CBN Asks for Clarification of
New Oversight Plan
On May 8, 2007, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods sent a letter to Empire State Development Corporation Downstate Chair Patrick Foye requesting clarification to the proposal announced the day before for a new Atlantic Yards oversight structure.
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Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
201 Dekalb Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205 718-638-3349
email: CBrooklynNeighborhoods@hotmail.com
www.CBrooklynNeighborhoods.homestead.com Formed with the participation of: Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association · Boerum Hill Association · Boerum Hill For Organic Development · Brooklyn Bears Community Garden · Brooklyn Vision Foundation Inc. · Cambridge Place Action Coalition · Clermont/Greene Ave Block Association · Dean Street Block Association · Develop Don't Destroy-Brooklyn · East Pacific Block Association · Fans For Fair Play · Fifth Avenue Committee · Fort Greene Association · New York Preservation Alliance · North Flatbush Business Improvement District · Park Slope Civic Council · Park Slope Greens · Park Slope Neighbors · Pratt Area Community Council · Prospect Heights Action Coalition · Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council · Sierra Club-Atlantic Chapter · Society for Clinton Hill · South Portland Avenue Block Association · Warren Street St. Marks Community Garden
Chairman Foye;
We have just received a copy of the May 7, 2007 ESDC press release forwarded to the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) by a member of the press. Please add CBN to the ESDC's data base for notification of Atlantic Yards related information.
We trust that you recall that CBN wrote to the ESDC on March 8, 2007, offering to work with you in the development of an "Atlantic Yards Construction Community information system" (text of letter attached.) Unfortunately, CBN never received a response to our offer. We renewed our offer to the ESDC at CBN’s April 27th press conference at the site of the Ward Bakery parapet collapse, and want to confirm that our offer of assistance remains open.
We are encouraged that the ESDC has taken steps to create some form of construction oversight, as was promised in the Environmental Impact Statement. However, we are quite concerned that the measures which the ESDC announced today do not contain any direct input from or involvement with the affected communities. We have a number of questions regarding your press release, which require answers.
1. What has happened to the environmental monitor the ESDC was in the process of hiring? You properly announced a public RFP for the position and appointed an interim monitor (AKRF) but the selection of the permanent monitor is certainly overdue by several months and construction has again been permitted to proceed. Where does this person fit into your proposed structure?
2. What exactly will the ombudsman do? Do you have a formal job description? Will the ESDC be issuing another RFP for this position? Will the ombudsman be acting as the public's representative? If the ombudsman is acting as guardian of the public's interest, we urge you to involve the community in the selection process.
3. The structure you propose does not seem to contain any representatives from the community. CBN was founded on the belief, based in SEQRA, that the community must be a part of the process of environmental review and identification of appropriate mitigation for the negative impacts of this particular project. Accordingly, CBN strongly believes that any oversight committees must include community representatives. Our member groups include long-standing community associations, business associations, block associations and similar community organizations with well-developed networks of direct communication with their very engaged constituents.
Chairman Foye, we are certain you have noted CBN's key role in leading the communities surrounding the proposed Atlantic Yards project throughout the entire environmental review process. In the expectation that you will address our concerns and questions seriously and expeditiously, we look forward to receiving your response.
Sincerely,
Steering Committee
Council of Brooklyn NeighborhoodsCandace Carponter, Co-chair
Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn
Therese Urban, Co-chair
Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association
Enid Braun
Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus
Genevieve Christy
Boerum Hill Association
Patti Hagan
Prospect Heights Action Coalition
Deb Howard
Pratt Area Community Council
Eric McClure
Park Slope Neighbors
Steve Soblick
Ft. Greene Association
James Vogel
East Pacific Block Association
cc:
Governor Eliot Spitzer
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Hillary Clinton
Congressman Edolphus Towns
Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez
Congresswoman Yvette Clark
NYS Senate Speaker Joseph Bruno
NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery
NYS Senator Martin M. Dilan
NYS Senator Martin Connor
NYS Senator Eric Adams
NYS Assemblyman Vito Lopez
NYS Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol
NYS Assemblyman Daryl C. Towns
NYS Assemblywoman Joan J. Millman
NYS Assemblyman Jim Brennan
NYS Assemblywoman Annette Robinson
NYS Assemblyman Hakeem Jefferies
NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn
NYC Councilwoman Letitia James
NYC Councilman Bill deBlasio
NYC Councilman David Yassky
NYC Councilman Erik Martin Dilan
NYC Councilman Tony Avella
NYC Councilman John C. Liu
NYC Councilman Charles Barron
Brooklyn CB2 Chair Shirley MacRae
Brooklyn CB6 Chair Richard S. Bashner
Brooklyn CB8 Chair Robert Matthews
Brooklyn CB2 District Manager Robert Perris
Brooklyn CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman
Brooklyn CB8 District Manager Doris Alexander
ESDC Communication Director Errol Cockfield
Members of the Press
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ATTACHMENT:
TEXT OF MARCH 8, 2007 LETTER TO ESDC
Empire State Development Corporation
633 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10017
Attn: Atlantic Yards Project
Dear Sirs:
We are writing to offer our services to consult with you and the Environmental Monitor to address serious concerns the community has with the construction impacts of the Atlantic Yards development project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Last week there was an interruption of water service to the area caused by a contractor performing site preparation. There was no warning to the community that any interruption was possible, nor an adequate explanation offered at the time for the work that was being performed. There were inadequate, confusing and conflicting responses to inquiries regarding the cause of the accident and what procedures were in place, or will be implemented to insure against repeat incidents. There is considerable tension in the community due to this far from auspicious start.
