This is not a wetland: demonstration at Cuomo's office announced

The cutting down of the trees has begun. We are no longer asking for help. We are now demanding a stop to this insanity! In this age of climate change and sea level rise, torrential rain storms and storm surges, and with the city talking about resilience for shore line communities, why are they destroying the only resilience this black, brown (60% to 70%), elderly, disabled and low income community has? When Granitevillle loses its forested wetland, we will not only be at high risk of flooding and asthma, COPD and other illnesses from toxic air and water pollution but this loss will also create a heat

island effect, which means higher temperatures in this community than before the forest was cut down. I just now received an alert on my cell phone to reduce energy use or we will have energy disruptions.  This is the new normal. This is also madness!

CWF will demonstrate in front of Governor Cuomo's office in Manhattan. Join us! Here are the details:

Date: Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Time: Gather at 4:30 pm. Demonstration begins at 5pm

Location: 633 3rd Ave, Manhattan, between 40th St and 41st St

Bring signs and banners

Bring family, friends and your organizations and join us in demanding justice for these vulnerable communities. Stop the destruction of the Graniteville forested wetland.

Links to photos:  (What is as of now)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KR9Lcy1VPFBXir7h7 [photos.app.goo.gl]

and

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UFrNa5Mb4wKC6uAt6 [photos.app.goo.gl]

 

Cuomo kills wetlands for BJ's

 

 Curbed

 

https://t.co/nr6iCwf5ce

— Muriel McCormack (@MurielMccormack) June 29, 2021

https://t.co/G8AbhY7lQg

— Muriel McCormack (@MurielMccormack) June 29, 2021

⚠️STATEN ISLAND! REPOST ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA! TAG @bjswholesale AND TELL THEM WE WILL ❗️NOT❗️ BECOME MEMBERS AND SHOP AT THEIR STORE IF THEY BUILD ON THE GRANITEVILLE WETLANDS!⚠️ pic.twitter.com/R4OE1W8sxX

— Save Graniteville Wetlands (@marchforwetland) June 29, 2021

92 year old retired high school teacher defeats bad Bloomberg and Parks Dept. plan

 

NY Curbed

In the frigid February of 2009, Mickey Cohen was on the road to the 50-acre Ridgewood Reservoir on the border of Brooklyn and Queens before most New Yorkers had their morning coffee. He’d park his car near one of the reservoir’s three basins, gingerly rappel down a 30-foot drop into the chasm, and hike into the otherworldly wetlands.

During these trips, the certified wetland delineator unpacked his gear and drilled into the soft earth, lugging the two-foot cores out of the ground and examining them, in part, for traces of plant species that no longer grow there—a sign of wetlands that once existed. After hours of tests, he’d warm up in the sun and pull out a mystery meal packed by his wife, Barbara. There, in his sunny spot eating lunch, he might gaze out at the gray-blue pond—still as glass—and admire the landscape, home to dozens of species tucked among the reservoir’s golden meadows, thickets, and canopies of tree branches.

It was a practice he repeated for several days as a coalition of groups called the Highland Park Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance prepared an application urging the state grant protected status to the wetlands within the reservoir.

Cohen was 82 years old at the time. Today he is 92. “Even then, I was too old for that kind of work,” the naturalist and retired high school biology teacher muses. “But it had to happen.”

Cohen’s volunteer work of mapping the wetlands inside the Ridgewood Reservoir that month was a key component to the 2010 application—a major step in the lengthy struggle to obtain protected status for the natural oasis.

Now, after more than a decade of advocates fending off development and fighting for protections, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has classified 29.5 acres of the reservoir’s wetlands as Class 1 under the Freshwater Wetlands Act, state documents show. The ruling virtually assures the reservoir’s survival for generations. 

 Today, it is a haven for wildlife with lush swaths of native birch, sweetgum, and honey locust trees. The landscape boasts a handful of habitats—forests, fields, wetlands—and makes an ideal spot for wildlife watching, with more than 150 bird species, including the endangered short-eared owl. 
 

But a plan by the Parks Department threatened the accidental wilderness. The agency, which acquired the reservoir from the Department of Environmental Protection in 2004, considered a $50 million plan to raze part of the reservoir for ball fields. Community activists, naturalists, and preservationists railed against the project, urging the city to abandon its plans.

“There was this, ‘Wait a second, why aren’t you taking care of the things you already have here?’” says parks watchdog Geoffrey Croft, the president of New York City Park Advocates. “‘Who asked you to destroy this really unique space?’ And the answer is nobody did.”

