On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in Brooklyn to call on Governor Paterson to send the Atlantic Yards mega-project back to the drawing board. The controversial project, which would bring an arena and 17 skyscrapers to Prospect Heights, has reportedly been stalled and scaled down due to financial problems.
From a transportation planning perspective, one of the egregious aspects of the project is the addition of 1400 “temporary” parking spaces in surface lots. (“Temporary” meaning until 2016 or 2018 or whenever the developer is able to finish the second phase of the project, if ever.) The Municipal Arts Society has posted rather upsetting renderings of the Atlantic Yards site with the proposed parking lots. See http://atlanticlots.com/
Don’t forget the large parking garage planned as part of the BAM district, and the underground garage that the city is trying to condemn the Duffield Street properties for.
[...] This is the first lawsuit from members of the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, which has tried to work with the state and Ratner towards a better site plan for three years. The Tri-State Campaign (which is a member of BrooklynSpeaks but did not join this lawsuit) has argued that the project’s transportation planning includes serious flaws, including the creation of 1,400 “temporary” surface parking spaces. [...]