Showing posts with label Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall. Show all posts

Friday, October 28, 2011

EDC Cancels Controversial Bruce Ratner Plan To Develop Nature Preserve Into Shopping Mall

NYMARSHmap

The proposed Four Sparrow Retail Center at Mill Basin from earlier this year. NYC Park Advocates were prepared to litigate the issue.

Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

The Bloomberg administration has quietly withdrawn its controversial plans to allow Bruce Ratner to develop public parkland in Mill Basin into a shopping mall. The City's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) had proposed seizing 15 acres of Four Sparrow Marsh under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department to expand a nearby retail shopping site.

A single line announcing the city's decision appeared on the Mayor's Office Of Environmental Coordination website.

"The Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Center at Mill Basin project has been withdrawn as of September 2011."

The rest of the website page had not been updated.

The project - along with and the Prospect Park Alliance's Lakeside Skating Rink - were caught up in State Senator Carl Kruger's Corruption Probe.

According to the Federal complaint, in December 2010 Bruce R. Bender - a vice president for government relations and public relations at

Forest City Ratner (FCR)

asked Sen. Kruger for $11 million in state funds for three FCR projects in Brooklyn – including $ 2 million for the Four Sparrow Mill Basin project, and another $4 million to renovate for the Lakeside skating rink in Prospect Park near Bender’s Park Slope home. Amy Bender, Bruce's wife, is a board member for the fundraising organization Prospect Park Alliance. In a federal complaint unsealed in March, Sen. Carl Kruger (D) who represents District 27 in the New York State Senate - is accused of trading political favors for more than $1 million in bribes the past five years.


One of the public relation angles the city took was to agree to map 46 acres (out of the park's current 67 acres) of Four Sparrows Marsh as public parkland which would, in their words, "protect, in perpetuity, these tidal wetlands and coastal habitats as natural areas," under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department. The land however is already under the jurisdiction of Parks. This property was transferred to Parks Department by the City of New York on March 3, 1994 and dedicated on October 29, 1997 as a Forever Wild property.


New York City claimed that because Four Sparrow Marsh was never officially "mapped" as parkland it can be disposed of and therefore, DPR is not required to protect it. However there are many playgrounds, parklands and natural areas throughout New York City that have never been mapped, yet these sites are recognized and protected as parkland. Mapping is only one factor that is used to determine whether land can be legally protected under the Public Trust Doctrine, use is another factor. Since the entire site has always been used as parkland, it therefore should be protected under Public Trust Doctrine. The new, proposed retail use is clearly a non-park use.

EDC continues to misrepresent details of the project: in other ways as well. Under Project Highlights EDC says will involve the "creation of a new park," but fails to mention that it already is a park and they would be seizing 15 acres for a commercial use.

On page 6 of the New York City Quality Review Environmental Assessment Full Form (CEQR EAS), for question 4a, they are asked, "Would the Project change or eliminate existing open space," the response checked is "No.” According to EDC 15 acres of parkland would simply disappear without any elimination of existing open space.

There is no acknowledgment in the Environmental Assessment Statement that Four Sparrow Marsh is even under the aegis of DPR. The scoping documents coyly refer to the parkland as "City owned."

Because EDC refuses to recognize the 15 acres as parkland is refers to them as "underutilized" and therefor ripe for development purposes.

In March Sen. Kruger and developer Aaron Malinsky were both indicted on corruption charges that included, among several counts, the Mill Basin project. Malinsky was charged with bribing Kruger. Forest City was not charged, though it was enmeshed in an effort to wangle state funds from Kruger.

As the Real Deal reported, after the charges surfaced in March, Malinsky's firm "was removed by Acadia Realty Trust as a partner at City Point, a mixed-use high-rise tower" in Downtown Brooklyn.

However, Acadia has spent big bucks, in a process that's questionable but apparently legal, to move City Point forward. As the New York Times reported this week, two years ago, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz went to bat for the project, supporting it among nearly 50 projects:
City Point received the financing, and around the same time, the lead developer on the project, Acadia Realty, gave $50,000 to a charity run by Mr. Markowitz.