 Admin note: this news item and headline was sent by proxy by the Mighty Crapper. 

LIC residents unhappy with City's plan

From the Times Ledger:

Hundreds of Long Island City residents and business owners rallied with community leaders and elected officials Saturday against the city’s plan to develop two plots of publicly owned waterfront property on 44th Drive and a neighboring Department of Education building on Vernon Boulevard.

The proposal, announced in 2016, would turn the city-owned lots into commercial space, luxury apartments and a school, but the community has other ideas that are not being heard by the de Blasio administration.

“With the critical lack of infrastructure in the area, from schools to transportation to senior centers, the fact that the city would try to sell precious public neighborhood land to private developers shows their shortsightedness and lack of understanding of the needs of the neighborho­od,” Hunters Point Civic Association President Brent O’Leary said. “I am proud of our neighborhood for standing up to the city and saying our neighborhood will not be sold off. If you want to develop community land, it is the community who should be deciding how that best helps the neighborhood not outside interests.”

The rally was organized by the group Coalition LIC whose online petition has over 1,000 signatures and would prefer the waterfront lots be turned into parkland with wetlands that would afford climate protection in a flood zone. The coalition wants the DOE building turned into a school with a community recreation center, artist and light manufacturing space, a cultural center, a climate change educational center and job training.

SI wetlands are too dangerous for development

From Crains:

The de Blasio administration is adding a new type of neighborhood to its zoning arsenal: ghost town.

The City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting next Wednesday on a proposal that would discourage new development in the three Staten Island neighborhoods hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy: Graham Beach, Oakwood Beach and Ocean Breeze. The areas proved to be so flood-prone that they were included in a state program that purchased damaged homes at prestorm prices, then tore them down so the area could be returned to nature. The city's zoning proposal aims to aid that process by preventing new houses from being built.

"In some limited locations … conditions are not appropriate for significant new development," a Department of City Planning spokesman said in a statement. "Given the high risk of flooding in these areas and their proximity to ecologically sensitive wetlands, [City Planning] is moving forward with a proposal that will limit future residential density while maintaining the ability of existing homeowners to invest in making their homes safe and resilient."

The new rules would allow only single-family homes to be constructed in the future and only if the builder is able to obtain a permit from the planning commission, which would likely frown on most applications.

College Point concerned about pipe placement

From the Queens Tribune:

Nearly 100 College Point residents gathered in MacNeil Park on Saturday to protest the Department of Environmental Protection’s plan to build a stormwater outfall pipe in what environmentalists have said is a sensitive area.

The area in question contains wetlands that a local environmental organization called the Coastal Preservation Network (CPN), which called for the protests, has been working on restoring for nearly a decade. Over the years, CPN has orchestrated volunteer clean-ups of the waterfront area, planted sea grasses and installed oyster reefs to help the area thrive.

The pipe is part of a $132 million infrastructure project, funded by DEP and being constructed by the Department of Design and Construction. The stated goal of the project is to reduce sewer drainage into Flushing Bay and the Upper East River. Currently, three combined sewer outfalls overflow into Flushing Bay during heavy storms, flooding the area with untreated sewage mixed with rainwater.

The new outfall will be in a different section of the park, and will contain only stormwater—no sewage.

“DEP is investing more than $130 million to permanently end the annual discharge of nearly 50 million gallons of pollution into the waters surrounding College Point,” said DEP in a statement. “Contrary to the claims, it is quite clear that this work will significantly improve water quality and the health of nearby wetlands and oysters.”

Kathryn Cervino of the Coastal Preservation Network, the organization that organized the “Day of Outrage,” said that the efforts are an improvement for the overall health of Flushing Bay and the Upper East River. However, Cervino argued, by moving the location of the outfall, it could now overflow into the wetlands. And while the new overflow is ostensibly just stormwater, Cervino explained that during heavy storms, stormwater often picks up contaminants from the streets, like asphalt debris, road salt, deicing chemicals and oil from vehicles.

“It still has a lot of drawbacks for the wetlands,” she said. “We just want there to be some safeguards so that all our work hasn’t been in vain.”

City cleaning up Jamaica Bay

From AP:

Just a few years ago, the tributary, known as Paerdegat Basin, was a fetid mess. The water was murky green, teeming with 1.8 billion gallons of sewage and rainwater that streamed in during storms. The working-class neighborhoods along the waterway stank like an outhouse during hot weather and low tide. The shoreline was strewn with rusted out cars, garbage and broken bottles.

