The following testimony was presented last week at the City Planning Hearing for Toll Brothers (see our earlier post below)
More testimony to come in the days ahead....
CORD
Good Morning. My name is Rita Miller. I am a third generation, lifelong
Just months ago, many people, who are here today, including myself were present for the Toll Brothers scoping hearing. Then, there was talk of a huge population increase over the next decade or two— construction was booming, neighborhoods were being irrevocably changed—. Practically everyone you met was a developer or looking to become one.
This project, seeking a rezoning green light ahead of the much larger Gowanus rezoning, presented varied, legitimate concerns to its potential neighbors.
Allowing this project to move ahead of the overall rezoning seemed premature, and inherently, unfair.
The overall scale of the project prompted the creative alternate plan presented by architects John Hatheway and Chris McVoy.
This area, an environmentally, geographically complex, unique and sensitive location, led some to question the wisdom of a rezoning request to accomodate a plan which required the engineering and construction of a hill in a flood plain, just so that towers could be built on top of it.
Was this plan really the best way to utilize this wetland area?
Was looking at this as an isolated project truly the optimum method for City Planning to serve both the current and future residents of the Gowanus and the surrounding impacted communities?
During the months that followed that scoping hearing, we residents, were repeatedly told that this project was the only way the canal was finally going to be cleaned. The mere presence of the potential residents of this project was somehow going to accomplish something that had completely eluded our neighborhood for my and my father’s entire lifetime, and as a bonus, the comparatively small amount of re- routed rainwater falling upon the Toll property would significantly ease the burden on the cso’s .Wow!
Some of my Gowanus neighbors expressed an expectation of more frequent basement flooding instead.
Then, the world changed. Just yesterday, a Metro NY article addressed the fact that there may not actually be so many people coming to
Today, construction is down, credit is tough to get, many projects are halted. Some though completed, are sitting there empty.
CORD asks you to look at this situation as an opportunity to incorporate the Toll project into the larger Gowanus picture…to reassess this rezoning proposal and the overall plan within that context.
When it is looked at as one component of the larger rezoning, does permitting the altering of the lay of the land to accommodate this one development really seem like the wisest, most responsible use of this particular piece of property?
Please use this time to look at what we have, what we really need, examine the feasibility of what is desired and consider what we can and cannot reasonably expect.
Thank you.
Rita Miller