Read More:


Atlantic Yards Report - October 28, 2011

A Walk In The Park - March 13, 2011 - By Geoffrey Croft

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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Four Sparrow and Prospect Parks Caught Up In Kruger Corruption Probe

Pay-To-Say. "What we don't need is another big box store," embattled Brooklyn State Sen. Carl Kruger said at the February 17, 2011 Economic Development Corporation Public Scoping meeting for its controversial Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall project. Sen Kruger asked that officials protect the community from becoming "a dumping ground for more big box development that's just sucking the lifeblood out of small merchants from our community." Federal investigators say a well known lobbyist funneled $252,000 from the Food and Commercial Workers Union to Kruger to speak out against Walmart and other big box stores in the proposed Mill Basin project.


Sen. Kruger used his political muscle to hold up a Bloomberg administration project in Brooklyn for at least three years to benefit developer Forest City Ratner (FCR).


According to the complaint, in December 2010 Bruce R. Bender - a vice president for government relations and public relations at FCR - asked Kruger for $11 million in state funds for three FCR projects in Brooklyn – including $ 2 million for the Four Sparrow Mill Basin project, and another $4 million to renovate for the Lakeside skating rink in Prospect Park near Bender’s Park Slope home. Amy Bender, Bruce's wife, is a board member for the fundraising organization Prospect Park Alliance. In a federal complaint that was unsealed on Thursday Sen. Carl Kruger (D) who represents District 27 in the New York State Senate - is accused of trading political favors for more than $1 million in bribes the past five years.


EDC is proposing to seize 15 acres of public parkland under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department to expand a nearby retail shopping site.


(Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.


All In The Family. "Another thing we will not consider - and I haven't spoken to anybody legally - is a Walmart," Dorothy Turano District Manager of Community Board 18 said at EDC's February 17th Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall scoping meeting. "Walmart is dying to get into our communities," she said to applause. "We don't want it. We'd like to see if there's some way to keep them out permanently... We have to protect our community."


Ms. Turano's son Michael was indicted on Thursday along with State Sen. Carl Kruger on corruption charges. Michael is accused of using bribe money he deposited in two shell companies for Kruger to pay the lease on a Bentley luxury sedan, credit-card bills and the mortgage on the garish, multimillion-dollar Mill Basin home of his mother.

(The city is spending $7 million in taxpayer money on a 4,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art office building for Brooklyn community board 18 that has only two employees - state Sen. Carl Kruger's companion, Dorothy Turano and Kruger's sister, Marlene Berger, who works for the board as its secretary.)


Brooklyn


State Sen. Carl Kruger -- who is facing federal corruption charges in an alleged pay-to-play scheme -- used his political muscle to hold up a Bloomberg administration project in Brooklyn at least three years to benefit a favored developer also highlighted in the embattled pol’s criminal complaint, the Post has learned.


At issue is a 15-acre city project that includes a new retail center in Mill Basin, built by developer Forest City Ratner. The project, along Flatbush Avenue, is also supposed to hold a Cadillac car dealership. The site currently houses a Toys-R-Us store.


Kruger (D-Brooklyn) sent former Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber a scathing letter in January 2008 threatening to sue the city because it wanted to begin the mandatory public review process on the dealership’s portion of the project, without FCR’s part.


At the time, the car dealership plan was in jeopardy if the city didn’t move quickly, but FCR wasn’t ready to begin a public review – and was concerned that segmenting the project could hurt its plans, sources said.


“It is our intent, and the shared intent of the community and other elected officials, to commence legal action if necessary,” Kruger said in the letter.


The city ultimately gave in to Kruger’s demands, but luckily was able to save the dealership deal. Last month, the entire project’s public review finally began.


“He cost the city three years it can’t get back on a project that already faces a lot of opposition,“ said one city official.


Kruger and Bruce Bender, a vice president for government relations at FCR, are longtime allies who both got their starts in Southern Brooklyn’s Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club.

According to the complaint, Bender in December asked Kruger for $11 million in state funds for two FCR projects in Brooklyn – the Mill Basin project and Atlantic Yards – and another $4 million to renovate a Prospect Park skating rink near Bender’s Park Slope home.


Kruger later offered a total of $4.5 million, and both men agreed the money should go towards the park project. Bender’s wife is a board member for the fundraising organization Prospect Park Alliance. - Geoffrey Croft


Read More:


Kruger's political favor

New York Post - March 13, 2011- By Rich Calder


New York Times - By James Barron March 10, 2011

New York Times - March 10, 2011 - By Nicholas Confessore and Michael Barbaro

New York Daily News - EDITORIALS - March 13th 2011

The Brooklyn Paper - March 11, 2011 - By Thomas Tracy

A Walk In The Park - February 22, 2011

A Walk In The Park - December 15, 2011
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Opponents Of EDC's Four Sparrow Plan Up In Arms

“There are all of these reports that people are suffering from nature deprivation,” said Mary Anne Muller. “No one is suffering from a store deprivation.”


