NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: GOWANUS; Fume-Free (for Now) And Looking to the Future
NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: GOWANUS; Fume-Free (for Now) And Looking to the Future
By JAKE MOONEY
Published: April 8, 2007
TEN years ago, the idea of worrying about the future of the land around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn would have seemed a little strange, especially in hot weather. An underground tunnel designed to circulate the canal's water had been out of service for decades, and as a result, sewage from nearby houses and storm drains overflowed regularly into the canal, emitting a formidable stench.
The sewage overflows continue, but with the tunnel reopened since 1999, the water circulates better -- at least for the moment. The gradual return of fish and birds to the canal has enticed widely known developers like Shaya Boymelgreen and the Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, drawn to the neighborhood's proximity to Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. These developers have proposed projects that could involve rezoning parts of Gowanus and adding hundreds if not thousands of residents to the area.
In response, staff members of the Department of City Planning are meeting this month and next with the local community board to evaluate the neighborhood's needs and chart its future. Their goal is a framework for land use decisions that could allow manufacturing and residential development to coexist and maybe even open up some recreational space.
''There are so many possibilities that people have let their imaginations run wild, and that's a good thing,'' said Craig Hammerman, district manager of the local Community Board 6. ''We just have to make sure that we can tether the possibilities to probabilities that are out there.''
Marlene Donnelly, a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, a neighborhood group, says her organization's priority is addressing the persistent drainage problems.
''At the end of our block, we had one of the sewer caps geyser about 10 feet up in the air during one rainstorm,'' Ms. Donnelly said the other day. ''People have permanently installed pipes to pump the combined sewer flow out of their houses.''
New construction can aggravate the situation, she says, especially when it involves new paving, which creates more runoff.
The area faces other challenges, Mr. Hammerman says: Because of its 200-year history as an industrial zone, no one fully understands how many contaminated lots there are in the area, although they definitely include the 11-acre property west of the canal known as the Public Place. Both Mr. Boymelgreen and the Toll Brothers applied to have their projects made part of the state's brownfield cleanup program; the Toll brothers withdrew their application this year.
In addition, sometime in the next few months, the city plans to shut the flushing tunnel for 18 months of repairs, and that could bring back the smell of the bad old days.
Members of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, a business advocacy group, are taking part in the meetings with city planners, lobbying for the area to remain one of the city's last industrial zones. Phaedra Thomas, the group's executive director, says, however, that she is open to a mix of light industry and residential use in some areas where residential construction is inevitable.
Still, Rachael Dubin, the group's policy and planning manager, worries that even discussing land use can fuel speculation. ''As soon as you start talking about Gowanus as that neighborhood sandwiched between the brownstone communities, as soon as you put it in the framework, it really becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,'' she said.
JAKE MOONEY
Link to Article Source
By JAKE MOONEY
Published: April 8, 2007
TEN years ago, the idea of worrying about the future of the land around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn would have seemed a little strange, especially in hot weather. An underground tunnel designed to circulate the canal's water had been out of service for decades, and as a result, sewage from nearby houses and storm drains overflowed regularly into the canal, emitting a formidable stench.
The sewage overflows continue, but with the tunnel reopened since 1999, the water circulates better -- at least for the moment. The gradual return of fish and birds to the canal has enticed widely known developers like Shaya Boymelgreen and the Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, drawn to the neighborhood's proximity to Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. These developers have proposed projects that could involve rezoning parts of Gowanus and adding hundreds if not thousands of residents to the area.
In response, staff members of the Department of City Planning are meeting this month and next with the local community board to evaluate the neighborhood's needs and chart its future. Their goal is a framework for land use decisions that could allow manufacturing and residential development to coexist and maybe even open up some recreational space.
''There are so many possibilities that people have let their imaginations run wild, and that's a good thing,'' said Craig Hammerman, district manager of the local Community Board 6. ''We just have to make sure that we can tether the possibilities to probabilities that are out there.''
Marlene Donnelly, a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, a neighborhood group, says her organization's priority is addressing the persistent drainage problems.
''At the end of our block, we had one of the sewer caps geyser about 10 feet up in the air during one rainstorm,'' Ms. Donnelly said the other day. ''People have permanently installed pipes to pump the combined sewer flow out of their houses.''
New construction can aggravate the situation, she says, especially when it involves new paving, which creates more runoff.
The area faces other challenges, Mr. Hammerman says: Because of its 200-year history as an industrial zone, no one fully understands how many contaminated lots there are in the area, although they definitely include the 11-acre property west of the canal known as the Public Place. Both Mr. Boymelgreen and the Toll Brothers applied to have their projects made part of the state's brownfield cleanup program; the Toll brothers withdrew their application this year.
In addition, sometime in the next few months, the city plans to shut the flushing tunnel for 18 months of repairs, and that could bring back the smell of the bad old days.
Members of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, a business advocacy group, are taking part in the meetings with city planners, lobbying for the area to remain one of the city's last industrial zones. Phaedra Thomas, the group's executive director, says, however, that she is open to a mix of light industry and residential use in some areas where residential construction is inevitable.
Still, Rachael Dubin, the group's policy and planning manager, worries that even discussing land use can fuel speculation. ''As soon as you start talking about Gowanus as that neighborhood sandwiched between the brownstone communities, as soon as you put it in the framework, it really becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,'' she said.
JAKE MOONEY
Link to Article Source
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 15:00.
