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From the
NY Times:
Brooklyn Bridge Park, which stretches 1.3 miles along the East River waterfront, was a creation of the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg, with a novel — and contentious — financing mechanism in the form of luxury housing in the park.
But now that City Hall is under new leadership, a group of elected officials is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to scale back some of that housing, intended to help pay for the costly upkeep of the park, which is buffeted by tides. In particular, they want the mayor to halt plans for two residential towers at Pier 6, one of several recreational piers in the park.
In a letter to Mr. de Blasio, dated April 7, a group of city, state and federal lawmakers expressed their dismay at the “breakneck speed” with which the administration was pursuing the housing at Pier 6 and urged the new administration to “work collaboratively on alternative park financing, rather than moving forward with the Bloomberg plan.”
The letter was signed by State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, United States Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, and City Councilmen Stephen T. Levin and Brad Lander.
Maintenance of the waterfront park, whose piers are adversely affected by marine organisms, as well as winds and tides, is unusually expensive, estimated to cost about $16 million a year. But the housing, some of which is already built, was controversial from the start, with a number of community leaders and lawmakers arguing that it set a dangerous precedent for public parkland.
From the
NY Post:
Two state legislators are relinquishing their power to keep more controversial high-rise housing from being built at the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, under a deal with the city to be signed today, The Post has learned.
When the city last year took control of the project from the state, it agreed to give veto power over housing to the two local legislators, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman, both Democrats.
Both pols have now agreed not to use it to keep hundreds of apartments planned within the park from being built, sources said.
In exchange, 40,000-square-feet will be shaved off one high rise set for John Street in DUMBO, and two other planned buildings within the park at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights could be shrunk or eliminated through a formula involving properties owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
The deal helps ensure the stalled 85-acre waterfront project gets fully built, but news of it still left some community activist shocked and furious last night.
Both Squadron and Millman were carried into new terms, in part, after campaigning heavily against the city’s plans to add more housing.From the
NY Post:
The city has begun soliciting proposals from developers interested in building a 180-unit condo tower and a 225-room hotel at Pier 1 on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront.
The development would take place on the former site of the Cold Storage Warehouse buildings, which the city plans to lease to a developer who’d build and operate the new structures.
The move comes two days after the city reached a deal for additional housing to be built within the park at two other sites, helping ensure enough revenues are generated so the entire 85-acre waterfront park project can be completed.
The new Pier 1 projects will include interior parking spaces and ground-floor public restrooms.
