Van Brunt Night Detour Next Week and Construction Update

Next week a block of Van Brunt will be closed at night for construction. Maybe this means things are moving along on the delayed street work? It's all in this update from our local Community Board District Manager Craig Hammerman. Fingers crossed they will really get things back to normal by next summer, so traffic and safety issues on Columbia Street can finally be addressed.

Greetings!

The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has advised us of an upcoming Night Work Operation that will involve a Night Street Closure of Van Brunt Street from Union Street to President Street (Southbound traffic).

Southbound trucks on Columbia Street will be detoured onto Congress Street, then Hicks Street.

This street closure/detour will be in affect on or about Wednesday, October 19, 2011 through Wednesday, October 26, 2011, from 9:00pm to 5:00am.

NOTE: Van Brunt Street will be open to all traffic during the day and non-construction hours.

Click here for more information, or use the following link:
http://brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#1


As for the balance of the Reconstruction of Columbia Street (HWK700A) Capital project, DDC reports that they are anticipating the completion of work on the Sewer Chamber at President and Van Brunt Streets by the end of October.

Other remaining work includes: the Completion of the Sewer along Van Brunt Street (between Degraw Street and Hamilton Avenue), which should be completed by the end of December 2011.

The Completion of the Water Main along Van Brunt Street (between Degraw Street and Hamilton Avenue), which should be completed by the end of February 2012.

The Completion of Curb, Sidewalk, and Roadway surface of Van Brunt Street (between Degraw Street and Hamilton Avenue), which should be completed by the end of April 2012.

The Re-opening of Van Brunt Street, which involves the removal of the detour at Van Brunt Street/Hamilton Avenue/Summit Street and the restoration of two-way traffic along Van Brunt Street, which should occur by the end of April 2012.

Lastly, the Completion of work on Summit Street (between Columbia and Van Brunt Street), which should occur by the end of June 2012.

We will continue to provide updates as they become available to us.  Please bear in mind that work schedules are susceptible to slippage due to weather, field conditions, and other variables.


Best, 

Craig

Craig R. Hammerman
District ManagerBrooklyn Community Board 6

COWNA General Meeting - Wednesday, 5/12 at the Urban Meadow

The Spring General Meeting of the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association will take place this Wednesday, 5/12. The agenda will include:

• A presentation by Ana Baptiste of the Ironbound Community Corp. on behalf of the Coalition for Healthy Ports.
• A review of progress in our efforts to improve safety on Columbia Street.
• Status of the Columbia Street Reconstruction Project.
• Report on the BQE Enhancement Study workshop.
• Report on the salt pile.
• Announcement of an effort to obtain bike racks for the neighborhood.
• Committee updates.

Location: The Urban Meadow (President Street at Van Brunt)

In case of rain: 29 Tiffany Place, Penthouse Community Room

Time: 6:45pm (please come on time so we can make use of daylight)

Please spread the word!

DDC Columbia St reconstruction project update

Earlier this week at the COWNA meeting, it was announced that the Department of Design and Construction has received funding to complete the remaining parts of the Columbia St reconstruction project, which are actually on Van Brunt and Summit St (this project is also known as HWK7000a).

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6, also sent out the email below this week, which provides some additional details:

Recently, I had requested written confirmation from the Department of Design and Construction regarding the resumption of the Reconstruction of Columbia Street as we were told that they had intended to resume work on the Van Brunt Street leg of the project "sometime around Thanksgiving." Sadly, the department is still unable to provide a start date for the resumption of construction activities. What we did learn was the following:

"As for the project, the funding to resume work has been approved in late October. When the funding was approved the NYC-DDC instructed the contractor to prepare and submit the necessary paperwork to resume work on Van Brunt Street. The contractor has to obtain Environmental Permits from both the city and the state. The contractor also has to prepare and submit sheeting plans for the new scope of work, any new subcontractors, etc. The contractor also must take new soil samples on Van Brunt Street because the previous samples are too old. The contractor, the field office and NYC- DDC are reviewing what environmental sampling is necessary to proceed with the scope of work.

An actual start date is difficult to determine at this time because it is dependent on the results of the environmental samples. Some (but not all) of the factors that impact the start date are the following:

1. the level of contamination and the type of contamination (metals, VOC's,SVOC's, etc)
2. finding and approving an appropriate disposal facility based on lab results; and
3. the location of contamination. For instance, if the contamination is at a location where we are about to start with or a location that the contractor will not get to for at least two or three months?

When a start date is chosen by the DDC, we will notify you such that you will be able to schedule a task for meeting before work resumes.

Please remember to call Ms. Nurse* at 718-875-3981, if you have any questions."

Blighted Development sites

Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for City Council in the 39th District (which includes the Columbia Waterfront) has already started working on issues before even taking office (as the Democratic nominee, he is the most likely contender to win in the general election), and we must say that the first issue he chose to tackle is a very commendable one.

He sent out an email last week asking local residents to email his office information about any blighted development sites. The email said the following:

Earlier this week, the Daily News published an Op Ed I wrote on what the City can to do address the problem of stalled or abandoned construction sites. The article focuses on 824 Friel Place in Kensington -- a particularly egregious example -- but as I've been knocking doors around the district, I've seen the problem in every one of our neighborhoods. Addressing the problem is going to require working both on a site-by-site level (bring together neighbors to confront owners and lenders, and to work together for short and long-term solution), as well as new citywide policies.

