Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning EIS CHAPTER 8: URBAN DESIGN AND VISUAL RESOURCES A. INTRODUCTION This chapter provides an assessment of the potential impacts on urban design and visual resources that could result from the proposed action. As described in Chapter 1, “Project Description,” the proposed action includes zoning map and zoning text amendments, street demapping, and park mapping in an area spanning 184 blocks in the Greenpoint and Williamsburg sections of Brooklyn. The proposed action would result in substantial amounts of new above-ground development by 2013 with urban design characteristics different from those currently attributed to the project area and located within areas containing resources of visual significance. Given the above conditions, an analysis of urban design and visual resources is therefore appropriate as per the guidelines of the CEQR Technical Manual. For purposes of analysis, the urban design and visual resources study area is coterminous with the study area used for the analysis in Chapter 2, “Land Use, Zoning, and Public Policy,” delineated by a ½-mile radius around the proposed action area. Together, the urban design components and visual resources of an area define the distinctive identity of a neighborhood. As stipulated by CEQR, the analysis of urban design will assess the effects of the proposed action on those attributes that constitute the physical appearance of buildings and streets in the study area. These attributes include building bulk, use, and type; building arrangement; block form and street pattern; streetscape elements; street hierarchy; and natural features. The concept of bulk is created by the size of a building and the way it is massed on a site. Height, length, and width define a building’s size; volume, shape, setbacks, lot coverage, and density define its mass. The analysis of visual resources provided in this chapter will assess the effects of the proposed action on the study area’s visual resources, which are its unique or important public view corridors, vistas, or natural or built features. Waterfront views, public parks, landmarked structures, landmarked districts, and natural resources are examples of visual resources. As per the guidelines of CEQR, only views of visual resources from public and publicly accessible locations will be assessed. The proposed action would alter the urban design of the study area, yielding significant, but not adverse, changes along the waterfront and nearby upland areas. The introduction of medium-density residential uses along the waterfront would result in appreciable differences in building bulk, height, and scale when compared to the low-density structures and open lots of varied condition that are presently characteristic of the industrial waterfront and that are expected to remain in the future without the proposed action. The introduction of new parkland, a waterfront promenade,streetscape improvements, and ground-floor retail use that would accompany development would extend corridors of activity from upland areas to the currently desolate waterfront, fundamentally transforming the way in which the waterfront spaces are used and how they connect to upland areas. Zoning changes in the upland areas would maintain existing trends of nonconforming use but are not anticipated to significantly alter the streetscapes, given proposed contextual zoning controls which would require new buildings to maintain streetwalls and similar height to existing structures. Waterfront zoning would also ensure a sensitive transition of bulk and scale as the waterfront areas interface with the upland neighborhoods. 8-1 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning EIS Chapter 8: Urban Design and Visual Resources The proposed action is also not expected create a significant adverse impact upon visual resources as it is anticipated to improve the visual quality of the proposed action area through the replacement of dilapidated, and often vacant, lots and structures with new and more active uses. The proposed Waterfront Access Plan (WAP), which is included in the proposed action, would maintain, improve, and open additional significant visual and access corridors to the waterfront. Although the addition of new buildings along the waterfront would preclude skyward views at certain vantage points, the development controls of waterfront zoning and the proposed zoning text changes would provide new and unencumbered public views and vantage points for pedestrians at the water’s edge, where closed streets and lots along the waterfront do not allow public access today. B. EXISTING CONDITIONS Urban Design Overview The primary study area is contiguous with the proposed action area, an approximately 184-block area bounded roughly by the East River, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and McGuinness Boulevard. For the assessment of urban design, the proposed action area has been divided into three sub-areas: the waterfront, Upland Greenpoint, and Upland Williamsburg, as shown in Figure 8-1. The secondary study area, which extends a half-mile radius from the proposed action area, contains all or part of 612 blocks that span Greenpoint and Williamsburg. The secondary study area has been roughly divided into six sub-areas: Central Greenpoint, Northeast Greenpoint, the Williamsburg waterfront, Northside, Southside/South Williamsburg, and Eastern Williamsburg. These areas are identified in Figure 8-2. The secondary study area is comprised of several grids of blocks that intersect or change orientation at features such as elevated roadways, service roads, parks, and large industrial/manufacturing or residential complexes. The majority of the blocks in the secondary study area are rectangular in form, while blocks that have tapered to triangular or trapezoidal forms often appear when grids meet or are reoriented around features such as parks or bridges. Lots are also typically rectangular, and buildings in the study area are generally oriented parallel to street lines. Figure 8-3 illustrates the street hierarchy in the study area, which includes the BQE (I-278), a federal interstate highway; several major north-south and east-west avenues, many of which connect with the BQE; and a system of smaller one-way local streets, running roughly east-west. Though mapped, many streets connecting to the East River waterfront are blocked by fences or street closures created at and around industrial properties, which often span several blocks. Elevated roadways, including a segment of McGuinness Boulevard, the Williamsburg Bridge, and the BQE, slash through the urban fabric of the study area, creating punctuations between neighborhoods with their large size and their accompanying service roads, which generally contain light-industrial and automotive-oriented uses. The urban form of the proposed action area varies widely and can be correlated to building’s original use and proximity to the historically industrial waterfront. Buildings formerly or currently catering to industrial and manufacturing uses are concentrated in areas within roughly two blocks of the East River 8-2 K E E V R A C R E N K W E E AV O M ICK T VAR W E N VA Figure 8-1 TVARICK ST S AV ER T R RT V T V A S O T P N E V S E GA E L A R S T T O K T A M M O S A W S N C G T T N H Y A O W S R G S T N N DAM S A VA C T E E D T M A V E T A O N S S N A I S G L J G A S T R S T O N V T S L O M A T R D T L E U S R I S I N O E S T K D S S I O E O V E L C R A K M R E T T D E E C L N N D B R T S T P R H A P T B V S G M R M R E A R A A E S B R S T T G O V O I I E J N BO U A R G L T APO LO ST A S O R I Y K O R V O W S G H I T R L E D M E C V C F S E S Y E R I I V A A O N M N A M D A V R G T R B S I E R MO HIT A B W O D E E H M T K S N T E K HAUSMA S B N EE T I R E R O C T E N H OW T N L A T E C V W E S N V A M A V N A T E A O OIS G N EV I B DE R N MORG I O MORGAN AV AN AV A H P H S N S ´ T U S E V E A V L LI SE O E OI BEV F R DE G SUTTON ST SUTTON ST T V L Feet S P A ICK T W T H R T H S T V GRANDPARENTS AV S U S B KING L D AV T E S AN KINGSLA S N D A D AV S V R S Y E D D T A N N T L P N R V N N V S I O A A T O S N E A A O A S L S T T P A C S S A Y S R E W D R G R N K D R G D M O U N M J G E O A E N C R ST E O I MONITO R MONITOR ST MONIT L H O K R ST P K W A B L M H A BUSHWICK AV E I J T R R R E H K O E V V V O M C N S I H A A A N R T S U V N E RY N HENRY ST N HENRY ST K A H N ST R C A V I G W Y H E S S A L U G B A I S W G N E A R A P C N L D X K N E E O E E R R RUSSELL ST S UMBOLDT ST HUMBOLOT ST HUMBOLDT ST C RUSSELL ST H E N T E L S S E A H E E T W U M R V Q E - A B LDT ST N HUMBOLDT ST UMBO R H R Y V E E L A K H K S E O N D T V V E T T K L O A S A B M AVE OF PUERTO RICO T S R S V T VIA VESPUCCI GV RAHAM AV T GRAHAM AV I T T T S T S A T B S A S E S A T L E S E E I S T E S S T R E I T S T T N N T S L L T S S N I O U T EE N L N S O I Y T S S N S S S O M M S O U E S P B A O L R S S E G L R R O U R L R R T E B D T S E O E C N M T I E K R E D E S T I R M S O E J E N L O S S N R K R H K G O A O C N E S L U W H I O A T V R N T A H I N _ S T C O O E O O L I C A E C E Y R O E R E A O 0 W O K O A C E B A S S M F V M M J P M 3 D J N T M G W M S J C AV B HAM W A E W GR V MANHATTAN AV MANHATTAN AV N A ST N O ND TA 250 V MO T IA AT A PROVOST ST D H E ECKFORD ST AN W G M 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 D E I ST A L E T T W P E N S N S T T T S T N N T E NARD ST S L O T S LE LEONARD ST LEONARD ST T L ONARD T S T S A O S T B O S S Y S R N S S N E N S H M K E N T T IN W O E A A U D E L O C I G N P E R C V E M R Y P G X D E R U A E A R E U A N