The proposed site for “Gowanus Village,” which was accepted into the State’s Brownfield Cleanup Program in 2004.
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg put together PlaNYC in 2007, he made brownfields one of the three overarching themes of his land use initiatives. But what is a brownfield, and what can brownfields do to help make New York a “greener” city?
A brownfield is an abandoned or underused industrial site available to be used or developed. Often, contamination from a previous use has left these buildings and properties polluted. “Brownfield” is a bit of a misnomer: these sites range from old auto body shops and pharmaceutical plants to factories and generating stations. In Brooklyn, dozens of these site dot the neighborhoods, particularly areas along the waterfront once home to heavy industry.
The following slide show is a portrait of the “life” of one brownfield, which in 2004 was included in the New York State’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. The property, now called “Gowanus Village,” is a 2.4 acre site along Brooklyn’s notorious Gowanus Canal. The towering brick building on the property was once a power plant owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Over the past two decades, it became a favorite spot for graffiti writers and squatters, who called it “the Bat Cave.” This is the story of industry, development and growth through one building, on one brownfield, in New York City.
Economists say the recession is over, but with the unemployment near 10 percent, it sure doesn’t feel like it. So some New Yorkers may have to stay local this summer. But for some poorer residents every year, they take a staycation. They take advantage of New York city’s open spaces. And Soundview Park, located in the southeast Bronx, just got rehabilited as part of PlaNYC, check out the photo slideshow here.
The state budget (now a week late) isn’t the only fiscal mire around here. The city budget is also a bog of cuts, trims and lay-offs. What does that mean for PlaNYC? Probably more of same, according to the January 2010 Financial Plan.
Last week, the Mayor’s right-hand man and the architect of PlaNYC 2030 announced he’d be stepping down for a job in California. Rohit Aggarwala, who also heads the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, isn’t the only cut (nor are the Section 8 affordable housing vouchers that are said to be canned, more on that later). Here are a few mentions of budget shuffling and hiring freezes (otherwise known as PEGs, Program to Eliminate the Gap):
and…
So what’s out? Along with a “revised” timetable for PlaNYC Regional Parks and Greenstreets, there will be a delay in hiring 88 full-time and 11 seasonal staff. 16 other PlaNYC positions will be switched to the ARRA, otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (federal funding). And finally, the Brownfields Fund will be cut by 4 percent in 2010 and then 8 percent after that.
The Regional Parks and Greenstreets includes plans to establish eight regional parks in NYC: Calvert Vaux Park (Brooklyn), McCarren Park (Brooklyn), Fort Washington Park (Manhattan), The High Bridge (Bronx and Manhattan), Soundview Park (Bronx), Highland Park (Queens), Rockaway Park (Queens), and Ocean Breeze Park (Staten Island).
Affordable housing also took a blow this week, with reports that up to 10,000 vouchers for Section 8 affordable housing for low-income families could be revoked. The announcement, from the NYC Housing Authority, is another step back for the mayor’s overall vision of creating more affordable housing to accomodate around 700,000 more residents by 2030.
In these tough times, what’s the solution to pushing PlaNYC ahead while dealing with smaller budgets? Readers, what do you think?
The Environmental Protection Agency on March 2 designated Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal a Superfund site, including it in the federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s most polluted areas. But what does it mean? Explain the Plan decided to take a look at Gowanus Superfund designation from the ground up to see how it fits into the city’s wide-sweeping plans for environmental change.
Where does the Gowanus fit in PlaNYC?
One of the Mayor’s biggest PlaNYC initiatives is to reclaim underused waterfronts like the land along the Gowanus canal and the industrial property along the river in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Many major rezoning plans have already gone forward. The city unveiled a rezoning plan for Gowanus in 2007 that included development of retail space and affordable housing.
Residents of the area were concerned because the plan did not directly address the environmental issues of the canal, which is where the clean up process comes in. The city and organizations like Clean Gowanus Now, which includes the developer Toll Brothers, opposed the Superfund designation. They worried it would bring an anti-development stigma, and instead advocated for a local cleanup plan (including using “E” designations) that both said would prove quicker and more effective.
Toll Brothers is now pulling out of its project to build 470 condos in the area, according to the Wall Street Journal, confirming the fears of some that the designation will hinder growth. But others believe though the development projects might change, a cleaner canal will help Gowanus grow.
Our multi-media coverage looks at the Superfund history in New York, the nitty-gritty (and we mean gritty) of the cleanup, videos from people on the street and the artists’ vision of the area defined by its notorious waterway. We’ve done a series of linked posts looking at several facets of the issue. Take a look, and leave a comment:
Currently, the EPA is in the “remedial investigation” stage of its clean up progress. This involves extensive research to determine who the responsible parties are, the extent of contamination at the site and the potential risks involved with a clean up. Walter Mugdan, the Region 2 Director of Emergency and Remedial Response Division for the Environmental Protection Agency, explained that in the Gowanus, this includes taking core samples of the mud from the bottom of the canal. Mugdan says the mud is “pretty unpleasant stuff.”
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To retrieve the core samples, contractors take special tubes made from industrial plastic (the type of plastic used in space helmets and bullet resistant windows) that they use to pull out cylinders of mud from the contaminated ground. Then they can open the cores to examine the mud at different depths. Listen to Mugdan describe a core sample from the Gowanus:
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The remedial investigation should be complete by the end of the year. In the next step, the “feasibility study,” the EPA takes all of the information gathered during the remedial investigation and develops several possible clean up plans. Then the EPA will select the plan that they believe is the best option (known as the “proposed plan”) and present it to the public. The public has 60 to 90 days to comment. After the comment period, the EPA will thoroughly review all the feedback they received and develop a “responsiveness summary,” detailing how the public opinion is being incorporated into the plan. Then a final decision is made and documented in a “record of decision.”
Mugdan expects the record of decision to be unveiled by the middle of 2012. After that happens, the EPA can begin the design process, which Mugdan says is going to be difficult:
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Once a sufficient plan is developed, physical clean up will begin around the end of 2014. Without yet having a set plan, the EPA can not say for sure how long the actual clean up will take, but Mugdan estimates that it will take about five years.
The Superfund program has been highly successful, according to Walter Mugdan, Director of the Emergency and Remedial Response Division of the Environmental Protection Agency. There are over 1600 sites on the National Priorities List, and 2/3 of those sites have been completely cleaned. The remaining are sites like the Gowanus—large, complicated and expensive. Much of the work on those sites have already been completed.
Region 2 of the EPA, which includes New York and New Jersey, has more Superfund sites than any other in the nation. Yet New York’s only other Superfund site on the National Priorities List (NPL) was a radioactive building in Queens that was designated in 1989. The site took six years to clean up and has since been removed from the NPL.
However, no government program goes off without a hitch. When the Superfund law was enacted in 1980, the government placed a former industrial dumpsite of Ford Motor Co.’s on the list. In the early ‘90s, the EPA failed to make Ford clean up large patches of toxic waste, and instead, accepted Ford’s assertions that an adequate clean up would take place. The EPA removed the site from the Superfund list. Only after complaints of mysterious illnesses, federal pressure, newspaper investigations, and environmental activism did the EPA reexamine the site. Last year the Ford site was put back on the Superfund list. A $130 million clean up is currently underway.
