CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS 4. Outreach Process Community and Stakeholder Outreach Outreach Process of the initial meetings was to listen to CIVITAS and Mathews Nielsen designed community members and stakeholders, and led an outreach process to engage and allow them to express their desires for community members and stakeholders in a the future of the Esplanade. Small group dialogue about the future of the East River breakout sessions were designed to discuss Esplanade. This process was organized multiple topics, and gather information and to allow community members and feedback concerning the following: stakeholders to voice their concerns about Experiential and Sensory Environment and aspirations for the Esplanade. It also • What is the current experience of the provided a venue for CIVITAS and MNLA to Esplanade? share information gathered in our research • What is the desired experience and how process, as well as gather information from must the Esplanade change? knowledgeable community members and stakeholders. Community meetings were Edge Conditions open to all members of the community and • How do users interact with the water? were advertised through CIVITAS’ outreach • How do users and the Esplanade CIVITASprocess. Stakeholder CIVITAS meetings consistedCIVITAS of CIVITASinterface with the CIVITAScity and FDR Drive? CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS invited city, state, and congressional elected leaders, representatives from city agencies, Upland Connections and leadership from active community • How do users get to the Esplanade and groups and boards. how does this affect their experience and sense of place? A series of four stakeholder meetings and three community education meetings were • How and where does this need to change? held between April 23, 2014 and September 22, 2014. Broad Spaces • Stakeholder Meeting 1: Listening • What uses should be considered for the CIVITASSession CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITASwider spaces along CIVITAS the Esplanade? CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS April 23, 2014 • How should these spaces be • Stakeholder Meeting 2: Key Issues and programmed? Short-term Opportunities • Where should larger gathering areas be May 20, 2014 located? • Stakeholder Meeting 3: Medium and • What are the critical design criteria? Long-term Opportunities June 19, 2014 Narrow Spaces • Stakeholder Meeting 4: Site Specific • What uses should be considered for the Short, Medium, and Long-term narrow spaces along the Esplanade? Opportunities • How should these spaces be changed or CIVITASSeptember CIVITAS18, 2014 CIVITAS CIVITASredesigned? CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS • Community Education meeting 1: Listening Session The second and third Stakeholder and May 6, 2014 the second Community meeting included • Community Education meeting 2: Key an educational component to provide Issues and Short, Medium, and Long- background to participants about the term Opportunities principles affecting noise attenuation, the June 24, 2014 historic transformation of FDR Drive from a • Community Education meeting 3: Site boulevard to the current controlled access Specific Short, Medium, and Long-term roadway, and to discuss opportunities Opportunities for solving current problems, addressing September 22, 2014 the need for resiliency, and visioning the transformation of the Esplanade in parts and as a whole. The initial meetings shared information on CIVITAS’ goals for the Vision Plan, the historical background of the Esplanade, and provided participants with information on current conditions. The primary intent 54 East River Esplanade Vision Plan Stakeholders Stakeholder 2 Stakeholder 1 May 20 Stakeholder 3 Stakeholder 4 April 23 June 19 September 18 Community Community 1 Community 2 Community 3 May 6 June 24 September 22 Agencies DPR DPR July 22 Nov. 14 NYCDOT NYSDOT CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITASJuly 28 CIVITASSeptember 11 CIVITAS CIVITAS DEC DCP June 6 Nov. 19 April May June July August September October November Agency Outreach CIVITASIn addition toCIVITAS meeting with stakeholders CIVITAS and CIVITAS• New York State CIVITAS Department of CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS the community, CIVITAS and MNLA also met Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) with key agencies having jurisdiction over the Esplanade or the land and waters adjacent • New York City Department of Parks and to it. The intent of these meetings was to Recreation (NYCDPR) share initial ideas for short, medium, and long-term opportunities for the Esplanade, • New York City Department of City and to get feedback on the feasibility of Planning (NYCDCP) the options presented. It was also an opportunity to garner support needed for • New York City Department of the Esplanade’s transformation from these Transportation (NYCDOT) CIVITASgoverning agencies. CIVITAS CIVITAS andCIVITAS MNLA were CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS CIVITAS able to learn more about agency intentions • New York State Department of for maintenance, capital, and resiliency Transportation (NYSDOT) planning efforts being undertaken at this time. These agencies will play a key role in A recurring challenge expressed by all shaping the future of the Esplanade, and it agencies was the lack of capital funding is important that they have the opportunity available through the traditional city and to both contribute to the process and state budgetary processes. Funding for comment on proposed ideas. Any feasible improvements will need to draw from city, approach to improving the Esplanade will state, federal, and even private resources. require close collaboration and cooperation among city, state and federal agencies, as well as community groups. As part of this feasibility study CIVITAS and MNLA met with the following city and state agencies: CIVITAS | Mathews Nielsen 55 New York State Department of in more depth in later sections of this report. Environmental Conservation (DEC) It fundamentally introduces the idea that, June 6, 2014 in the shallow waters north of 96th Street, a formerly rich ecological habitat can be The New York State Department of restored, including the re-introduction of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is salt marsh and shellfish reefs that could responsible for the conservation and support a diversity of a marine life and protection of New York’s waterways, simultaneously provide aquaculture uplift including the East River. For this feasibility and water quality improvement. study CIVITAS and MNLA met with the The DEC has indicated that, at present, DEC and other stakeholders to assess the this approach would still be subject to the regulations and process that will govern standard regulatory process regardless of alterations to the shoreline where the whether ecological improvement can be Esplanade meets the East River. Currently, demonstrated. While it is more expensive to regulations prohibit filling in or constructing construct, build, and maintain a structured structures over the top of waterways. Filling edge than a riprap edge, the current CIVITASwaterways decreases CIVITAS aquatic habitat,CIVITAS and regulations CIVITAS would beCIVITAS more likely to CIVITASallow CIVITAS CIVITAS decking over them creates shade that for a structure that creates shade over the degrades habitat. If a proposed project water versus one that fills it in. will alter the shoreline and extend into the water, mitigation measures are required. The regulations serve the valuable purpose One approach is to extend out into the water of protecting New York’s waterways from in one area of a project site while pulling the being transformed and filled in for both shoreline back elsewhere on site to balance public and private development at the the impact of the encroachment. When expense of rivers and bays. For the public this is not feasible, a project may offset the benefit, however, the process for altering impact by providing mitigation on or off-site. shorelines remains a difficult process with CIVITASBecause of the CIVITAS general lack of uplandCIVITAS area a comprehensiveCIVITAS review CIVITAS of the impacts CIVITAS and CIVITAS CIVITAS suitable for habitat conversion and thus benefits of any proposed project. Rivers, onsite mitigation, offsite options will likely streams, wetlands, and bays are a valuable need to be explored. Finding a suitable resource that must be protected. However, site to use for mitigation is a challenge in the current status of New York’s rivers is a New York City as the number of available snapshot in time, after hundreds of years of sites is low while the regional demand for intervention. The present-day regulations mitigation credits is high, therefore making leave little opportunity to consider historic offsite mitigation very costly. It has been river conditions, ecological function, noted that mitigation costs can triple a biological diversity, water quality, and their project’s overall costs. enhancement, as positive contributors toward mitigation. But the regulatory CIVITASThe discussion CIVITAS of the East River CIVITAS Esplanade environment CIVITAS does CIVITASappear to be CIVITASat a CIVITAS CIVITAS focused on the possibility of increasing the crossroads, and the coming years will reveal Esplanade width by extending out into the whether opportunities to enhance ecological river, either with fill or via conventional function in lieu of a traditional area ratio structure. A riprap edge was suggested as mitigation scenario will become