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January 17, 2007
Comprehensive Plan for Gowanus Released
Back in April 2004, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation commissioned a Comprehensive Communtiy Plan in an effort to come up with a roadmap for the area that would balance the varied interests of the community and try to ensure that both public and private initiatives had some guiding vision. (Funding came through Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.) One major theme was "Canal as Park," which viewed the waterway as a valuable centerpiece to be protected and improved and called for establishing Gowanus as a "green" community. Another underpinning of the plan is a belief in promoting a mixed-use zoning while emphasizing conservation and preservation. Sounds all well and good, but can anyone speak to what this means for various projects on the drawing board in the area?
Comprehensive Community Plan [Gowanus.org]
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Comments
Almost none of the projects "slated" for the community are as of right. Most require zoning variances or changes to allow for housing in a manufacturing zone. City Planning and BSA have not been granting variances so that the community planning process can move forward. Anything allowed under the current zoning is moving (Whole Foods and some spot construction of housing), but in general its wait and see.
Posted by: bored at work at January 17, 2007 11:14 AM
Ohhh. Classic, “One major theme was ‘Canal as Park,’ which viewed the waterway as a valuable centerpiece to be protected and improved and called for establishing Gowanus as a ‘green’ community.”
I love the delusions of newcomers to Brooklyn. Gowanus as Green? Are they kidding?
The Canal is under severe environmental stress from a number of chemical releases
and spills as a result of the over 100 years of industrial use. Stormwater and numerous CSOs
discharging into the Canal have resulted in the continual release of contaminants into the Canal.
While the canal was constructed in 1881, it was not until 1987 that a sewage treatment plant
(Red Hook Wastewater Treatment plant) was constructed in an effort to improve the area’s
sewage problem and limit the load of contaminants being discharged into the Canal.
The narrow width of the canal, coupled with its long reach from the bay, has limited the ability
of tidal movement to flush contaminants from the system, resulting in a semi-stagnant body of
water.
Check out the these reports:
www.nan.usace.army.mil/harbor/gowanus/reports/sediment.pdf
www.nan.usace.army.mil/harbor/gowanus/reports/quality.pdf
I love it when people try to rewrite history, do they think we are stupid? This is a ploy to sell us over priced real estate. Guarantee anyone buying into this area will have a history of health problems. Why would anyone want to raise a family in a toxic dump? Do they think us Brooklynites are as stupid as Whole Foods, buying into the Gowanus hype. “Go see where you gotta go”.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 11:21 AM
While of course any vibrant community is made up of a mixed use scenario, clearly the time has come for Gowanus to move beyond its industrial roots. Just what exactly do the heavy industrial sites do for the neighborhood economy that revitalized residential and open space with its corresponding commercial economy cant replace? I for one don’t think that a think that adding a thin veneer storefronts and colored lights to heavy industry is the solution. Even as it stands one of the biggest challenges for the area is its need to overcome the brownfield status of the proposed public spaces. That can be done, but the time is now to move to new more people friendly uses for the area.
Posted by: chopper at January 17, 2007 11:21 AM
The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club urges the residents and employees of Brooklyn and New York to be vocal and support recreational, retail and artisan spaces as an integral and required part of the looming residential developments planned for the Gowanus Corridor.
We hope developers will learn from other neighborhood mistakes that residential introduction to manufacturing areas without vibrant ground floor uses creates a dull area for transplants to commute from bbecause it's slightly less expensive than the living on the small isle of Manhattan. see:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/calendar/#22
Posted by: Gowanus Dredgers at January 17, 2007 11:23 AM
I understand that if you buy the right property, it may come with a large reservoir of fuel oil underneath. Could be a deal-maker.
Seriously though, this area certainly will improve and develop, I suspect it will take a long time.
Posted by: Hal at January 17, 2007 2:12 PM
Not happy. The "North District" gets lots of cool retail and residential development and the "South District" below 3rd Street gets light industrial and water-related industries? Why such an anemic plan for South of 3rd Street? Why can't we support retail and residential below 3rd Street?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 2:19 PM
Because over 40% of our neighborhoods young people never graduate from HS. This industrial area, protected by the new IBZ protects and helps retain the thousands of jobs in the Gowanus area.
