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February 28, 2008
Streetlevel: Obstacles Remain for Whole Foods
As has been suggested elsewhere, despite the fact that the DOB granted Whole Foods a permit to do underpinning work for its proposed store at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue earlier in the month, the would-be Gowanus supermarket still faces some regulatory barriers. In addition to needing a full-on new building permit, the Department of Environmental Conservation still has to sign off on the job. As it turns out, the DEC is still reviewing Whole Foods' application to build on a wetlands. According to Thomas V. Panzone, the department's citizen participation specialist for our region, "Whole Foods has submitted an application for an Article 15 Protection of Waters Permit, a Water Quality Certification under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act , and an Article 25 Tidal Wetlands Permit." English translation (best as we can tell!): Whole Foods must prove that the store's location next to the canal won't adversely affect the general public and that the supermarket won't harm the canal by virtue of its existence next to the waterway. Panzone also says that once the DEC deems Whole Foods' application complete it will "trigger established public participation processes," a 30-day window for the public to comment on the store's application that may include a public hearing. The DEC already held a public-review period about the grocer's brownfield cleanup plan last January and approved Whole Foods' remediation plan for the site. As it stands now, then, construction isn't going to begin on the supermarket for some time, and it's possible that concerns about the development's environmental impact—which have repeatedly been raised by a local group called Friends & Residents of Greater Gowanus—will be taken into further consideration.
DOB Green Lights First Stage of Whole Foods Project [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
Gowanus Whole Foods Still Faces a Few Hurdles [Gowanus Lounge]
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Comments
How could this negatively affect the canal?
I would think pouring raw sewage and toxic waste directly into the canal would actually be an improvemnt.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 2:31 PM
I have said it for over a year - Whole Foods will NEVER open at this location.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 3:25 PM
Recession is getting deeper and credit is getting crunchier. By the time this passes environmental review, will their balance sheet and projections allow them to invest?
"How could this negatively affect the canal?"
I dunno? There's plenty of commercial activity in Venezia, the urban canal motherland. Positive impact there.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 3:37 PM
How bloody hard is it to build one damned grocery store? Jesus christ, this process has dragged on ridiculously, even by NYC standards. Maybe WF isn't really that into Brooklyn.
Posted by: Rehab at February 28, 2008 3:44 PM
This is what happens when Austin's best and brightest try building in the Big Apple without knowing what they are getting into.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 3:48 PM
I kinda wish they'd found a site on 4th Ave. Better for subway commuters, easier for shoppers on foot coming from the Slope, sites are large enough to accomodate a big store + parking. Or, better yet, just open several mini-Whole Foods. Man, I wish we had the kind of small Tesco supermarkets I've seen in London: 5,000 sq ft but enough space to offer qual and duck eggs alongside the regular variety. I wonder how there So. Cal. experiment is going? Too bad they didn't start here in NYC first.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 3:48 PM
That plot is a toxic mess. A supremely bad (and ironic) choice of locations for a health food market.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 4:24 PM
No kidding, 4:24. Until the canal is completely cleaned up and surrounding area detoxified (yeah right), I won't set foot in a grocery store there. Yikes!
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 4:30 PM
Rehab:
Its a very highly publicized brownfield, so its not like they can just build over it. The clean up is extensive, and because it borders the toxic and mighty Gowanus Canal, it poses more problems.
Now if this was a condo over an oilfield in williamsburg, that would be another story..
(rimshot)
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 4:35 PM
Tesco have just started in California, and it appears to be going very well. Lets all hope they can come to the East coast and save us from Met foods and the like, and end this WholeFoods will they-won't they purgatory.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 4:40 PM
I really hope the Friends of the Gowanus don't try to kill this project. Those folks are probably exactly the type of people who would shop at a Whole Foods. Did the Lowes store have this much trouble building it's location next to the wetland, uh, I mean canal? What a joke!
Posted by: stevek at February 28, 2008 5:22 PM
Harm the canal? That stinking cesspool of gonorrhea-laden sewage and industrial effluvient? That's pretty damned funny.
Posted by: Park Sloper at February 28, 2008 5:43 PM
Open your eyes. The City, State, and Federal governments are beginning a 40-year process of trying to clean up the canal. They and the private sector are going to spend BILLIONS of dollars over that time in this effort. While the canal is toxic now, there is some hope that 40 years from now it will be less so. If you are building on a polluted site you have to make sure that you either remove the underground pollution or trap it so that it doesn't leak into the canal or other neighboring sites (see failure of Lowes remediation). If you are building on wetlands you need to take into account flooding and high ground-water.
That being said, all this can be done and this is dragging on too long. The coming redevelopment of the Gowanus area needs serious cooperation between all levels of government that is not happening right now.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 5:56 PM
If it is being called a 40 year process now, then that translates into 80-100+ years. Like the sad, sad saga of the 2nd Ave subway.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 6:09 PM
FORTY YEARS? MOST OF US WILL BE PUSHING UP THE DAISIES BY THEN. IN FORTY YEARS 3/4 OF BROOKLYN WILL BE UNDER WATER.
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 9:10 PM
i wonder if there is another city that can compare to our level of red tape?
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 9:48 PM
There is, any city in California
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 9:56 PM
the canal is ratner's toilet
Posted by: guest at February 28, 2008 10:13 PM
Drain the canal and fill it with cement. Then put a park on top like the highline. Simpler than trying to clean it up, and less stinky.
Posted by: guest at February 29, 2008 9:25 AM
If you drain the canal, what will happen to my gal Sal? After all, she's a good ol' worker and a good ol' pal.
Posted by: guest at February 29, 2008 11:29 AM
It's not red-tape that is holding up Whole Foods. Whole Foods has tripped themselves up all along here. They set out to do what is not allowed under law and have been having a most difficult time twisting things to get approvals.
One thing to be said for Whole Foods, at least as far as the public can see, they have not lied with their documents to get DOB approval--as others trying to build what the law doesn't permit have and still are doing.
As for the underpinning permits granted to Whole Foods by the DOB, such permits are given out only when the owner signs a waver that they understand that permits for foundation work, does in no way, presume that the DOB will ever grant construction permits the architectural plans under review.
Posted by: guest at February 29, 2008 6:28 PM
Isn't the difference between the Loews and Whole Foods building that Loews is all above ground and Whole Foods wants to build under ground?
And isn't Whole Foods located where there once was a big mill pond? There is a picture at the Old Stone House showing people iceskating there.
And people living uphill along 3, 4, 5 th Streets talk of all the underground streams they experience. Don't these feed to the Whole Foods wetland's area?
Can you (brownstoner)do more of a research story for us on this.
Posted by: guest at February 29, 2008 6:56 PM
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