Public Meeting On Controversial Housing Plan Expansion In Brooklyn Bridge Park Set For Tonight

Rendering of the two proposed towers at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. A meeting tonight, which will unveil what the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation is touting as its financial justification for needing even more housing in the park,  is expected to be a highly contentious public hearing.

Initially just high-rise luxury housing, Mayor de Blasio added an affordable housing component which the administration hopes will make the controversial plan easier to swallow. That has not occured. 

Naturally proponents of the development plan do not argue that the heavily utilized park be funded by the government - like most public parks are. 

Opponents of the plan are hoping Governor Cuomo gets involved.

Paying for Parks With Housing

By Geoffrey Croft

Opponents of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and Mayor de Blasio backed plan to build 339 units of housing by Pier 6 at the southern end of Brooklyn Bridge Park are expected to come out this evening to a meeting being held at St. Francis College beginning at 6 p.m.  - 180 Remsen Street - 1st Floor Board Room. 

Critics have long argued that that the money generated from these last two housing towers - as well as other developments - are not needed to fund the park. They say the three acres now proposed for housing should instead be used as parkland. 

The Empire State Development Corp. recently modified the language in the project plan it approved in 2006 to allow the Blasio administration to move forward with planned 31-story and 15-story towers by Brooklyn Heights waterfront.

Opponents have been strongly against allowing yet another development into the park and are calling the new project plan language, "a bait and switch."

Up until very recently the  General Project Plan (GPP) allowed for building in the park only if a financial need could be demonstrated. 

Page 12 of 2010 GPP plans states that,  “building envelopes described … represent the maximum build-out within the Project, with the intention being to build only what is necessary to support annual maintenance and operations.”  

This language however was recently removed and replaced with:  “without regard to Project finances.”

"The city wants to change the plan (called a Modified General Project Plan or MGPP ) to eliminate the restriction of building housing only for "financial need,"  Judi Francis recently wrote to supporters.   



Instead of parkland the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and the de Blasio administration want to build controversial housing in the park. 

"For 11 long years, the city and state have promised they would '“build no more housing than is necessary to fund the park”'. They will break their promises if they go forward with these buildings. 

Given the huge changes in the area with 12,500 new apartments not planned 10 years ago, school overcrowding, no new transit and even a reduction in bus service, the loss of our hospital, no new fire, police, sewer or electrical grid improvements, the fact that this area is in a flood zone, has been ignored by the city and state in their quest to build housing inside the park.  The park is now at a breaking point with visitors reaching over 100,000 on a weekend day. This will only increase given the magnificent harbor views and huge increases in population with no new parklands to accommodate residents, let along tourists who represent almost half of all BBP visitors.  Eliminating these unneeded towers will give back 3 acres of park at this critical entrance," Ms. Francis stated.

Opponents of the plan are hoping Governor Cuomo gets involved.

"Tonight we ask Governor Cuomo to step in and retake control of this park,"   The Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund said in a statement. 

"Tonight we ask Governor Cuomo to initiate a Master Planning process for pier 6, pier 7 and 8 along with the former hospital site, a mere 500 feet from this park."

Last month BBPC awarded the Pier 6 project – which also includes retail space to developer Robert Levine,  President & CEO of RAL Development Services weeks after Levine donated $10,000 to the mayor’s fundraising committee.

Levine is also the developer of controversial One Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Show Me The Money

Desperate for a strong public showing the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation (BBPC) has ramped it its efforts to try and get people to support the plan.

For weeks they have been trying to drum up support.  The BBPC proved once again that they are not below attempting to leverage groups, some say intimidate, that depend on their relationship with the park to generate support for the park's pier 6 position.

Oasis summer camp is one such organization.  The Oasis day camp at Brooklyn Bridge Park depends heavily on many Brooklyn Bridge Park's facilities for the camp it runs for kids ages 3, 15 in partnership with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. (Oasis also utilizes several facilities of St. Francis College  the location of tonight's meeting as well as the Parks Department's Van Voorhees Park near Brooklyn Bridge Park.)

On July 22, Oasis wrote a letter to parents imploring them to support the development plan.

"We know how important this park has become to you and to the whole Oasis in Brooklyn Bridge Park family. We are doing our best at Oasis to make this final phase a reality and hope that you feel the same way. If you do I know that the Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy would appreciate it if you could write a short note supporting this final phase of the project and maybe even volunteer to share your thoughts on July 30th at a public hearing.

The solicitation provided a sample letter to send along and an email address.

"The completion of the development of the park will not only bring tremendous added services and benefits for all of us who use the park, but it will also ensure that BBP will continue to serve my family and 10s of thousands like us for generations to come. I whole-heartedly support this development of Pier 6 and look forward to the completion," it read. 

"While I love the day camp for my daughter," one angry parent wrote in response,  "I'm disappointed in this thinly veiled attempt to garner support for the proposed condo buildings." 

Nancy Webster,  Executive Director of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy claims they are not the ones responsible for putting pressure on the camp whom they are partners with, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation is.    

"It was the Corp who reached out to Oasis, not the Conservancy,"  she wrote on July 24th after receiving an email which called Oasis's letter, "in very poor taste."