The Paerdegat tributary feeds directly into Jamaica Bay, a body of water and marsh sandwiched between Brooklyn and Queens, and on the shores of which sits Kennedy International Airport. Part of the area is run by the city; the other is Gateway National Recreational Area, which contains a wildlife refuge with one of the most important bird sanctuaries in the Northeast.

And now a decade-long $455 million investment by the city to clean up Paerdegat Basin is nearly complete, including a new sewage overflow retention facility at the head of the 1.3-mile-long channel and 52 restored acres of native grasslands and wetlands.

In older cities like New York, sewer systems are built on one pipe that handles both rainwater and sewage. With considerable concrete and not enough exposed earth to absorb rainwater, the combined runoff often overflows and backs into city waterways.

DEC may be reneging on Ridgewood Reservoir wetland designation

From the Queens Courier:

The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) appears to be moving away from possible wetland status for the Ridgewood Reservoir, according to the Community Board 5 (CB 5) Parks Committee.

For nearly five years, the board and environmentalists have pressed the DEC to declare the 55-acre site on the Brooklyn/Queens border in Glendale as a wetland. The declaration would recognize the sensitive ecology that formed in the reservoir since it was taken out of the city’s water system decades ago and grant the state authority to regulate its future use.

But CB 5 recently learned that DEC officials weren’t so sure that much of the Ridgewood Reservoir meets the criteria for wetland status.

According to Steve Fiedler, CB 5 Parks Committee chair, the DEC indicated that Basin 3, the westernmost and largest of the three reservoir chambers, did not meet the minimum qualifications for a wetland. In past years, the city planned to clear this basin and transform it into athletic fields and other active park space, but those plans were scrapped due to community opposition and financial constraints.

Basin 2, the center chamber which includes a large natural lake, did not meet acreage requirements under DEC wetland criteria, but Fielder said the agency would likely declare it a wetland due to “extraordinary community concern.”

Fielder added that DEC officials indicated they did not evaluate Basin 1, the smallest and easternmost chamber, because inspectors were unable to enter due to heavy vegetation along the basin walls.

This is an about face from previous correspondence:

Ridgewood Reservoir Response Letter by Christina Wilkinson

So de Blasio wants sports fields at the reservoir now?

Photos of a seldom-visited corner of Queens

From Curbed:

Idlewild, Snake Road, Meyer Harbor, Meadowmere. Over the past century, Hook Creek has wandered through these obscure landmarks on the far eastern border of New York City, passing ghost towns, dumps, and ruins, while replenishing hundreds of acres of wetlands. In recent decades, however, government agencies have been chipping away at this Queens estuary, while neglecting the communities around it. "It's kind of a push and pull between manmade things and nature," said Barbara Brown, chairperson of the Eastern Queens Alliance, but residents here, many of whom live in close harmony with the water, are hopeful for its future. "People are seeing this is an area that we need to preserve."

Very interesting photo series!

Flushing Airport wetlands to be restored

From the Times Ledger:

The city is set to restore 12 acres of wetlands surrounding Flushing Airport as part of a plan to extend 132nd Street in College Point.

The city Economic Development Corporation released a public bid last week to find a general contractor to work on the project, which will restore the open wetlands that are home to many plant and animal species.

The restoration work is required by the state Department of Conservation and will also form a stable foundation for the roadway, the EDC said.

The restored wetlands will also provide a habitat for wildlife life to thrive and will filter toxins from water which drains into Mill Creek and Flushing Bay.

The Flushing Airport was once one of the city’s busiest airplane hubs before it was closed in 1984, but has since sat idle and vacant.

Part of the site, which is not protected as wetlands, came close to being redeveloped in 2004, but plans pushed by the Bloomberg administration to build a 585,000−square−foot wholesale distribution center were scuttled amid significant community opposition.

A few years later, a number of community leaders tried to convince the EDC to build a soft recreation site there. It would have included baseball fields, a driving range, an education center and nature trails, all designed with green infrastructure in mind, but the city did not approve the plan.

A spokesman said EDC continues to explore possibilities for the site.

James Cervino, a marine scientist who pushed for the soft recreation site and the chairman of Community Board 7’s Environmental Committee, said that if the land is redeveloped for industrial use, it will require a buffer zone around it to ensure the wetlands are not contaminated.

College Point brush fire

From CBS New York:

A brush fire broke out and destroyed about an acre of tall grass Tuesday afternoon in College Point, Queens.

The fire broke out 4:45 p.m. at 23rd Avenue and Ulmer Street in Queens, in the shadows of LaGuardia Airport, CBS 2’s Joe Biermann reported.