Not everyone is an investor or an artist.
Posted by: jackson brown at January 17, 2007 2:44 PM
11:14 is correct; a master plan by a CDC is valuable but other than creating an overall vision, it does nothing to advance shovel-in-the-ground projects
11:21 is right, but only up to a point. the canal is much cleaner already and measures under consideration (more reliable flushing tunnel, dredging) can lead to rapid improvements.
2:19, if 2:44's point wasn't clear enough, consider the political side of this: residential redevelopment is not moving forward without job retention, and that is best suited along the southern reach
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 4:01 PM
Of course it may be the today’s reality that the current industrial component of the area may have enough political and financial sway to stop/slow residential revitalization, but the argument that it benefits the neighborhood is lost on me. You only have to go 5 blocks up Smith street to see the economics. Of course any plan should include business and possibly light manufacturing, but to imagine the are as some sort of industrial outpost as all of the surrounding area renews itself is seems limited. I think we could only expect more of the same sort of environmental abuse from the same sort of use. It may not be today but $$$ say the area will change. Its time for the heavy industry to move on.
Posted by: chopper at January 17, 2007 4:34 PM
To 4:01 - just a quick question/observation - I have been attending various meetings re: canal clean up for 15 years. I have grown a little weary because all this has been talked about before and it goes nowhere. My question is dredging - it has been my understanding that the sludge can not be dumped easily. At one point the "Mayor of Court" mentioned that the sludge could be decomtaminated and somehow used in bathroom tiles. Anyway, I think sludge disposal is one of the problems unless things have changed or you know otherwise.
I have grown disheartened hearing the samo samo for the past 15 years and became even more disheartened when I came across some Brooklyn Eagle articles written almost 100 years ago that sound as if they were written today. I have very little faith in the GCCDC.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 17, 2007 7:01 PM
note to all that has been mentioned above, but not clearly enough:
This process is contuing and you can be a part of it.
Presentation by representatives for the Department of City Planning on a land use framework for further planning discussions on the Gowanus Canal area.
St. Mary's Residence
41 First Street
(Hoyt & Bond Streets)
6:00 PM
I realize that there are a lot of folks that have wanted change and progress only to see nothing happen. Please keep an open mind and bring your years of experience to the meeting to ensure that something does happen and do your best to affect it.
Focus only on what you want. Stop wasting time discussing your point of view on organizations and individuals. No one can use this information to move the process forward.
Why don't you use this site to start debating what you want to see and how you think it could happen.
I for one am interested in what everyone who has already posted wants to see there. Share your thoughts.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 11:04 AM
oops that meeting is on January 25th at 6:00
Posted by: Anonymous at January 18, 2007 11:06 AM
too late. Ratner and his many toilets have taken over the Canal
Posted by: Anonymous at January 19, 2007 1:58 PM
There are two (2) meetings to attend next week and speak your mind - click the link in our post above
to: 1:58 PM
FYI - Ratner's project claims to reduce CSO discharge into the canal because his superblocks will replace asphalt roads with permeable surface.
If DOB will allow waterless urnials in our city, that would also reduce wasteflow to our harbor.
Posted by: Gowanus Dredgers at January 19, 2007 5:58 PM
How do we prevent CSO's from going into the Canal?
Does Marty Markowitz talk about this problem? What resources and money is being spent to solve this huge problem that connects to community health?
Is local politics treying to solve the water pollution problem?
Are children in local schools being educated about this problem?
I think the answer to all these questions is no
PLEASE QUESTION LOCAL POLITICIANS REGARDING CSO'S GOING INTO THE CANAL AND WHAT THE PLAN IS TO STOP THE PROBLEM...THANKS
Posted by: CSO MAN at January 20, 2007 1:33 PM
so as an example to my statement made previously ......
I would have written that there need sto be a retention basin to catch the overflow during a rain stirn and maybe a good place to put it is one of the filled in turning basins....or
the canal shoudl be dredged or....
the canals wetlands need to be restored where possible to help filter the water naturally....
it is really all of the above, but one of any would even be nice.....
please include possible answres to your questions and then there will be something to discuss....
Posted by: Anonymous at January 20, 2007 8:28 PM
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