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September 20, 2012
Round-up: Crain's says environmental review may begin soon; Yormark says arena will be 100% complete (nah); Times touts arena food as hyper-local; Veconi on affordable housing
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder wastes no time stepping into the void about to be left by NoLandGrab.
Crain's New York Business reports, in Many crises later, Barclays Center to open:
Perhaps the most interesting news [sic] to expected to emerge from the event will be the date for breaking ground on the first of the 16 residential towers Forest City plans for the site. Sources said that although the date would be announced Friday, the company has not yet decided whether to use modular or convention construction to build it. Forest City had promised to break ground by the end of the year. It wants to use modular construction to save money, but first needs to reach a deal with the unions to go down that path.
The article recognizes that Forest City and the state lost a lawsuit, and the latter is required to do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the impacts of a 25-year project buildout:
Opponents are wondering why that study hasn't started, and they're hoping that government officials will put more pressure on Forest City to move at a faster pace to provide the jobs and affordable housing that were promised as a part of the project...
"There has never been enough supervision of this project," said Gib Veconi, treasurer of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, a preservation group that opposed the project. "We need more transparency."
A spokesman for the Empire State Development Corp. said environmental consultant AKRF will conduct the environment review. He noted that the agency has been working on a draft scope of the review with hopes of beginning the public scoping later this fall.
So get ready for another round of public meetings.
NoLandGrab: Another round of public meetings? Homey don't play that. If there's one thing we learned from the Atlantic Yards approval "process," it's not to play the game when someone else makes the rules. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more politely stopping when our allotted three minutes are up. Mic check? MIC CHECK!
Posted by eric at September 20, 2012 9:49 PM