DEC/Parks Department Reverse Ridgewood Reservoir Culvert Plan

The decommissioned Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park is a natural oasis on the Queens-Brooklyn border.  Activists were worried that a state-mandated plan to cut culverts in the reservoir would have impacted the natural beauty of the area. Citizens were concerned that this could pave the way for future development.  (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to enlarge.

Queens-Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

For years the community fought vehemently against Mayor Bloomberg's $50 million PlaNYC proposal to clear out 20 acres of one of the basins for ballfields and develop the natural area for active recreation. 

It appears these efforts may finally be paying off. 

In what was one of the last remaining hurdles, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Parks Department are reversing course on a controversial $ 6 million dollar, two-year plan to cut large holes (culverts) into the three basins in Ridgewood Reservoir.  The move comes as pressure from environmentalists, area residents and elected officials were mounting to preserve the area exclusively as natural parkland.  

The State DEC has classified the Ridgewood Reservoir's three basins as a "Class C" High Hazard Dam, critics disagreed.   State officials originally mandated that the Parks Department cut culverts as part of an anti-flooding plan, a move which drew wide-spread criticism. 

The Parks Department is expected to submit a new application to the DEC shortly requesting the site be reclassified as a non-hazardous dam.  Plans are also in the works to map the basins as wetlands a move advocates and naturalists fighting to preserve the decommissioned dams requested four years ago.

Invasive species tower over the decommissioned Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park. Advocates want the $ 6 million dollars re-purposed and used to clear out invasive species and replace them with native flora which will among many things increase bio-diversity. 

In July, eight local elected officials sent a letter to Governor Cuomo requesting the plan be scrapped.  

Last week DEC Commissioner Joe Martins sent a letter to the elected officials informing them of the State's decision.  

"The Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance is cautiously optimistic that the reservoir will finally be getting the protection from development that the community has been fighting for since 2007," said Rob Jett,  HPRRA member and the Save Ridgewood Reservoir blog founder. 

"The next important follow up step will be the NYSDEC performing the promised wetlands mapping promised this fall. We had submitted an application for wetlands mapping to the state 4 years ago. In addition, the Ridgewood Reservoir habitats support over 150 species of resident, breeding and migratory species of birds. Many of those are Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern by both state and federal agencies. For that reason we are asking that the state designate the reservoir a "Bird Conservation Area. 

The HPRRA will continue to work with the community, politicians and parks department to assure that our vision of Ridgewood Reservoir becoming a world class Urban Nature Sanctuary is realized," said Jett.

The environmental law firm Super Law Group were retained by HPRRA and played a key advisory role in the proceedings, acting as a liaison between the community and the Mayor's office, DEC and the Parks Department.  

Edan Rotenberg, a lawyer at the firm gave credit to the community and the elected officials for working together.  He looks forward to helping the community achieve further conservation goals via NY State DEC including  getting wetland status and recognition for endangered species. 

The DEC is being pressed for three things:  to map the wetlands in the Reservoir on its official state map of wetlands; recognize the Ridgewood Reservoir as an official Bird Conservation Area; and have DEC's "New York Natural Heritage Program" officially recognize the existence of rare and threatened plants and animals in the Ridgewood Reservoir.


American redstart at the Ridgewood Reservoir. (Photo: Steve Nanz)

New York Natural Heritage maintains New York's most comprehensive database on the status and location of rare species and natural communities. The information is used by public agencies, the environmental conservation community, developers, and others to aid in land-use decisions.

"We have an oral commitment from the DEC that they will map the wetlands in the park this Fall," said Edan Rotenberg.

"They are going to go through all three basins and look at the wetland to determine what parts of the basin or whether the whole basin should be classified as wetlands.  This is an environmental hot spot. There aren't many regional wetland forest habits left in New York City period. 

There are a number of endangered species in the reservoir, its important the state recognize this," he said.

What's Next?

Advocates are also pressing that the $ 6 million dollars be reallocated for much needed improvements. 

Community members and environmentalists have long advocated for the repurposing of two existing gate house buildings located on the basin's perimeter for an environmental center and Parks Enforcement Patrol and Ranger facility to help ensure the long-term viability and safety of the area.  

"We are glad that the NYC Parks Department finally recognized that the Ridgewood Reservoir is a habitat that should not be disturbed by construction and that it took the step of requesting reclassification to a low hazard dam," said Christina Wilkinson. 

"The money that was to be used for this project should now be re-purposed to clear out invasive species and replace them with native flora. Building a nature center and PEP command will go a long way to ensure the reservoir Highland park are properly used and safe." 

The community is pressing to use two of the reservoir's gatehouses located along the basin's perimeter to be used as an environmental center for public programs and a Parks Enforcement Patrol/ Ranger facility to help ensure the long-term viability and safety of the area.

Invasive vines are pervasive in Highland Park due to a lack of maintenance.  A long-term restoration and maintenance plan for the severally neglected park is vital.