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods retained experts to perform a professional detailed analyses of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Atlantic Yards development and submitted their extensive findings to the ESDC. Excerpts from our detailed comments and questions are appended for your convenience. Our complete document library is available for examination and download from our website, www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com. We continue to have access to environmental engineers, urban planners, and community leaders, all of whom are anxious to work with us in assisting you to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the negative impacts of this large scale, long term construction project on the surrounding communities..
CBN looks forward to arranging an initial meeting with you.
Sincerely,
Therese Urban
Co-chair, Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc.
cc: e-mail to atlanticyards@empire.state.ny.us
Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Officer
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ADDENDUM:
Excerpts from
CBN DEIS Response, Chapter 17 - Construction Impacts
Dr. Arline Bronzaft, Daniel Gutman
Overview
The Atlantic Yards project is proposed to be built over a ten-year period, 2006-2016. This statement by the project sponsor cannot be accepted as a realistic time horizon for construction. The DEIS must justify this choice of time period and present likely contingencies. The DEIS should take into account the following:
A three-year development period for the first phase is extremely tight and it is reasonable to question whether it can be completed in such a short period of time. Property must be condemned, and any legal challenges cleared. The Vanderbilt Rail Yards renovation must be completed and a platform section built. All discretionary approvals must be completed, streets closed, and utilities relocated. Coordination with local agencies and services to minimize construction impacts will take time. Major street reconstruction/utility replacement projects in central areas of Brooklyn often take 2-3 years, and that does not include new construction.
Should the first phase take longer than three years, construction impacts in the second phase could intensify, and this would require additional environmental impact analysis. Should the entire project take longer than ten years, this will extend the period of significant and adverse impacts, and the subsequent public health implications.
Local real estate market conditions are difficult if not impossible to predict ten years in advance. The long-term strength of both residential and commercial markets may be difficult to assess and investors may chose to delay the project, or add new phases, so that what is now planned for the second phase by 2016 may actually be built over a much longer period of time. The decades-long history of development of Metrotech in Brooklyn is instructive.
Since the project sponsors underestimate existing transportation problems as well as the impacts of the project on transportation, both during the construction phase and after, they also fail to take into account the potential that transportation problems will hinder completion of the project on schedule. The DEIS also fails to examine whether traffic congestion during construction and the closing of streets will affect emergency response times.
Overall, the DEIS appears to downplay the extent of construction impacts by failing to fully grasp the difficulty of building Brooklyn’s largest project at its busiest crossroads. Buried in individual chapters are acknowledgements that construction will negatively affect local residents, businesses, schools, libraries, parks and playgrounds. Adding the impacts up, however, the full picture is daunting.
Specific construction impacts discussed in this section include Air Quality and Noise. Both of these sections point to the public health implications of construction impacts that are downplayed as significant adverse impacts and not mitigated.
As discussed in the Air Quality section below, a mitigation that should be committed to is the establishment of a liaison committee involving local residents, businesses, and officials to help minimize construction impacts.
(Above are excerpted sections from the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods DEIS comments. The entire chapter has been appended to the actual messages sent to the ESDC and the Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Office. The entire report and all Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods publications are availible from our website, www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com.)
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The COUNCIL OF BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS (www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com) is a coalition of recognized diverse community groups active in Community Boards 2, 3, 6, and 8. CBN is comprised of 41 community organizations that have joined together to ensure meaningful community participation in the environmental review of the proposed Atlantic Yards development in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
201 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
718-638-3349
cbrooklynneighborhoods@hotmail.comwww.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com