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July 9, 2005
Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Community Development on the Vanderbilt Rail Yards
Letter to the MTA from Develop Don't Destroy:
Dear Mr. Kalikow:
We are writing on behalf of the communities surrounding the Vanderbilt Rail Yards. We are encouraged that you released an RFP to allow for open bidding on this very valuable development site - we agree that New Yorkers deserve the best value from this asset. We are also pleased that one of your four stated goals is to consider "the interests of the surrounding community." However, we are concerned that without a series of public hearings to ascertain these interests, the MTA has no way of determining them. The community has therefore taken upon itself the responsibility to develop Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Community Development on the Vanderbilt Rail Yards (see attached).
In December 2003, residents of Brooklyn heard for the first time that Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) was making development plans for the stated rail yards. In cooperation with City Council Member Letitia James and the Atlantic Yards Development Workshop, a team of architects and urban designers, came together in March 2004 with hundreds of citizens, elected officials (State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Congressman Major Owens), designers and developers to imagine a community-based model for urban design and development at the site and to look at issues such as affordable housing, ecology, public open space, traffic, retail, jobs, environmental impact and infra-structure.
The UNITY Plan, a community-based vision for development on the rail yards, evolved out of this workshop. Since December 6, 2004 the UNITY plan has been presented at 10 community forums/workshops to gather input from the community. The designers of the UNITY plan also incorporated the input gathered at the one and only true public hearing held pertaining to the development of the yards, where all members of the public were invited to speak on May 4, 2004.
In early 2005, over a dozen organizations from the communities surrounding the Vanderbilt Rail Yards took up the task of putting together Guiding Principles for development over the Rail Yards based on the principals embodied in the UNITY plan. The community's initial goal was to finalize these Principles and Guidelines so that they could be submitted the MTA to be included with the RFP - so that developer-respondents would know how to meet Goal b of the RFP: Consideration of the interests of the surrounding community. However, the guidelines were not finalized until 2 weeks after your RFP was released - and a few more weeks were required for each community group to vote on whether to endorse them. At this point a sufficient number of community groups have endorsed these guidelines for them to be considered as truly representative of the community's interests.
To-date, these Principles and Guidelines have been endorsed by 19 community-based organizations (as well as 3 out of the 4 local elected officials representing the district where the yards are located). Many other groups are still in the process of considering them. We expect that the number of endorsements will continue to grow over the next few weeks and the updated list of endorsing groups will be maintained on a website (a pdf file of the Principles and Guidelines can be found here too): http://www.dddb.net/principles
In summary, these guidelines were born out of a very large community-based development workshop; incorporated input, from the community, given during the only public hearing related to the development of the yards; vetted through ten additional community forums/workshops; and eventually drawn up by over ten community organizations through several meetings.
To date, 48 organizations (see attached list) have publicly expressed deep concern or outright opposition to the Forest City Ratner Proposal for the yards, because it violates so many of the principles and guidelines that the community considers to be responsible development.
As you are aware, neither MTA nor any other governmental agency has undertaken the required environmental review under SEQRA or CEQR, which is a prerequisite for determining governmental action, including the disposition of the Vanderbilt Rail Yards. That environmental review includes the impacts on community character and the overall impacts on the surrounding area. We call on MTA to use these community-generated Principles and Guidelines during its bid negotiations and in its SEQRA review to ensure that the interests of the surrounding community are considered.
Signed,
Daniel Goldstein Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn On behalf of endorsers of the Guidelines:
Three of the four elected officials representing the district where Vanderbilt Yards are located have endorsed these Principles:
· U.S. Congressman Major Owens (11th Congressional District)
· State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (18th Senate District)
· City Councilmember Letitia James (35th Council District)
The following Community Organizations have endorsed these Principles:
· Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association
· Boerum Hill Association
· Boerum Hill For Organic Development
· Brooklyn Bears Community Garden
· Brooklyn Vision
· Cambridge Place Action Coalition
· Develop Don't Destroy - Brooklyn
· East Pacific Block Association
· Fans For Fair Play
· Fifth Avenue Committee
· Fort Greene Association
· New York Preservation Alliance
· Park Slope Greens
· Park Slope Neighbors
· Pratt Area Community Council
· Prospect Heights Action Coalition
· Sierra Club - Atlantic Chapter
· South Portland Block Association
· Warren Street St. Marks Community Garden
NOTE: for an up to date list of endorsers, please visit:
www.dddb.net/guidelines
cc: Katherine Lapp, Executive Director, MTA Roco Krsulic, Director of Real Estate, MTA Jim Stuckey, Executive VP, Forest City Ratner
Posted by amy at July 9, 2005 12:37 PM