Judge blocks towers, Politicians hope to halt development

As Mary Frost reports in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a new park advocacy group - People for Green Space Foundation - has won a temporary restraining order that prevents Brooklyn Bridge Park from moving forward with its Request for Proposals (RFP) that could bring two residential towers to the foot of Atlantic Avenue adjacent to Cobble Hill. The advocates have argued that the RFP was altered after the fact to include affordable housing, a key issue that Mayor DeBlasio has raised citywide in all potential developments.

In response, the four local elected officials - State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblymember Joan Millman, and City Councilmembers Brad Lander and Steve Levin - released a joint statement below:

"This lawsuit is yet another example of why we have urged the administration to stop moving forward at a breakneck speed on the Bloomberg-era plan for housing at Pier 6, and instead begin to work with the community.
“We have long voiced concern about housing in the park and will continue to do so, especially in light of the continued unknowns at the LICH site, which is a stone’s throw from Pier 6 and will have infrastructure and planning impacts on the same immediate area. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and the Administration should immediately cease any action on this RFP and begin a community-driven process to revisit other viable options to the Bloomberg plan for housing at Pier 6."

The Cobble Hill has long been opposed to housing within Brooklyn Bridge Park, and instead hopes to see all park land maximized for the active use of the residents of Brooklyn. Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund - of which the CHA is a coalition partner - added, “We are now at a crossroads and look to the Mayor’s leadership to pull us away from the draconian Bloomberg policy of privatizing our public parks with private housing.” The Defense Fund's full statement can be found here.