Read/View More:

Parks Officials Say State Wants Ridgewood Reservoir Basins to Be Safer
NY 1 - July 10, 2014 - By Agnes Chung 
http://www.ny1.com/content/212041/parks-officials-say-state-wants-ridgewood-reservoir-basins-to-be-safer/

Plan To Cut Into Historic Ridgewood Reservoir Has Activists Fuming - 
Fears This Will Lead To Development
A Walk In The Park - July 6, 2014

City Considering Leaving Ridgewood Reservoir Natural

A Walk In The Park - October 5, 2012 

Cracks In Ridgewood Reservoir Found - Renovations Delayed

A Walk In The Park - January 13, 2012 

Central Park Vs. Ridgewood Reservoir Fence Discrepancy

A Walk In The Park - May 27, 2010 

Community Boards Not Happy With Ridgewood Reservoir Plans

A Walk In The Park - January 6, 2010 

City Considering Leaving Ridgewood Reservoir Natural

After many many years of ignoring the community's hard fought campaign to preserve the abandoned basins of Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park to remain natural the Bloomberg administration finally appears to be softening on its insistence to build ball fields there.

Queens/Brooklyn

Plans for ballfields in the third basin of the Ridgewood Reservoir, long opposed by local residents and community groups, may be fading away,according to members of Community Board 5’s Parks Committee.

At a meeting held Monday, Sept. 24 at P.S. 68 in Glendale, Parks Committee Chairperson Steve Fiedler claimed that the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is reviewing the site, citing a conversation with staff members from State Sen. Joseph Addabbo’s office.

Addabbo, in a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly, confirmed that the DEC, at his insistence, is going back to review a study of the site three years ago that stated that two out of the three basins that make up the reservoir meet state wetlands requirements.

“Protecting two-thirds of the wetland really doesn’t make sense,” he stated.

“That’s exactly what the city wants,” Fiedler stated at the Monday meeting, noting that the third basin is where the city had hoped to build ballfields. “I don’t believe it.”

“If it’s a point or two under the qualification for a wetland, it still has to be a wetland,” said Fiedler.

In addition, according to Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office is beginning to listen to resident requests that all three basins are left untouched.

“I had a meeting with him and people from Ridgewood and Maspeth,” he noted. “He said to me, ‘Gary, you still want that to be a nature preserve right?’ I said, ‘yes I do.’ He said ‘okay.’ So I think he is favorable toward that idea.”

The current project “is moving along,” Fiedler noted, with handicapped accessible ramps, lighting and fencing being installed, but work on the staircases at Jamaica Avenue has yet to begin.

He also expressed concern that the 15-foot lights can be knocked out with a bat if someone were to climb the four-foot fence.

Read More:

DEC REVISITING THE RESERVOIR

State Reviewing Ridgewood Park Site Again

Times Newsweekly - September 27, 2012 - By Sam Goldman

City considering leaving reservoir natural

Queens Crap - October 5, 2012

Cracks In Ridgewood Reservoir Found - Renovations Delayed

Old lamp posts lay discarded near the walking trail at the Ridgewood Reservoir, awaiting either reuse or a trip to the scrap yard, according to the Queens Chronicle. The city’s Parks Department said that completion of the first phase of upgrades at the park will be pushed back to next summer. (Photo By Michael Gannon)

Queens/Brooklyn

Improvements to the perimeter of the Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn/Queens border have hit a snag after contractors working for the Parks Department found defects in retaining walls within one of the basins.

The Parks Department began work last year on the $7.2 million first phase of renovations, which include the installation of new lighting, fencing and a pathway around the 55- acre site adjacent to Highland Park. The project also involves the creation of a pedestrian ramp leading to the elevated reservoir from Vermont Place, according to Times Weekly.

But in completing the scheduled work, crews found debris inside one of the basins. In the process of cleaning it up, “several unfavorable conditions were uncovered,” according to a statement from the Parks Department, “including structurally unstable paths and walls that will require extensive technical revision.”

Though workers were preparing to resurface the 1 1/4-mile pathway around the reservoir just before the damage was discovered, the repairs to the defective basin walls “require that we postpone laying asphalt until this spring,” the statement noted. As a result, the first phase of the project will likely be completed by the summer of 2012; originally, it was projected that work would be finished by the spring.

Gary Giordano, district manager of Community Board 5, told the Times Newsweekly in a phone interview that he is trying to arrange a meeting with the Parks Department to discuss the emergency repairs as well as other aspects of the project. The meeting would also focus on planning the second phase of the reservoir’s renovations, which remain unplanned.

-SEE RESERVOIR ON PG. 28-

“We’d like to talk with the Parks Department with regard to what could be done based on the amount of money that may be available,” Giordano said. He hoped that the first phase of the renovations to the reservoir would “attract more people and hopefully a lot of nature lovers.”

Defunct since 1989, the reservoir has naturally evolved over the last two decades to become a habitat for various plant and wildlife. The center basin of the reservoir’s three chambers remains filled with water and resembles a natural lake.

The city’s Parks Department took control of the site in 2004 and in the years that followed, set out a plan to redevelop the site and Highland Park as one of eight “regional parks” around the city. Initial plans, conceived through the PlaNYC 2030 master plan, called for one of the reservoir’s three basins to be cleared and developed with new ball fields and play areas.

