BCEQ Leaders Meet with Speaker’s Land Use Staff on Saving Pier 5
May 6th, 2017 Posted in Environmental Reviews, Front Page News, Harlem River BOA, Harlem River Long Term Control Plan, Harlem River Working Group, Harlem River Yards Park Greenway, Low Impact Development, Lower Concourse North, Pier 5, Pier 5 Pop Up Wetland - first of its kind, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Yankee Stadium Redevelopment
May 3, 2017 BCEQ Leaders Meet with Speaker’s Staff to Save Parkland in the BCEQ Designated Brownfield Opportunity Area
Leadership of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, joined by leaders from NYC Parks Advocates and NYC Soil and Water Conservation District, met with the City Council Speaker’s Land Use Staff in the City Hall Area. The hour and half meeting involved discussion below on the project we call Pier 5, but the City renamed the Lower Concourse North.
- affordable housing to compliment (not replace) Parkland, and the important need for parkland for a healthy citizenry
- broken promises made to the Community Board 4 area in terms of parks and transportation reconstruction since 2004
- legal importance defining parkland and the need to protect or alienate it, including the BCEQ Pop Up Wetland
- fatal flaws of the application including an environmental impact statement that does not have alternatives – either sites, size, or plans
- spot zoning has no developer, plan, users identified for the project — an unsual approach to neighborhood mixed use construction
- need to spend the $100 million infrastructure in Community Board 1 and add more funds to the CB4 Infrastructure for new affordable housing
We asked the staff to ask the Speaker to speak to the Mayor to pull the ULURP and support the mapping of the land for parkland.
The proposal states that the southern section of Mill Pond Park parkland is not improved and the city did not have enough money to continue its construction, and for the past ten years has not found money to improve it. This makes us feel like we are second class citizens since the City has found $100 million for the Manhattan Waterfront, and $160 million for the Brooklyn Waterfront, but nothing for the Bronx.
We thanked Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito for her continuing support for our communities, and as Council Member for this district, we ask that she vote against this harmful and irresponsible project.
Call the Speaker’s Office and nicely let her know how much you appreciate her standing up for us in the past and how you need her to continue to do it on this project.
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
Bronx Office:
214 St. Ann’s Ave
Bronx, NY 10454
347-297-4922 phone
347-270-1213 fax
Legislative Office:
250 Broadway Suite 1856
New York, NY 10007
212-788-7210 phone
212-442-1564 fax
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Author: Karen
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