Page 6 - Demo

Attention atATURA Turns toEnvironmentalConcerns in PlanContinued from Page 1Board Two and other community organizations in January, and extensive comments from those organizations as well as from City agencies involved in the project made it necessary for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be sent back to the consultants for more work%u2014bringing the total cost of the study to $525,000, up from the $325,000 allocated last year.%u201cThroughout the review process some items have been addressed in more detail than originally expected,%u201d said Hardy Adasko of the Public Development Corporation in explaining the differences between the current EIS and the chapters released in January. Adasko said that while some of the changes incorporated concerns voiced by the community, many more were the result of shifting demands by City agencies concerning the proper methods of measuring various environmental impacts.An example of the complexity of these technical problems lies in the study of traffic and air pollution problems, which was one of the most heavily revised sections. The City Planning Commission first requested that the traffic analysis use as its scale of comparison a standard, descriptive scale which grades traffic congestion from A to F. Later it requested that a more precise measure %u2014 volume to capacity ratios %u2014 be used. In the final report, both measures are used.SOME OF THE CONCLUSIONSIn general, the revised EIS for the project came to the following conclusions:1 The project would have a positiveeconomic impact on the downtownBrooklyn area by bringing in new jobs and commercial activity.1 The influx of new stores would not, however, adversely affect the currently commercial strips, such as Fulton St. and Fifth Ave.1 Traffic and air quality will be at least as bad in the downtown area after construction as they are at present. But the report projects that traffic conditions would deteriorate even if the project were not built, and argues that because of various street improvements called for in the plan, traffic will actually be more congested if the development is not built.1 On-street parking in the area would be reduced by about 150 spaces.1 Atlantic Terminal%u2019s housing component would not substantially alter the ethnic and economic makeup of the Ft. Greene population.1 The visual impact of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Brooklyn%u2019s tallest building, would be reduced by the construction of two 24-story office buildings opposite it on Hanson PI.SOME NEGATIVE IMPACTS These conclusions are essentially the same as those reached in the earlier drafts of the report circulated in January. Neither are there any large changes in the measures proposed to offset negative impacts:1 Atlantic Ave. should be widened by one lane between Fourth Ave. and Flatbush Ave. Various other streets should be restriped to create left turn lanes, which would help congested traffic flow more smoothly.1 The free transfer between IRT and BMT subway lines at the Atlantic Ave. station should be eliminated to reduceSome of the Findings in the EnvironmentalImpact Statement on Atlantic Terminal ProjectPOSITIVE IMPACTS%u25a0 Boosting commercial activity.%u25a0 Increasing the City%u2019s tax base.%u25a0 Sustaining the econom ic andsocial diversity of Ft. G reene%u2019spopulation.%u25a0 Providing more than 8000construction-related jobs andmore than 3000 permanent jobsin the offices and businesses inthe com pleted project.%u25a0 Creating 600 new units ofm iddle-incom e housing.NEGATIVE IMPACTS%u25a0 Hampering the efforts of localshopping strips like Fifth Ave. tobroaden their base of stores.%u25a0 Increasing traffic congestion onFlatbush and Atlantic Aves.%u25a0 Increasing air pollution levels.%u25a0 Reducing visual im pact of theW illiamsburgh Savings Banktower, Brooklyn%u2019s tallest building.%u25a0 Reducing daytime on-street parking in the area by up to 150spaces.pedestrian traffic in underground passageways.1 Traffic signals in various places should be re-timed to ease traffic congestion and reduce the concentration of autonn11,.fnr^ i*i -- t v i u b v u a n p v u u t a i u o u i u i c a i v > a .The report also details the revenues that the City hopes to reap from the project. There are a number of public subsidies for the development, including: $5 million from the surplus of the Municipal Assistance Corporation; $20 million in construction aid for various public amenities such as open recreational areas and the parking lot; and $16.25 million from the Federal government to bring down the cost of the 643 condominium housing units.The latter subsidy, an Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG), was in doubt earlier this year because of attempts by the Reagan Administration to force Congress to rescind funding for the program. But Congress let pass a deadline for voting on the rescision of funds, and Atlantic Terminal