Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

There wasn’t huge news at last night’s bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, but here are the specific project updates, described below: open space outside 550 Vanderbilt should be open by February site maintenance has improved there are no plans yet for the tower including a school Mekelburg's aiming for 535 Carlton, may seek a liquor license allowing service until 4 am but the landlord won't allow it the Barclays Center has a new hotline if the oculus doesn't shut down on time (Also see coverage of big-picture issues .) Project update: open space Ashley Cotton of L&L MAG, which represents Forest City (and says she speaks for the joint venture Greenland Forest City Partners), said that open space planned outside 550 Vanderbilt is finished, but not yet open because of safety issues regarding final work on the building. “I was told February, today,” she said of the new goal. (Previously,  the goal  was the end of 2017.) On Dean S...

As shown in the photo at right, yesterday, New York City sent a Parks Department Forestry truck to Carlton Avenue between Dean and Pacific streets, aiming to protect a vulnerable tree. The tree is opposite the huge 16-foot green wall that has taken over much of the street, tightening the traffic lane. That has led to several mishaps  dating back to January in which trucks--which are not supposed to be on the street in the first place--mangled curbside trees, given the very limited margin for error. The orange netting placed around the tree, a resident was told, was aimed to alert truck drivers to the tree. As one resident wrote in an incident report posted to Atlantic Yards Watch, "It is outrageous for the city to refuse to put up a no trucks sign as we suggested to them some time ago."

Work planned for September/October As the photo below indicates, the Atlantic Avenue side of the Barclays Center not only has a sidewalk stained with dripping rust--that pre-rusting technique was imperfect--it's lost many of its trees. The removal of street trees was not announced in the most recent Construction Alert , so it's not clear how long they'll be gone, and if they were removed because they are a barrier to work, or in the process of being replaced. (Whatever the reason, I assume the trees ultimately will be replaced.) As noted in the Construction Alert issued last Monday, the mobilization began to facilitate assembly of two cranes next weekend, one on Atlantic Avenue, one on the site at the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue destined for the B3 tower. Also note, as in graphic at right (from document at bottom), the crane is supposed to be in the Atlantic Avenue work zone through November. That Green Roof & West Portal Overview, issued in Ju...

Trees on Pacific Street in summer When the city removes parking  next week from the north side of Pacific Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, and directs the street one-way, there's some collateral damage, "construction delay-induced blight," as Peter Krashes writes on Atlantic Yards Watch:  "Temporary" removal of street trees on Pacific Street (and elsewhere) could last for decades with delayed construction . Next week developer Forest City Ratner will remove 20 street trees on that north side of Pacific, part of a 2008 Parks Department permit that allows the removal of 86 existing street trees. But this may take far longer than previously assumed. As Krashes writes: The area where the trees on Pacific Street are located was originally anticipated to be the first area of the second phase of the project to be constructed. However, in October 2012, FCRC Executive Vice President MaryAnne Gilmartin told investors that second phase construction...

Preparing to demolish 86 street trees around the Atlantic Yards footprint, Forest City Ratner contended last year that it did not need to pay $159,000 in partial restitution to the city because the trees in the Atlantic Yards open space eventually would “add much more value than the trees that will be removed during construction.” That argument required chutzpah, given that no part of the Atlantic Yards open space would be constructed until the project’s Phase 2, for which there is no announced timetable and no penalties (as of yet) for delays. The city Department of Parks and Recreation, perhaps mindful of that timetable, held its ground, requiring the requested payment, and Forest City Ratner complied. The story is told via letters received by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN), after filing a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the Parks department. The entire document is nearly 30 pages (below). (Photo by Steve Soblick. Click on all graphics to enlarge...

Some 86 trees have been disappearing around the Atlantic Yards footprint over the past several months as preconstruction demolition and utility work has continued, prompting some community alarm, given that the tree removal was apparently not formally announced and, apparently unanticipated in the environmental review, there are still people living and working in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Jim Vogel, an officer in the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods , said members of his East Pacific Street Block Association are concerned about 13 mature trees on the south side of Pacific Street between Fourth and Flatbush avenues, across from the planned development at Site 5. Pacific Street must be widened for what the Brooklyn Paper has called "the Fourth-to-Flatbush two-step," and Vogel says he's worried that the south side will be vulnerable. (Actually, Chapter 24, Response to Comments, of the Atlantic Yards Final Enviornmental Impact Statement , says the proposed widening of ...