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-Atlantic Yards Development Workshop
AYDWS Team:
Marshall Brown, Anna Dietzsch
John Nafziger, Sarah Strauss
Urban Planners:
Dr. Tom Angotti
Ron Shiffman
Visit UNITYplan.org
(download the UNITY Plan
- pdf) |
The
"Atlantic Yards" proposal was announced in December 2003. In March 2004
Councilwoman Letitia
James and the Atlantic Yards Development Workshop (AYDWS), led by urban
designer and architect Marshall Brown, convened
a community charette bringing together stakeholders, laypeople, and
professionals to envision community-based planning for development over
the rail yards (officially known as Vanderbilt Yards) which form a border
between Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.
The UNITY Community
Development Plan grew out of this charette and a fifteen month
Period spent refining the plan and presenting to stakeholders all around
the communities that surround the rail yards–Prospect Heights, Fort
Greene, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill, and Park Slope.
In February 2005 a loose coalition of community-based organizations began
meeting to prepare for the environmental review of the Ratner proposal.
Using the principles behind the UNITY Plan, the groups
developed and forumulated a document called Principles
For Responsible Community Development On The Vanderbilt Rail Yards
which has since been endorsed by 23 community based organizations, as well
as Congressman Major Owens, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, and Councilwoman
Letitia James, all of whom represent the districts where the rail yards
are located.
(In April 2007 a community charette convened
again to update the UNITY plan considering the current status of the
Vanderbilt Yards and possible, varied outcomes of the Atlantic Yards proposal
coming to fruition.)
In May 2005, after much public pressure, the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) issued a Request For Proposals (RFP)
for the sale or lease of all or some of the 8.4 acre Vanderbilt Yard (Vanderbilt
Yard is the MTA's official name for the rail yards.) The MTA barely advertised
the RFP (2 placements only). So, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn mailed the
RFP, along with a cover letter and the Principles
For Responsible Community Development On The Vanderbilt Rail Yards
to one hundred developers. The few who responded were deterred by the political
situation swirling around Ratner's project. But one firm, Extell Development
Company, agreed to meet with some DDDB members.
After showing the UNITY Plan and The Principles
to Extell, the development firm decided to submit a proposal to the MTA,
with thirty days left in the ludicrously short 42-day time period the MTA
had set for proposal submission. The plan submitted to the MTA by the Extell
Development Company is guided by the principles underlying the UNITY
Plan. (See: Yard
Fight, by Peter Slatin. July 8, 2005 in The Slatin Report.)
Extell bid $150 million for the rail yards, versus Ratner’s low-ball
bid of $50 million. Despite the MTA’s own appraisal of $214.5 million,
the clearly fixed and deficient bidding process led to a decision by the
MTA board to negotiate exclusively with Ratner–whom they had been
working with and negotiating with for over two years–over an extended
45 day period.
When that period ended, to nobody’s surprise, Ratner upped his offer
to $100 million and, still well below the Extell bid and well below the
appraisal, the MTA approved the sale of the yards to Ratner. But that sale
will not close unless “Atlantic Yards” is approved. MTA Chairman
Peter Kalikow, when challenged by the only dissenting board member Mitchell
Pally, said, “I’m not going to be beholden by that appraisal,
it’s just some guy’s idea of what those yards are worth.”
The Extell Plan is a viable, financially-backed plan which will be studied
as an alternative plan, and its impacts compared to "Atlantic Yards"
in the ongoing environmental review.
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Click image to enlarge.
Click image to enlarge.
Click for more plan models.
by Raanan Geberer
UNITY
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Brooklynites looking for an alternative to Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards
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Ratner plans to build on,...
Yard
Battle: UNITY vs. FCRC
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By Nik Kovac
"When you sell a pizza by the slice," explained Fort Greene architect
Marshall Brown last Wednesday evening, "you get more value." Brown was
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