Community activists voiced opposition to the plans, observing that the reservoir should remain at a nature preserve and that ball fields at Highland Park should be improved instead. Numerous community meetings were held by the Parks Department over the last several years, gathering opinions from residents in both Brooklyn and Queens.

Though the city had planned to spend up to $50 million to renovate the reservoir for park use, recent fiscal constraints forced the city to scale back its improvements.

Giordano reiterated his belief that the Ridgewood Reservoir should be maintained as a nature preserve and opposed any ideas to transform one of its basins into athletic fields.

“To me, it’s senseless, but there have been people who have been advocating for ballfields,” he said. “Well, there’s got to be a better place to put ballfields other than the Ridgewood Reservoir site.”

He hoped that the second phase of the reservoir’s renovation would include improvements to maintain the “natural habitat” while also transforming one of the former pump houses on the site into an environmental center to educate visitors young and old.

“Some of us envision it as a place where students could go on school trips or not-for-profit organizations could take a trip there,” he said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is also considering declaring the reservoir as a “state-regulated freshwater wetland.” If the site is given that designation, the state DEC would have the authority to review any potential activities at the reservoir and require permits for any specific improvements.

Giordano noted that the DEC recently completed hydrology tests at the site and has sent the results to the Parks Department for review. The Parks Department statement indicated that the agency is “currently reviewing the hydrology report and will share with DEC once our review is completed.”

Read More:

CRACKS AT RESERVOIR

Renovations Delayed By Structural Instability

Times Weekly - January 12, 2012 - by Robert Pozarycki

Reservoir rehab deadline extended

Safety conditions lead Parks Dept. to push back phase one end date

Queens Chronicle - December 1, 2011 - By Michael Gannon

Central Park Vs. Ridgewood Reservoir Fence Discrepancy

The fence installed around Central Park's reservoir in 2002 cost $ 2 million dollars and matches one of the fence designs found in Ridgewood Reservoir in Queens. The Parks Department has told that "outer borough" community however that using the same design would not meet code.  

Reservoir Fencing

In a January 6th Daily News article, Kevin Quinn, director of Queens capital projects for the Parks Department, was quoted as saying that the historic fences at the reservoir needed to be removed because, the "spacing of the pickets no longer meets code as a guardrail." As far as I've been able to determine, the city's code requires that the spacing on railings be not more than 6".

There are two style of fences at the Ridgewood Reservoir. The first is a circa 1850s Hecla Ironworks fence that surrounds the central basin. In 2003, the department of parks had a replica of that fence created for the Central Park reservoir. The cost for the reproduction was $2 million. Here is a parks department 2003 press release about that installation. Welding Works, the company that built the fence received an industry award for the project.

The parks department was more than happy to spend $2 million to create a copy of the Ridgewood Reservoir fencing for Central Park. The same agency now wants to tear down the original, historic ones in Ridgewood for something that doesn't even try to look like a period piece. Why do you suppose they would do that?

Below is a series of photos which compare the replica fence around the Central Park Reservoir with the existing historic fence at the Ridgewood Reservoir.

Read More: 

Save Ridgewood Reservoir - May 25, 2010

Fence ok for Central Park is"too dangerous" for Ridgewood Reservoir

Queens Crap - May 27, 2010

Community Boards Not Happy With Ridgewood Reservoir Plans

QUEENS/BROOKLYN

by Holly Tsang

The Queens Ledger   

January 6, 2010 

On Monday, members of Queens and Brooklyn Community Boards 5 and Queens Community Board 9 were presented with the Parks Department’s plans for phase one of a new park at the Ridgewood Reservoir, which straddles Queens and Brooklyn, and they were not happy, according an article in the Queens Ledger.

CB5Q submitted its recommendations in July consisting of seven points that needed to be addressed, including the construction of a six-foot wrought iron fence with spikes at the top to deter trespassers and the construction of a pedestrian bridge that goes over high-traffic Vermont Place to the reservoir.

Much to the dismay of CB5Q, the Queens Borough [Parks] Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski wrote back in August that the Parks Department would likely take a different direction on most of the points; to name a few, the wrought iron fence in question would be four feet tall and instead of a “cost-prohibitive” pedestrian bridge over Vermont Place, an ADA-approved ramp would be constructed at Vermont Place, where a stop sign would also be installed.

Read More:

Community boards not happy with Ridgewood Reservoir plans

The Queens Ledger -  January 6, 2010 - by Holly Tsang

With some back and forth, Queens park will get upgrade

NY Daily News - January 6, 2010 - By Lisa Colangelo

Background: 

Preservationists at odds with city over ballfields in Ridgewood Reservoir 

NY Daily News - May 22, 2009 - By John Lauinger

Forest fans howl over plans to raze 20 acres in Ridgewood Reservoir

NY Daily News - October 21, 2007 - By John Lauinger

Ridgewood Reservoir plans move forward | 5 months ago

Reservoir plans move forward | 5 months ago

Inside the Ridgewood Reservoir | 6 months ago

Jumping in to the Ridgewood Reservoir Plan