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Residents and council members press EDC on transit, flood resiliency and the concrete recycling facility
Summary
Council members and residents challenged EDC on whether existing transit, stormwater and roadway capacity can absorb the redevelopment and pressed EDC to address the concrete recycling facility that neighbors say has caused dust and health problems.
Council members and community witnesses used the Economic Development Committee's oversight hearing to press the EDC for details on transportation, coastal resiliency and local environmental health impacts related to the Brooklyn Marine Terminal plan.
Council member Shahana Hanif raised the concrete recycling facility adjacent to the Columbia Waterfront as an immediate public‑health concern and asked EDC whether it could commit to closing the facility "to a nonresidential area immediately." EDC replied that the most reliable way to remove as‑of‑right industrial uses is through a site plan and land‑use changes, and that, absent an approved plan, such uses may legally continue under current zoning. Hanif responded that the answer was not satisfactory for residents living with dust and noise.
Transportation questions dominated much of the committee questioning. Members asked whether EDC had coordinated with the Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and requested specifics about truck routing, the impacts on Atlantic Avenue and Columbia Street, and whether the project would make closing the northbound BQE on‑ramp at Atlantic Avenue harder or more likely. EDC testified it is coordinating with DOT and MTA, has committed $25 million for an electric shuttle, and said it expects to increase NYC Ferry headways at Red Hook from roughly a 50‑minute to 40‑minute cadence and eventually to about 30 minutes.
Residents and elected officials repeatedly pointed to existing congestion and emergency‑access concerns on Atlantic Avenue, Columbia and Hicks streets, and emphasized the neighborhood's current transit challenges, including a low rental vacancy rate and limited subway access. Multiple witnesses said the area is a transit desert and urged immediate improvements rather than relying on long‑range promises tied to market‑rate housing proceeds. EDC said some transportation measures can and will be delivered early, while others depend on proceeds from phased development and MTA decisions.
Several community groups and environmental advocates raised coastal resiliency concerns. EDC said the project will include a comprehensive coastal protection strategy and that the GPP will include a neighborhood condition study and an environmental review, with a public scoping period and hearings. Advocates asked for a neighborhood‑wide resilience plan rather than project‑footprint solutions and said the initial proposed barrier would protect only a share of the peninsula, leaving other neighborhoods at risk.
Ending: Council members and community groups asked for immediate steps to mitigate localized health impacts and for binding schedules and performance metrics for transportation and resiliency commitments. EDC said environmental review and GPP scoping will include those analyses and that the development corporation and task force oversight will be instructed to report on delivery of commitments; residents and advocates said they want enforceable guarantees before endorsing a plan.