February 17, 2011. The City's Economic Development Corporation held a Public Scoping Meeting for its controversial Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall project on Thursday night. EDC is proposing to seize 15 acres of public parkland to expand a nearby retail shopping site. One of the public relation angles the City is taking is agreeing to map 46 acres (out of 67) of Four Sparrows Marsh as public parkland which would, in their words, "protect, in perpetuity, these tidal wetlands and coastal habitats as natural areas," under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department. The land however is already under the jurisdiction of Parks. This property was transferred to Parks Department by the City of New York on March 3, 1994 and dedicated on October 29, 1997 as a Forever Wild property. Public Comments are due on February 28th. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC PArk Advocates) Click on image to enlarge.

New York City is claiming that because Four Sparrow Marsh was never officially "mapped" as parkland it can be disposed of and therefore, DPR is not required to protect it. However there are many playgrounds, parklands and natural areas throughout New York City that have never been mapped, yet these sites are recognized and protected as parkland. Mapping is only one factor that is used to determine whether land can be legally protected under the Public Trust Doctrine, use is another factor. Since the entire site has always been used as parkland, it therefore should be protected under Public Trust Doctrine. The new, proposed retail use is clearly a non-park use.

EDC continues to misrepresent details of the project: in other ways as well. Under Project Highlights EDC says will involve the "creation of a new park," but fails to mention that it already is a park and they would be seizing 15 acres for a commercial use.

On page 6 of the New York City Quality Review Environmental Assessment Full Form (CEQR EAS), for question 4a, they are asked, "Would the Project change or eliminate existing open space," the response checked is "No.” According to EDC 15 acres of parkland would simply disappear without any elimination of existing open space.

There is no acknowledgment in the Environmental Assessment Statement that Four Sparrow Marsh is even under the aegis of DPR. The scoping documents coyly refer to the parkland as "City owned."

Because EDC refuses to recognize the 15 acres as parkland is refers to them as "underutilized" and therefor ripe for development purposes. - Geoffrey Croft

Brooklyn

Mill Basin residents say the city’s plan to expand a shopping center built atop protected marshlands near the foot of Flatbush Avenue is not going to happen without a fight — and some argued it shouldn’t happen at all, according to YourNabe.

At a Feb. 18 meeting intended to get the neighborhood’s take on its plans for the Four Sparrows Retail Center between Kings Plaza and the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, environmentalists and Walmart opponents joined forces to shoot down the project — making it clear that if the city and developer Forest City Ratner Companies want to replace the cherished wetlands with big box stores, there will be a war on two fronts.

• Front one: Environmentalists and bird watchers want to prevent any development at the site, claiming that construction will destroy a borough treasure — a priceless city-owned wetland.

“The city says it wants to build something fabulous [on the wetlands],” nature lover Vivian Carter told residents attending the hearing at Kings Plaza. “But we have something there already, thank you very much.”

• Front two: The battle over which store — we’re talking about Walmart, of course — will be housed in the new shopping center.

“We’re completely opposed to bringing in a big box store,” Assemblyman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park) told city officials. “Local businesses in Marine Park and Mill Basin will go out of business with a big box store just down the street.”

Members of the Economic Development Corporation obviously hoped for positive feedback on the proposal to expand the small shopping strip to accommodate three more stores, more parking and more than 40 acres of parkland, but they got very little.

And it got ugly when the agency could not promise that a Walmart — either a controversial mega-store or one of the company’s newersmaller versions — would pop up at the new center.

“One thing we will never consider is a Walmart,” said Community Board 18 District Manager Dorothy Turano to applause. “If a Walmart opens, the neighborhood near it suffers. We want to keep stores like that out of this shopping center, but we don’t know what’s going to happen. Nothing here is carved in granite.”

Neither is the plan, actually: Even though the city has been working on this project for more than a decade, it’s still considering two designs.

One proposal calls for creating two additional buildings on the property — a one-story structure off of Flatbush Avenue the size of a football field and a two-story building abutting the Mill Basin creek roughly the size of two football fields that would allow for multiple tenants.

