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PLEASE HELP WITH ATLANTIC YARDS! | « Holiday Party, Sunday Dec. 4! Take the BHA Post Office Survey » |
Dear Neighbor,
Boerum Hill urgently needs your help. Our elected officials who have the power to change Forest City Ratner proposal for the Atlantic Yards are paying close attention to the growing opposition from the community. As a result some have changed their position and are voicing concern. There is a growing recognition even from officials who favor the project that many changes are needed.
You can help keep the attention of public officials so that our valid criticisms result in much needed modifications to the proposed development.
According to NY State law the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC - the agency in charge of the development) must conduct a study before approving the project. The resulting report is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS.) The EIS must specify adverse impacts of the project, identify mitigations and evaluate alternatives. In conducting the study the ESDC must consider input from the community.
To be effective our community must have the advice of professional experts in analyzing the EIS which is a lengthy and complex document. The development is expected to cost $3.5 billion and get $1.6 billion in public subsidies. Yet no money has been set aside for community input which has long been recognized as a key component of successful urban development, so much so that it is embodied in federal and state law. We are asking elected officials to ensure that the community receives funding to hire experts. Without funding we are simply at an unfair disadvantage.
You can help by writing or calling the officials listed on the attached sheet. These officials have the responsibility and power to ensure that the many design flaws in the current proposal are eliminated.
Please act now. It is not too late to protect our wonderful neighborhoods. A sample letter is attached to use or modify according to your priorities. But please send a letter to at least three officials. We ask that you send us a copy so that we can track our community response. Only we can make this a better project for Brooklyn.
Sincerely,
Sue Wolfe, President
and The Board of Directors
Boerum Hill Association
(date)
Dear ___________
Most people in our community feel strongly that the proposal for developing the Atlantic Yards is critically flawed and must be revised if our neighborhoods are to survive. We need your help to make this happen.
Community input is guaranteed by law in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) currently underway by the Empire State Development Corporation. But we cannot meaningfully engage in this process without the advice of experts. We are asking you to secure funds for the community to hire these experts.
This funding should go to the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN), the coalition of more than 20 community organizations coordinating the community response to the EIS. The draft EIS, expected to be issued soon, will likely have more than 1,000 pages. It must be analyzed by experts, including engineers and urban planners. (The cost of this advice is estimated at $300,000.) The failure to provide these resources to the community will put us all at risk that problems with the development will not be resolved and will degrade our neighborhoods and burden the taxpayer.
The major problems with the current proposal are its overwhelming size and height, the impact of increasing gridlock at one of Brooklyn's worst intersections that will flood residential streets with spillover traffic, the super-block design creating a barrier between neighborhoods, the unnecessary use of eminent domain for private benefit, the excessive public subsidies, the threat to public health and safety, the degradation of the quality of life in our communities.
We are counting on you as a public official to ensure that no proposal will be approved unless these design flaws are resolved.
We are in favor of developing the Atlantic Yards and in favor of affordable housing but we need development that truly represents progress and that will not degrade the neighborhoods which are the very foundation of our current vitality. The community is dedicated to finding solutions but we need funding to succeed. Please ensure that CBN receives this critical funding.
Yours Sincerely,
Name |
________________________ |
Address |
________________________ |
cc : | ||
Hon. Sheldon Silver |
Hon. Joan Millman |
Hon. Roger Green |
Hon. Joseph Bruno |
Hon. Marty Markowitz |
Hon. Edolphus Towns |
Hon. David Yassky |
Hon. Martin Connor |
Boerum Hill Association |