ATTACHMENT 2a: A comparison of traffic volumes at key intersections: Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan FEIS 2002 Baseline versus the Atlantic Yards Baseline conditions estimated for 2006.

Attached is a table comparing the AM and PM peak hour baseline traffic volumes at five key intersections in Downtown Brooklyn. Both the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan FEIS and the Atlantic Yards DEIS reported baseline conditions at each of these locations. This comparison is to determine how the Atlantic Yards in 2006 with considerable development in Downtown Brooklyn compares in terms of traffic volumes estimated in the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan for 2002, four years earlier.

Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project should, in 2006, include many of the development projects reported to occur during the 2002-2006 period, development totaling approximately 6 million sq. ft. of commercial, retail, residential and institutional space generating about 26,000 vehicle trips a day, 2,200 in the AM peak hour and 3,000 in the PM peak hour. In theory, therefore, the Atlantic Yards baseline traffic volumes in 2006 should be significantly greater than reported for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan for 2002, not lower. For the PM peak hour, an increase in traffic of 3,000 vehicles represents an increase of 10 to 12% over what occurred in 2002.

However, as the attached table reveals, the contrary is true. The Atlantic Yards project reports between a 5% increase at one intersection in the AM peak hour to as high as 18% less traffic in 2006 as was reported in the FEIS for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan. For the five intersections considered, the total deficit was 7% for both AM and PM peak hours not a 10 to 12% increase as expected due to new development.

The Atlantic Yards does not even discuss these differences let alone explain them. The reason this is important is that, by under reporting baseline traffic and, as explained elsewhere, low balling No-Build impacts as well, Forest City Ratner can claim more available roadway capacity for their project. In other words, instead of creating traffic impacts at 40 intersections, with consistent estimates, Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project could produce impacts at 60 or 70 intersections. Moreover, the likelihood of finding effective mitigation measures declines as traffic volumes grow to ever higher levels. By under estimating both baseline and No-Build conditions, the Developer incorrectly appears to multiply the available capacity it can draw upon and not produce project impacts.

The fact remains that the DEIS consistently under reports traffic in Downtown Brooklyn with the result that it asserts the Atlantic Yards can be built with “minimal” damage.

Community Consulting Services, August 7, 2006