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April 28, 2007
Officials, Community Groups Demand Atlantic Yards Oversight after Façade Collapse Halts Demolition
Commercial Property News
By Paul Rosta, Senior Associate Editor
“We are temporarily suspending all abatement and demolition activities until the city’s department of buildings concludes its preliminary investigation or the city directs us otherwise,” said Forest City Ratner executive vice president Bruce Bender in a prepared statement released this morning.But the response is unlikely to satisfy a group of elected officials and local community groups who are criticizing what they view as insufficient public oversight of the massive project. This afternoon BrooklynSpeaks.net planned to demand that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer stop demolition until the establishment of a public entity that would oversee construction as well as the design and planning for the project. In addition, the coalition wants to see a council composed of community boards, civic organizations and other local stakeholders that would give the authority input on community concerns.
Gib Veconi, chairman of one of the local councils that make up BrooklynSpeaks.net, called the creation of such an authority “a critical missing piece” of the Atlantic Yards development. He argued that the state has established a comparable oversight structure for every other project sponsored by the Empire State Development Corp., New York’s lead economic development agency. Veconi linked the absence of oversight for several previous construction-related problems on the project, such as the loss of water service in one area.
Posted by amy at April 28, 2007 11:56 AM