The City Planning Commission had refused recommendation to relocate sanitation garage on the 52nd Street Pier. On December 21, 2009, the City Council approved Brooklyn Community Board 7’s comprehensive plan to improve the Sunset Park waterfront, known as “New Connections/ New Opportunities – Sunset Park 197-a Plan.” The waterfront is zoned primarily for manufacturing uses and fell into disrepair in the 1960s and 1970s. The City owns most of the waterfront property.
CB7 began the planning process thirteen years ago. The 256- page plan sets forth recommendations to promote industrial redevelopment and job creation, while also preserving the waterfront’s existing commercial and residential uses. The community board recommended the proposed Bush Terminal Piers waterfront park, expanding bus and ferry service, and relocating a Department of Sanitation garage on the 52nd Street Pier to provide more public parking and open space. Sanitation objected to relocating the garage, however, because it adequately served the needs of Community Districts 7 and 10. 6 CityLand 155 (Nov. 15, 2009).
During its review of the proposal, the City Planning Commission removed the recommendation to relocate the garage. It noted that Sanitation sited the garage at its current location because there was no other suitably-zoned property in Community District 10. Commending the overall plan, the Commission also noted that much of the waterfront property is under the jurisdiction of the City’s Economic Development Corporation and that CB7’s objectives were consistent with EDC’s recently released Sunset Park Waterfront Vision Plan.
At the Council’s Planning, Disposition & Concessions Subcommittee hearing, Council Member Sara M. Gonzalez, whose district includes Sunset Park, pointed out that she had worked on the 197-a plan in her former capacity as the chair of CB7 and expressed her “unequivocal support” for the proposal. The Subcommittee unanimously approved the modified plan, as did the Land Use Committee and the full Council.
Review Process
Lead Agency: CPC,Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: BK 7,App’d, 33-0-0
Boro.Pres.: App’d
CPC: App’d, 12-0-0
Council: 50-0-2
Council: Sunset Park Waterfront 197-a Plan (Dec. 21, 2009).