The FDNY pushed into the heart of the brush fire, and appeared to have extinguished much of it by shortly after 5 p.m. No buildings were involved in the fire, and there were no reports of injuries.

The scene of the fire is in an industrial area across Flushing Bay from LaGuardia Airport, and close to College Point Fields.

Udalls Cove needs more protection

From Bayside Patch:

A Douglaston civic organization is calling on the city to purchase five parcels of Udalls Cove to protect it from possibly being developed.

The Udalls Cove Preservation Committee sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier this week, calling on him to allocate funding for the acquisition of five parcels of the cove.

Walter Mugdan, the group’s president said he recently discovered that the parcels’ owner intended to sell the land.

Mugdan said the last time such a threat arose in 2002. Two years later, the mayor agreed to allocate funding to acquire a section of Udalls Cove for preservation purposes and to prevent 18 homes from being constructed at the site.

Bloomberg actually bought land to prevent development somewhere? Why is Douglaston so different from the rest of the city?

They paved over a wetland to create a parking lot

"This newly created parking lot was once all parkland at Four Sparrow Marsh. It wouldn’t surprise me if they continued selling this off until none of it was left…and apparently there isn’t sh*t we can do about it!" - Rob

Consequence of irresponsible zoning and development

I'm sure some of you are going to blame the owners of the house, and they do share responsibility for this, as "buyer beware" probably applies to real estate more than any other thing one can possibly purchase. BUT this type of thing is happening now in neighborhoods that never experienced flooding before. Bottom line: You can't pave everything over, shoehorn in thousands more people and not improve infrastructure first.

A sad example for Earth Day

From SI Live:

Despite being approved by the state and city, a handful of local organizations have come together to try and prevent a Mansion Avenue property from having three residential structures built on it.

Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, the Great Kills Yacht Club, and the Natural Resources Protective Association (NRPA) are working together, hoping to convince the state to withdraw a wetland permit that allows for construction of three new homes near Great Kills Harbor.

"No houses in Great Kills Harbor!" is the slogan of the new coalition formed to fight against construction on the tidal wetlands.

Citing dangers to natural wetlands and the possibility of the constructed homes being flooded from massive storms, Ellen Pratt, conservation committee chairperson for Protectors, said the DEC approval makes no sense.

"The developer is fighting to build in wetlands at the same time (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funds are being used to buy tidal wetlands," Ms. Pratt said.

The coalition plans to press the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to withdraw a wetland permit which allowed for construction of three new homes at the water's edge, a permit granted prior to Hurricane Sandy.

The permit request was approved last June.

In the summer of 2011, every Staten Island politician, at the request of the Great Kills Yacht Club, united against the proposal that involved building on Mansion. They wrote to the state agency to voice their concerns, but were not able to prevent the DEC from green-lighting the project.

Concern over floodplain development

From SI Live: While neighbors plead with the government to buy and raze their flooded homes, one developer has plans to build 20 new semi-attached houses in the middle of wetlands that were swamped by Hurricane Sandy -- something Councilman James Oddo is asking the city and state to reconsider allowing. "What we're asking for is to have the city and state say, 'Time out, let's look at the specifics of this project,' and ask ourselves: Does it make sense to build more homes in this area, even if the homes are built almost in accordance to the new standards?" Oddo asked beside the property Monday. The plans call for eight homes along Seaview Avenue, near Patterson Avenue in Ocean Breeze -- a stone's throw away from Quincy and Buel avenues where people drowned in their homes. Another 12 units would be built behind them by extending Liberty Avenue into what is now a marshy area filled with phragmites. The architect for the project, Stanley Krebushevski, has not yet returned a call requesting comment. The property owner is listed on permit applications as Shalom Property, based in Scarsdale, but the phone number listed for the company goes to an accounting firm. A message left at the firm was not returned. The homes would be built to current base flood elevations -- not the advisory ones -- but the first floor wouldn't be living space, which would minimize the impact on flood insurance. The homes would have basements, Oddo said. "I don't want to say that they are building drastically outside of what the [advisory base flood elevations] are, or what we expect for the final flood elevations to be, but when you look at the overheads and you look at how they're building in the wetlands, it is problematic to me," Oddo said. Even if the proposed homes survive the next storm unscathed thanks to their elevation and new construction, the removal of the 481 square feet of natural wetlands on which they sat -- which will be mitigated by adding about 9,000 square feet of new wetlands and preserving another 34,000 square feet -- could impact other, older homes, Oddo said. "We've seen that across the Island, when there's more development and less natural area to drain, it exacerbates the problem," Oddo said. Oddo said even though new wetlands would be added, removing the wetlands that have always existed -- and to which water naturally flows -- could be a problem.

