Waterfront Greenway
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BROOKLYNWATERFRONT GREENWAY a plan for community boards 2 & 6 DRAFT 02.01.05 Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway will be a safe, landscaped, off-street route linking people to the waterfront, nature, neighborhoods, workplaces, and history, providing a means for healthy exercise while promoting the revitalization of Brooklyn's waterfront. About the Authors This plan was produced by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and Regional Plan Association. Brooklyn Greenway Initiative is a local greenway advocacy and planning organization established in 2004 specifically to build and sustain the political, public, civic, and government partnerships necessary to create a continuous 14 mile waterfront greenway from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge. The Greenway Initiative grew out of earlier efforts by the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Task Force to support the 4.7 mile Brooklyn Waterfront Trail proposed by the City in the Columbia Street and Red Hook neighborhoods. Regional Plan Association (RPA) is an independent, not-for-profit regional planning organization that improves the quality of life and the economic competitiveness of the 31-county New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region through research, planning, and advocacy. In the 1996 Third Regional Plan, A Region at Risk, RPA identified the New York/New Jersey Harbor as one of 12 region-shaping open spaces. RPA sees the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway as one of the key investments the City and State must make in order to realize the full potential of the harbor and its adjacent communities. Funding This conceptual plan was prepared for the New York State Department of State Local Waterfront Revitalization Program with funds provided under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund with the sponsorship of the Brooklyn Borough President's Office. Funding has also been provided by Brooklyn Heights Association, Con Edison, Independence Community Foundation, JM Kaplan Fund, Merck Family Fund, The New York City Environmental Fund, and The New York Community Trust. 1 Community Boards 2 & 6 Origins of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Plan In 1866, Fredrick Law Olmstead proposed the page of this report. A number of private foundations country's first greenway along Ocean Parkway in have also contributed to this effort. Brooklyn to connect Prospect Park to Coney Island. Olmsted believed that a connected system of parks, This plan proposes planning principles and guidelines open water, and residential neighborhoods provide and a physical route for the Greenway in Community people with meaningful connections to nature that no Boards 2 and 6; covering the waterfront from Division singular park could, no matter how large. Olmsted Avenue in South Williamsburg to the Hamilton Avenue would not be surprised to know that, a century and Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. The Plan also half later, there would be a groundswell of local identifies the many public and private partnerships support for another Brooklyn greenway. and actions that will be needed for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to be realized. The diverse The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway intention parallels neighborhoods and uses that distinguish Brooklyn's Olmsted's original vision. A safe, landscaped, off- waterfront also means that a multitude of public and street route along Brooklyn's waterfront will provide private stakeholders will need to review, comment, healthful recreation, transportation and waterfront and ultimately adopt the ideas presented here as access for all New Yorkers. It will also connect their own. This draft plan is a step in that process. neighborhoods to their waterfronts and the many current and planned amenities that dot Brooklyn's The development of this plan was advanced by a waterfront. public workshop on November 9, 2004 at St. Frances College in Downtown Brooklyn. The purpose of the The planning of a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway workshop was to elicit what recreational or other began in 1993 when the Department of City Planning experiences the greenway should enable and where (DCP) identified the Brooklyn Waterfront Trail the greenway should be located. Over 100 Greenway as a priority route among the 350 miles of participants attended the three hour workshop, trails described in the Greenway Plan for New York representing diverse local, city, and regional interests. City. In 1998, DCP released its Preliminary Design (The full summary of the public workshop detailing and Summary Report for the 4.7-mile Brooklyn participants' suggestions can be found at Waterfront Trail. www.brooklyngreenway.org.). This draft plan combines participants' suggestions with the results of Building from these original proposals, waterfront our inventory, smaller meetings with a number of residents, elected officials, and other greenway public and private stakeholders, and design analysis. advocates started a campaign first to realize, and The Technical Advisory Committee has helped guide then to expand this proposal. Today the Brooklyn and shape the plan as well. Waterfront Greenway is envisioned as a 14 mile multi- use trail crossing Community Boards 1, 2, 6 & 7 from This draft plan is being presented to the public and Greenpoint through Sunset Park and connecting the public agencies, starting with a public meeting on proposed Queens waterfront greenway with Brooklyn's February 1, 2005 at St. Frances College, with the goal Shore Parkway Esplanade. The Brooklyn Greenway of soliciting further public comment and review. A Initiative was incorporated specifically to advocate for revised plan will be released in the Spring of 2005. this larger vision. Complementary Efforts A Draft Plan for Community Boards 2 and 6 Regional Plan Association and Brooklyn Greenway This draft plan has been developed by Regional Plan Initiative's work in Community Boards 2 and 6 is being Association (RPA) and Brooklyn Greenway Initiative complemented by other planning studies now (BGI) with the support of the Department of State's underway in adjacent Community Boards 1 and 7. The Local Waterfront Revitalization Program and Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks & sponsored by the Brooklyn Borough President's office. Planning and the Trust for Public Land have The plan has been developed with input from a developed an open space plan that includes the Technical Advisory Committee which includes city and greenway in CB1 (Greenpoint and Williamsburg) and state agencies, elected officials, consultants and UPROSE and Pratt Institute Center for Community and other official stakeholders. The members of the Environmental Development are working in CB7 Technical Advisory Committee are listed on the final (Sunset Park). Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Plan 2 Inventory of Existing Conditions RPA and BGI surveyed existing conditions along the Physical conditions: The existing physical conditions waterfront in community Boards 2 and 6 as they present a variety of constraints and opportunities. The relate to identification of the greenway route and cobblestone streets in Vinegar Hill and Red Hook planning and design. The inventory, incorporated into require that we think about how to preserve a geographic information system (GIS) database, is community character while providing a safe and divided into the following categories. enjoyable route and surface for the greenway. Street trees line some stretches of the greenway, while many Land use and zoning: The waterfront has historically sections are absent of any greenery. Also, because of been a place of maritime and industrial uses. The the historic industrial nature of the waterfront, the greenway is an opportunity to increase waterfront greenway in many areas runs parallel to truck routes. access and for New Yorkers to view a working Good design, however, can help minimize the conflict waterfront. between trucks and people riding or walking along the greenway. Density and concentrations of poverty, elderly and young: The greenway is an opportunity to improve the Travel patterns: The greenway will offer residents of health of adjacent communities by providing them Brooklyn's waterfront an alternative mode of with the infrastructure needed to increase physical transportation. U.S. Census travel to work data shows activity. Communities along the greenway that may that there is great potential for the greenway to impact especially benefit are densely populated travel along the waterfront and greenway neighborhoods with minimal open space and neighborhoods and Manhattan. People who make neighborhoods with concentrations of lower income these trips could use the greenway for all or part of households, young and elderly populations, which are their commute. more susceptible to obesity related illnesses. Such For instance, Red Hook, which is known for its communities, like the Farragut Houses and Red Hook lack of public transportation, has approximately Houses, stand to greatly benefit from the recreational 35,000 people who travel to lower Manhattan. The opportunities provided by the greenway. neighborhoods around the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges have 10,000 people who both work and live in Proposed developments: New and proposed the area and nearly 50% of them drive. The greenway developments along the waterfront include new ferry is one way daily commutes can be made more stops, evolving maritime areas like the cruise ship healthful and environmentally friendly. terminal, new waterfront parks like Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island, and the conversion of Summary of opportunities and constraints: All of the industrial properties into commercial