Tonight should be an interesting evening watching all the employees and lobbyists swarming around on behalf of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation,  Mayor de Blasio and the developer.   

A few people to look out for:     

All in the Family:  Prospect Park Alliance flack,  and former New Yorkers for Parks spokesperson James Yolles heads up pr for developer Robert Levine for Risa Heller Communications.  It was Risa who tried in vein to help Major League Soccer seize parkland in Flushing Meadow Corona Park to build a new stadium. Belinda Cape,  formerly from State Senator Daniel Squadron office is heading up pr for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation team.  

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has even organized a rally tonight prior to the ESD hearing in support of building in the park. (It's not in park they are laughably fond of saying)  Naturally the city's park partner organization New Yorkers for Parks' Tupper Thomas are supporting the park development plans as well as the usual city-friendly organizations including the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and the League of Conservation Voters.  

Crain's NY Business was given the "independent study"  that BBPC commissioned ahead of its official unveiling this evening.   The report backs ESDC's claim that the 85-acre waterfront park will not be able to pay for its own maintenance if the Pier 6 development does not move forward.  The report was prepared by Barbara Denham who worked for the city’s Economic Development Corp during the Giuliani administration.  

“They didn’t have the courage to provide it to the public in time for our financial analyst to take a look at it,” Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, told the Development friendly publication. 

Naturally proponents of the development plan do not argue that the heavily utilized park be funded by the government - like most public parks are. 

Brooklyn

It’s a fight for the right to stick both high-rise luxury and affordable housing smack at the front entrance to Brooklyn’s hottest park. 

Both opponents and supporters of a controversial plan to build 339 units of new homes by Pier 6 at the southern end of Brooklyn Bridge Park are expected to pack St. Francis College Thursday night beginning at 6 p.m. for what is expected to be a highly contentious public hearing, according to an article in the NewYork Post.  

At stake is whether the Empire State Development Corp. should modify a project plan it approved in 2006 and green light the Blasio administration to move forward with planned 31-story and 15-story towers by the tony Brooklyn Heights waterfront. 

The project was modified to include 117 units of affordable housing for low- to middle-income families as part of Mayor de Blasio’s plans to raise the city’s affordable housing stock. During the meeting, reps for the city-run Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp. are expected to unveil an independent study it commissioned. 

Sources said it will back the quasi-government agency’s claim that the 85-acre waterfront park will be in the red in 10 years – and no longer able to pay for its own maintenance – if the Pier 6 development doesn’t move forward.

The report was prepared by Barbara Denham, a renowned economist who once worked for the city’s Economic Development Corp. two decades ago during the Giuliani administration. “The biggest reason why the Pier 6 development should go forward is to make sure the park remains open and is maintained at the same high level it is today,” David Lowin, BBPC’s vice president of real estate, told The Post.

The report was prepared by Barbara Denham, a renowned economist who once worked for the city’s Economic Development Corp. two decades ago during the Giuliani administration. 

“The biggest reason why the Pier 6 development should go forward is to make sure the park remains open and is maintained at the same high level it is today,” David Lowin, BBPC’s vice president of real estate, told The Post.

Francis and other opponents – which include the powerful Brooklyn Heights Association and condo owners residing a block away at the swanky One Brooklyn Bridge Park complex – are quietly hoping de Blasio’s recent bad blood with Gov. Cuomo might cause ESDC to hold off on supporting the new development. However, a state source said “it is highly unlikely” that any friction between Cuomo and de Blasio will play any role in ESDC’s decision.

ESDC and the city under former Mayor Bloomberg had long promised to only build housing at Pier 6 as a last resort — provided the park wasn’t generating enough revenues through other residential and commercial development to pay for its maintenance. 

The proposed amendment to the project plan, opponents say, wipes away a nine-year agreement that required the city to demonstrate it needs additional revenues to pay the park’s bills before it can break ground on new housing inside the green space. 

Opponents also say the green space is already self-sustaining thanks to 440 luxury condos already up at One Brooklyn Bridge Park – not to mention the more than 150 other condo units, a 200-room hotel and tens of thousands of square feet of commercial space already in the construction pipeline on the park’s north end in DUMBO.

However, city officials and their supporters claim the amendment is needed so that affordable housing can now be part of a park project plan once vilified by opponents for allegedly catering to the rich. 

“We think adding affordable housing makes the project more responsive to the needs of the city and the community,” said Lowin. 

Opponents also say the new housing would overwhelm Brooklyn Heights and adjacent Cobble Hill, which are already in line to be banged with a series of other nearby large construction projects. 

They include repairs to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and a planned conversion of former Long Island College Hospital into more than 800 units of condos. 

BBPC last month awarded the Pier 6 project – which also includes ground-floor retail space and a 75-seat pre-kindergarten school — to developer Robert Levine, weeks after Levine donated $10,000 to the mayor’s fundraising committee. Levine is also the developer of One Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Read More:

Battle begins over luxe and affordable housing plan at Pier 6  

New York Post - July 30, 2015 - By Rich Calder