- Proposed alternative fueling station in Hunts Point. Image: Courtesy of Atlantis Management Group WXY Architecture.
Public facility within Hunts Point Food Distribution Center would provide alternative fuel pumps and maintenance bays to retrofit and convert conventional fuel engines. On November 30, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Small Business Services’ proposal to allow the Atlantis Management Group to redevelop a City-owned lot within the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center into the City’s first public alternative fueling facility. Atlantis Management will lease and redevelop the 18,000 sq.ft. brownfield site located at the corner of Halleck Street and Food Center Drive. The lot is surrounded by the Fulton Fish Market, Hunts Point Co-op Meat Market, and Baldor Specialty Foods.
More than 77,000 vehicles a day, including 12,000 diesel trucks, move in and out of the Hunts Points peninsula. According to EDC, heavy duty diesel engines are responsible for 25 to 50 percent of the local pollution emissions. EDC in 2010 selected Atlantis Management to develop an alternative fueling facility. The facility will include 28 pumps for biodiesel, ethanol, compressed natural gas, traditional gasoline and diesel fuels, and four charging stations for electric vehicles. The project will also include a 1,800 sq.ft. maintenance facility capable of converting diesel engines to burn biodiesel, ethanol, and compressed natural gas, as well as retrofitting engines with other emissions-reducing technology. Atlantis Management will build a 6,600 sq.ft. building with a food court, banking facility, and office space for a green marketing organization. To reduce emissions from idling vehicles using the facility, there will be at least eleven electrical charging stalls for trucks with refrigeration needs.
Bronx Community Board 2, and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. supported the proposal. Diaz pointed out that the Hunts Point area is located in a Coastal Zone Management Area, and urged Atlantis to install storm-water retention systems to minimize rainwater runoff.
At the Commission’s hearing in November 2011, High Point Engineering’s Chris Tartaglia described the project’s stormwater retention efforts, stating that the site’s subsurface contamination precluded the use of bioswales (vegetated buffer areas that provide an alternative to storm sewers). Instead, Atlantis developed a stormwater plan that includes the use of green roofs to reduce roof runoff by 80 percent. Atlantis’ co-counsel, Stanley Schline, testified that Atlantis would hire locally, and that the project would create approximately 50 construction jobs and 40 to 50 permanent jobs. No one opposed the project.
The Commission approved the proposal, and the City Council declined to review the application.
CPC: Hunts Point Alternative Fueling Station (C 120044 PPX – dispo. of property) (Nov. 30, 2011).