Bloomberg wants to buy and resell damaged waterfront properties

From WNYC:

Weeks after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed buying out homeowners in flood-prone areas, the Bloomberg administration is indicating that it will offer a similar program. But the mayor’s program could differ in one significant way: the properties the city acquires could be turned over to someone else to be developed again.

Under Cuomo’s plan, the state would use $400 million in federal Sandy aid to acquire, at pre-Sandy prices, properties from owners who would prefer to move than rebuild in the flood plain. The land would be turned into open space for use as parks, wetlands, drainage or other purposes. The governor said he would start the buyouts in the Oakwood Beach area of Staten Island's East Shore.

In testimony at a City Council committee hearing Feb. 26, Brad Gair, the director of the city’s housing recovery office, said the Bloomberg administration is working on its own buyout program using federal Community Development Block Grant funding, $1.8 billion of which has been earmarked for the city so far. He said details, like how much money would be devoted to it, had yet to be worked out. But he added the city’s plan may not stipulate that the acquired properties be turned into open space.

“If there is one element that we have not yet come to full alignment on,” Gair said, “it’s whether properties acquired should be made permanently open space or whether some of those would be suitable for redevelopment—preferably for the home owners in the area.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been funding similar types of buyouts in flood prone areas for 20 years. But whenever FEMA buys out a property, it requires the land be set aside permanently for open space.

James Fraser, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, says the requirement protects taxpayers from having to pay twice for the same property: to buy it out, and then again later, if it gets flooded.

No good deed goes unpunished

From the NY Times:

Once home to colonial estates and a Cuban sugar importer, then a public beach, a railroad float yard, a city landfill during the Bronx’s burning years, an illegal dumping ground tied to the mob, a proposed power plant and a jail, Oak Point, which Mr. Smith developed, now features a $60 million warehouse supplying food to bodegas and restaurants.

For three months the waterfront on the 28-acre site was also home to a wetland with verdant slopes and grassy marshes. Paradise in the Bronx.

And then it was all lost: two years of planning, nine months of work, $1.5 million and three acres of wetlands washed away in a matter of hours by Hurricane Sandy’s 13-foot storm surge. What remain are a few patches of marsh grass, a Charlie Brown-like evergreen and one lonely, weedy mound just below a concrete wall.

Based on what survived, Mr. Smith advocates rebuilding by integrating, or layering, hard and soft materials.

He has a wider vision, though, beyond the waterfront, for his remaining 13 acres. He plans a three-level “food campus” for a wholesale farmers’ market for New York State growers, a rooftop greenhouse, a kitchen incubator and public space overlooking the water. In December, Oak Point’s second phase (projected at $80 million) received a $400,000 economic development grant from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Developer may create wetland in College Point

From the Times Ledger:

Developers looking to build a six-story condo complex on the shores of College Point are mulling over an agreement with environmentalists that would create wetlands in front of the property, an amenity that could prove useful if the city is slammed by another serious storm.

Waterfront Resorts Inc. is currently seeking the city’s permission to build a 134-unit condo complex that incorporates into the design the aging brick building once known as the Chilton Paint factory, where 15th Avenue meets the water. The owners have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to build the residential complex in a manufacturing district, but they are also considering honoring a contract that would create wetlands and an artificial oyster bed off shore.

“If it’s within our budget, we can do it,” said Benjamin Lam, project manager at Waterfront Resorts. “If it’s a considerable amount, I need to make sure that my books can handle it.”

The books for the project have been of constant concern for Lam and his company, since they have been trying to finance the project since 2008.

In fact, they purchased the property from another developer that year, just as the financial crisis made it exceedingly difficult to get investors to commit to capital spending for the development.

Many aspects of the project carried over, including the rough plans for how the building would look. But it was uncertain whether Lam and the company would honor the contract to build wetlands signed by the previous developer, Silvio Spallone.

Funding for the project is still far from complete and the permission sought from the city is merely an extension of an initial 2005 request. But should the project come to fruition, a College Point environmentalist contends that the wetlands would not only be a bonus for the environment, but could also make a modest contribution to protecting the city from weather events like Superstorm Sandy.

Not the brightest idea

"The attached photo was taken yesterday. This is in Staten Island in an "A" evacauation zone, and a 9.5 acre tidal wetland. Approximately 90 two-family homes are proposed for this site! BTW, radium from the Manhattan Project is stored across the street... and local schools are operating at 150% of capacity... but hey, it's waterfront! Money will be made, for sure." - anonymous