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June 29, 2011
Contentious meeting on traffic/parking issues around east end of AY site; ESDC says Forest City's "in violation" without daily on-site community liaison
Atlantic Yards Report
Note: I did not attend the meeting but listened to an audiotape and spoke with a couple of attendees.
Five nights after a contentious meeting (about rats) in the Soapbox Gallery on Dean Street, Prospect Heights residents gathered in the same space last night to express concerns about parking, traffic, and pedestrian issues in the eastern end of the site, notably the planned 1100-space parking lot in the block bounded by Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues and Dean and Pacific streets.
The two-hour meeting was periodically contentious, with residents expressing frustration at vague, incomplete answers, and promises of future solutions.
Beyond that, a representative of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) indicated that developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) was in violation of the Memorandum of Environmental Commitments by not having a daily on-site representative to interface with the community. (I'm waiting for the ESDC to say more.)
The meeting was sponsored by the Carlton Avenue and Dean Street Block Associations, with two ESDC and two FCR representatives present, along with an FCR contractor and a Department of Transportation rep. About 60 people attended.
Dan Schack of Sam Schwartz Engineering led off with the PowerPoint description of changes already announced, changes focused on the north and west edges of the project site. Attendees were far more interested in other issues.
Parking issues
Meeting host Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association repeated the results of a survey of illegal parking around the site done with the help of Transportation Alternatives. Of 87 cars, all but four were parked illegally. Among the rest, twelve had some sort of construction gear. Others, including fire and police offers, had either phony placards or had parked improperly even with the placard.
Arana Hankin, Director, Atlantic Yards Project for the ESDC, said she's spoken to the local precinct at least five times and Forest City at least ten times. The issue of construction workers, she said, "we've tried to solve."
Posted by eric at June 29, 2011 2:30 PM