If you live near a blighted development site, please email us about it at info@bradlander.com. We're putting together a list (we will build on the interesting map initiated on the Brian Lehrer show) so that we can help address individual sites, and bring people together to work toward broader solutions.

This is a very important issue citywide, and our neighborhood is no exception. If you know of a site, we urge you to please send in the information and let Brad's office work on a solution.

An excerpt from the above mentioned Daily News Op Ed sums up the issue best as follows:

New York City has the power to do something about this. We can change the rules so that blighted construction sites have to be quickly cleaned up … or we’ll take them over, and turn them into something useful, like affordable housing for families who need it, or community gardens (if the site is a vacant lot). The main obstacle here is not money. It's our willingness to confront developers whose failure has become a blight to our neighborhoods. We’ve been all-too-willing to use eminent domain to help developers acquire property for mega-projects. Why not use the City’s tax, emergency repair, and foreclosure powers to help our neighborhoods confront real blight?

Historic building coming down, nearby concrete plant going up

Mike McLaughin of the Brooklyn Paper provided updates on two sites near Ikea in Red Hook this week that leav us feeling like we've been hit with something along the lines of a double whammy:

Concrete Plant on Beard St.
The opening of a concrete plant on Beard St. is moving ahead, and officials from the company have recently met with Red Hook residents about community concerns. The Brooklyn Paper article provides the following quotes:

“We think the dust coming off the site will be less than if it was [still] a vacant lot,” said Michael Gentoso, a regional vice president for US Concrete. The local business will be a subsidiary called Eastern Concrete.....

But some say it’s too close for comfort. US Concrete’s factory would sit across the street from Added Value, a community farm, and Red Hook Park, with its sprawling athletic fields.

It is also next to the Ikea superstore, with its peaceful waterfront park.

“It’s an awkward location that should have required more study,” said John McGettrick, co-president of the Red Hook Civic Association.

McGettrick said the company should perform an environmental review before opening, but officials from the company dodged the request, neither consenting to nor rejecting it.

The complaints extend to the expected noise, exhaust and traffic from the 15 to 20 trucks that the company says it will operate from the site.

“Traffic is going to be too much. In and out. In and out,” said Lillian Marshall, tenants association president for Red Hook Houses West.........

The Revere Sugar Factory site / Sitt's Mega Mall

Brooklyn Paper also observed that demolition of the historic Revere Sugar Factory building began last week, which possibly suggests that developer Joe Sitt has soured on his plans for a mega mall that would have incorporated the building.

The article says:

The old warehouse, along Beard Street near the Ikea superstore, was all that Sitt left standing after he tore down most of the sugar factory in 2006 to the howls of preservationists, who said that the Revere plant, with its iconic dome, was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Since then, the site has been quiet, but Sitt has been talking about repurposing the brick storehouse as a mall with BJ’s as the anchor tenant, according to documents obtained by The Brooklyn Paper.

Given that the Swedish furniture company’s big box store is next to Sitt’s property, many believed that Red Hook’s waterfront might become the shopping outlet center of the city.

The sudden burst of activity in Red Hook is a change for Sitt who has been preoccupied with larger pieces of real estate puzzle.

Its not like we were thrilled with the prospects of a mega mall on the site, but the plan that had been previously released for that at least incorporated this building. Now its being torn down - and who knows what we'll end up with.

Additional coverage of this topic can also be found on Curbed, including the excellent photo below:

Image from Curbed via Flickr/Lazzo51

51 Woodhull St. Development nears completion

Brownstoner reports that this 10 unit apartment building at 51 Woodhull (between Columbia and Hicks) is nearing completion.

We've heard at community meetings in the past that some of the neighbors aren't too happy, but since its already built, we can now only hope that it won't sit vacant.

Also worth noting is that this building fits within current zoning, but probably wouldn't be allowed within the future zoning proposed by COWNA since it is not contextual with the other buildings on the block.


image above from Brownstoner

Rezoning victory for Columbia St. Waterfront!

For over a year, the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association (COWNA) has been working on a plan to have a big chunk of the neighborhood rezoned from R6 zoning to R6B, which in summary means that all new developments will have to fit into the neighborhood's existing context (i.e. through stricter building height and setback requirements).

As of this week, all of the hard work that COWNA has put into this plan has paid off! Amanda Burden, the Director of City Planning has stated her support for the plan and will include the Columbia St. Waterfront's zoning change into the larger Carroll Gardens plan.

Read COWNA's release of this news here.

For aspiring Urban Planning nerds or anyone else who is generally interested, a crash course of the various Residential Zoning codes can be found here

Pleasant surprise.

We were worried about the building being built on Columbia street, between Summit and Woodhull. It was unveiled recently, and it's not too bad.
Still too high, but at least it's brick, respecting the look of the rest of the street.

Update: According to the first comment below, this building is by Gino Vitale "of Red Hook fame." A quick google search of Mr. Vitale brings us to this interesting article. Thanks for the info, anonymous commenter!

Beautification of Construction Sites

This is coming a little late, but I love that we have local artists like Jay Crider taking the time to beautify so many of the neighborhood's construction sites with art. It can make ugly wood paneling and scaffolding into something that's actually really nice to look at.

Unfortunately, given the lateness of this post, I actually missed my opportunity to get pictures of some of the other ones that were up around the neighborhood (i.e. the one at House of Pizza).

Is this also Jay Crider?
Jay Crider also did this piece outside of the Red Tin Shack on Union St.