top of the page. Like other borough presidents, Stringer offers a page on ULURP. Unlike the other Borough President, Stringer has urban planners devoted to community boards, as well as planning interns to offer additional help. Particularly useful is the Land Use 101 presentation--one example is below. Brooklyn Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's web page describes a range of roles and issues, including a certain amount of borough promotion. ULURP appears somewhat lower on the page. Applications for Community Boards appear further down the page. Queens The web page for Que...