No-Build Trip Generation

The Atlantic Yards DEIS fails to consider all new development anticipated in and around Downtown Brooklyn. The result is a very significant under reporting of project impacts.

Nowhere in the DEIS does Forest City Ratner present their assumed trip generation characteristics for No-Build conditions, i.e., conditions in 2016 without Atlantic Yards. Chapter 12: Traffic and Parking, does provide Table 12-11 for person trips for 2010 and Table 12-27 for person trips expected in 2016, both for the Build conditions, i.e., with Atlantic Yards.

The DEIS contains no similar table for No-Build conditions. Community Consulting Services has estimated the impacts for the Brooklyn Bridge Park and for Phases I and II of the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan. The results are presented in Table 1. While the Brooklyn Bridge Park is not included in the Atlantic Yards DEIS, it is close enough to impact both highway and transit travel.

As Table 1 shows, the full build out of the rezoning approved for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan plus the Brooklyn Bridge Park will generate about 51,000 vehicle trips on weekdays, more than 195,000 subway trips and more than 45,000 bus trips. During the AM peak hour, these projects will add about 4,500 vehicle trips, more than 16,000 subway trips and more than 2,200 bus trips. In the PM peak hour, these project will add nearly 5,900 vehicle trips, more than 18,000 subway trips and 3,400 bus trips to the Downtown Brooklyn area.

There are many other projects in close proximity to the Atlantic Yards. In close proximity is the Park Slope rezoning where residential buildings are rising quickly. Once completed in a couple of years the Park Slope rezoning, with 5 million sq. ft. of new residential space, will add another 8,800 vehicle trips daily to nearby roads, 16,200 subway trips and more than 4,000 bus trips.

While the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning, at nearly 15 million sq. ft. of new residential buildings (also under construction and expected to be built out in a couple of years), is more distant, it will generate significant travel, some of which will effect travel in and around Downtown Brooklyn. When completed, the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning will generate nearly 26,000 daily vehicular trips, nearly 56,000 subway trips and more than 13,000 bus trips.

Other development, such as the IKEA in Red Hook, will add even more trips to Brooklyn’s transportation system. As we have shown elsewhere, none of the projects outside the Atlantic Yards study area, including the Brooklyn Bridge Park, have been considered in the DEIS. Moreover, fewer than half the projects approved in the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan have been considered as part of the No-Build analysis. The consequence of this is a very significant under reporting of project impact, on Brooklyn’s roads, on our subways and on our buses. By low-balling these numbers Forest City Ratner claims far fewer project impacts and under reports the very significant infrastructure needs, totaling about $3 billion, required to offset development impacts totaling, in Brooklyn, of about 60 million sq. ft. including the Atlantic Yards.