ATTACHMENT 4a: A comparison of traffic volumes at key intersections: Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan FEIS 2013 versus the Atlantic Yards No-Build conditions estimated for 2016

Attached is a table comparing the AM and PM peak hour traffic volumes at five key intersections in Downtown Brooklyn. Both the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan FEIS and the Atlantic Yards DEIS estimated project impacts at each of these locations. This comparison is to determine how the Atlantic Yards in 2016 without the Arena project compares in terms of traffic volumes estimated in the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan for 2013.

Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project should, in 2016, include some of the development projects excluded in the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan which limited analysis to 2013 when only about 40% of the total rezoning approvals were assumed might be built. In theory, the Atlantic Yards No-Build traffic volumes in 2016 should, therefore, be greater than reported for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan for 2013.

However, as the attached table reveals, the contrary is true. The Atlantic Yards project reports between 4% less and as high as 23% less traffic in 2016 as was reported in the FEIS for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan. For the five intersections considered, the total deficit was 13% for both AM and PM peak hours.

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 (in this case, No-Build conditions), 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 would decline as traffic volumes grew to even higher levels.

Forest City Ratner may observe that the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan FEIS included the Atlantic Yards project. However, a careful examination of their data shows otherwise. In spite of their claims, there is little evidence that No-Build traffic volumes for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan were changed significantly, certainly not enough to account for even Phase I of the Atlantic Yards project.

The fact remains that, at many locations the differences between the Atlantic Yards DEIS and the FEIS for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan are so great that no possible adjustment could make up the difference. Forest City Ratner is low balling their traffic impacts (as was done for the Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Red Hook IKEA and many many others).

Community Consulting Services, July 27, 2006