September 12, 2005, NY Post – Residents of tony Brooklyn Heights are threatening a lawsuit to stop the development of luxury waterfront high-rises in a planned $150 million riverside park. The plan would build the first major park in 135 years in the borough. Opponents of the roughly 1,200 luxury apartments are consulting with lawyers just as the project goes up for public comment in front of a local planning board today. Adversaries charge they were promised a park only to have apartments added to the proposal late last year. “It’s not a park, it’s luxury-condominium complex,” said Judi Francis, a leader of the opposition. The 85-acre, 1.3-mile city- and state-funded park has been in the planning stages for years, with the intention that commercial components of the project would fund the estimated $15.2 million annual operating cost. The park is intended to be self-sustaining in order to keep the recreational space from competing “with other parks for scarce resources,” said Wendy Leventer, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp.
Park Plan a Cover-Up [NY Post]