Last week the State Supreme Court ruled against the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, according to an article in the Brooklyn Paper, striking down a lawsuit that sought to halt the creation of the 85-acre park because of the condos and hotel planned for the site. Private development is slated to take up 10 percent of the park and include “approximately 1,210 units of housing, 225 hotel rooms, 151,200 square feet of retail uses, 86,400 square feet of restaurants, cafes and other eateries, 30,000 of meeting space, 36,000 square feet of offices, 128,400 square feet for research and development or education uses, and 1,283 parking spaces,” according to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. In response to the main thrust of the lawsuit, which claimed that the private housing will violate the Public Trust Doctrine, which disallows private encroachment on public spaces, the justices who heard the case wrote that “the public trust doctrine does not prohibit residential uses that are merely adjacent to public parkland.” “They’re missing the truth,” said Judi Francis, the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund. The condos are up against places where people normally would have been sunbathing or playing ball or listening to the radios. They’re missing the forest, if you will, for the condos.”
Brooklyn Bridge Park Goes Forward [Brooklyn Paper]
Myer Has ‘Hope’ for Brooklyn Bridge Park [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Bridge Park Demo Begins [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Bridge Park: It’s a Go! [Brownstoner]
Rendering of a section of the future park from the BBP Conservancy.