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August 4, 2009
BROOKLYNSPEAKS PRESS RELEASE: ELECTED OFFICIALS UNITE IN CALL FOR DISCLOSURE ON ATLANTIC YARDS CHANGES, NEW IMPACT STUDY
BROOKLYN, NY: New York City Council members Bill DeBlasio and David Yassky today joined other City and State elected officials representing districts surrounding the project in calling on the Empire State Development Corporation to fully disclose plans for the Atlantic Yards project, including an updated siteplan, and prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for public review.
In a letter to ESDC president and CEO Dennis Mullen, Council member DeBlasio stated that while affordable housing and jobs were needed now more than ever, “The benefits of the project should not come at the expense of transparency and public review.”
Council member Yassky said, “A vote on the modified plan by the ESDC board at this point would leave Atlantic Yards completely unaccountable to the public. When we are cutting back on the budget for schools and parks it is simply unacceptable to give massive subsidies for private development whose impacts have not been fully studied.”
The statements by the two Council members come after an earlier letter calling for a SEIS was sent by Assembly Members Hakeem Jeffries, Jim Brennan and Joan Millman; State Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Eric Adams; and City Council Member Letitia James. The letter was also signed by the sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks: The Atlantic Avenue LDC, the Boerum Hill Association, the Congress for New Urbanism (New York Chapter), the Fifth Avenue Committee, the Municipal Art Society, the Park Slope Civic Council, the Pratt Area Community Council, the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council and the Tri State Transportation Campaign.
“All of the local elected official representing the communities impacted by Atlantic Yards now agree that the ESDC should not approve the modified plan until its impacts have been disclosed in an SEIS,” said Ken Freeman, president of the Park Slope Civic Council.
The BrooklynSpeaks sponsors have expressed concern over changes to the project timeline that may result in prolonged use of the unbuilt areas of the site for surface parking, to the delay in providing stormwater management measures to reduce runoff, to the reduction of track capacity in the LIRR rail yard, and to the possibility that affordable housing commitments by the project may only slightly exceed the amount displaced thus far from demolition.
Posted by eric at August 4, 2009 8:52 PM