Blogger Norman Oder has a report on Wednesday’s Brooklyn Borough Board meeting and the question of whether Forest City Ratner is going to provide enough open space in its Atlantic Yards arena and housing development.
Let’s put this another way: the three community boards closest to the project site, at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, have between 1.25 and 1.7 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, according to the city parks department. Assuming 15,000 new residents and 7 acres of publicly accessible open space, Atlantic Yards would provide only 0.47 acres per 1,000 people.
That would result in what environmental impact statements call a “negative impact.” An independent consultant is undertaking an E.I.S. study right now, upon which officials will base their decision to approve or deny the land-use changes. (Well, they may take other factors into consideration, also.)
In other words, though Forest City has been celebrating the fact that its development will provide Brooklynites new parkland, it will be bringing so many more people into the neighborhood that they will more than cancel out any benefit.
–Matthew Schuerman