The second proposal calls for one building the size of three football fields — the same size as the property Walmart currently has its eye on at the proposed Gateway II shopping center in East New York.

Environmentalists applauded the city’s plan to convert the marshlands into parkland — protecting the lands in perpetuity — but saw no reason why it should construct a shopping center right next to it.

“This land doesn’t belong to Mayor Bloomberg, it belongs to all of us,” added Geoffrey Croft, the president of the New York City Park Advocates, who threatened to take the city to court if it goes ahead with its plans. “We’re simply not going to let you give it away.”

Mill Basin resident Mary Anne Muller agreed.

“There are all of these reports that people are suffering from nature deprivation,” she said. “No one is suffering from a store deprivation.”

Forest City Ratner Companies is also currently building the controversial Barclays Center, the future home of the Brooklyn Nets, as well as a proposed 16-tower mini-city containing more than 6,600 units of housing — another project that some believe swiped public land for private benefit.

To read more about the project and send in comments:

NYMARSHmap
Proposed Four Sparrow Retail Center at Mill Basin.

Read More:

YourNabe - February 22, 2011 - By Thomas Tracy

NY1 - March 19, 2011- By Jeanine Ramirez


Mayor's Office Of Environmental Coordination

The Wall Street Journal - January 11, 2011- By Joseph De Avila

Sheepshead Bites - Jan 7, 2011 -By Marina Fridman-Rybner

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Friday, January 14, 2011

Four Sparrow Marsh Public Meeting Rescheduled

NYMARSHmap
For decades the public has used the 67 acre Four Sparrows Marsh in Mill Basin Brooklyn as public parkland for a variety of recreational purposes, both passive and active. The City's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is proposing to seize 15 acres to expand a nearby retail shopping site. The property was transferred to Parks Department by the City of New York on March 3, 1994 and dedicated on October 29, 1997. The City is claiming because the Forever Wild nature preserve was never "mapped" it is not required to protect it. Many DPR properties, including playgrounds and natural areas are not mapped. Mapping is only one factor used to determine whether land can be legally protected under the Public Trust doctrine. Use is another. The proposed use is clearly a non-park use.

New York State Department of State has provided funding for the Forever Wild Program under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund.

Four Sparrows Marsh. (Photo: NYC Parks)

Brooklyn

The Public Scoping Meeting for EDC's controversial Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Mall project has been rescheduled for Thursday, February 3rd. The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the Kings Plaza Community Room, 5100 Kings Plaza (at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U). The January 11, meeting was postponed due to inclement weather. The public comment period has been extended until 5:00 PM on Monday, February 14, 2011.

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, as lead agency, issued a Positive Declaration for the Four Sparrows Marsh Retail Center at Mill Basin project on December 10, 2010 and directed that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) be prepared.

"To the east and south of the development parcel is Four Sparrows Marsh. This is also City-owned property," the Draft-Scope-of-Work document states. "Containing large areas of tidal wetlands and coastal habitat, the marsh is an undeveloped natural area. However, it is not mapped parkland. Therefore, one of the proposed actions is to map this area as public parkland which would protect, in perpetuity, these tidal wetlands and coastal habitats as natural areas under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). The project area to be mapped as parkland totals about 46 acres. A public trail proposed as part of the development component of the project would provide waterfront access for passive recreation."

The plan, first reported in Sheepshead Bites calls for a 110,000-square-foot Cadillac dealership to be built next to an existing Toys "R" Us store on Flatbush Avenue between The Belt Parkway and Avenue U. The new retail center would cover at least 127,000 square feet and build more than 400 parking spaces. The Project would be located just south of the toy store and encompass 15 acres on the northern end of the Four Sparrow Marsh.

Atlantic Yards Developer Forest City Ratner would oversee the project which they hope to break ground in 2014.

Speculation is also swirling that the controversial Walmart store currently being opposed for the Gateway II project near Jamaica Bay in East New York could be built here - Geoffrey Croft

Mapped Parkland Selling Point. One of the public relation angles the City is taking would map 46 acres (out of 67) of Four Sparrows Marsh as public parkland which would, in their words, "protect, in perpetuity, these tidal wetlands and coastal habitats as natural areas," under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department.

Read More:

Mayor's Office Of Environmental Coordination

The Wall Street Journal - January 11, 2011- By Joseph De Avila

Sheepshead Bites - Jan 7, 2011 -By Marina Fridman-Rybner


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