will likely receive its UDAG late this summer.In return for this assistance, the project is estimated to generate $27.9 million in State and City tax revenues from construction alone%u2014mostly from sales and corporate taxes. Once the project was built, the City would obtain an undetermined amount of revenue from real estate taxes; a percentage of the cash flow on the parking garage; income from rental of the land underneath the development to Rose Associates; and percentages of the cost of various transactions in the commercial properties, such as building sales and improvements.The annual income of Rose Associates is limited by agreement to 10 percent of the total revenues generated by the project.For those living near the project, potentially the most significant and immediately obvious impact of the project will be on traffic conditions.Although it is anticipated that the majority of office workers employed in Atlantic TerContinued on Following PageAtlantic Terminal Has Long Seen a Hub of Planners9 DreamsBY ROBERT COHENThe way Hardy Adasko sees it, the thoroughfares crisscrossing the site of the proposed Atlantic Avenue Terminal Urban Renewal Area (ATURA) in downtown Brooklyn are an urban planner%u2019s traffic migraine, and have been ever since the area was settled early in the Nineteenth Century.But, Adasko, who works for the City%u2019s Public Development Corporation and is one of the new development%u2019s project managers, believes that awkward or not, the transporation hub formed by the intersection of the area%u2019s principal byways%u2014Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues%u2014can serve as the sustaining arteries of Jonathan Rose%u2019s $500 million mixed development project, fulfilling at long last the elusive dream of the builders of a previous era.That dream which was dashed in 1929 by the stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression, involved the creation of a bustling commercial and residential district in the shadow of Long Island%u2019s tallest structure, the Byzantine-inspired Williamsburg Savings Bank Building, completed in 1927.On a magnificent mosaic map gracing the interior of the central branch office on the ground floor of the 512-foot high concrete structure, you can read the original Dutch names of Breukelen%u2019s towns which survive today in recognizable, albeit Anglicized form.From several hundred feet above, on the twin observation decks of the building, the boundaries of the present day neighborhoods are clearly discernible in splendid perspective. And it was from this aerial vantage point on a clear and brisk afternoon May 4, that Hardy Adasko began a walking tour of the Atlantic Terminal area, one in a series of walks sponsored by the Brooklyn Historical Society.It took four elevator trips to transport 34 inquisitive Brooklynites to the 27th floor terraces from which height the tangle of intersections below can easily be sorted out, affording a singular visual perspective on the borough%u2019s history and destiny.With a little coaching, vou don%u2019t have to strain very hard to imagine a scene of 375 years ago-Brooklyn%u2019s original inhabitants, the Canarsee Indians trodding the forerunner of Atlantic Avenue, a wooded trail that led to Jamaica, Queens. Nor is it impossible to imagine those same indians journeying toproval, Rose%u2019s development plan calls for the demolition of the remains of the unused and dilapidated LIRR terminal building to make way for the supermarket, retailing and cinema complex, which together with a 24-story office tower, is to occupy the entire block where the terminal stands alongside an empty lot.A second 24-story office building will rise opposite its twin across Fort Greene Place, if the project goes according to plan. Below ground, an all-subterranean LIRR station is to be extensively renovated at an estimated cost of $12 million.Across the street from the railroad terminal, the landmark Atlantic Avenue Control House in the middle of Times Plaza, one of four kiosks still surviving from the construction of the New York City subway, is to be shorn of its unsightly commercial additions and restored to its original terracotta and limestone grace. According to th 5 existing plan, however, an elegant neoclassical building that once served as the home of the area%u2019s numerous casket companies is to be razed.The City, which owns the structure, currently leases it out to a tennis and health club. Also to be demolished are several homes, the owners of which have already been compensated by the City. These homes and the neo-classical building are to make way for the residential component of the plan%u2014over 600 condominium units for moderate-income families. Other notable structures in the area, however, will not be touched by ATURA development, including the Norwegian Seamans%u2019 House, the landmark Seventh Day Adventists Church on Hanson Place, and of course the Brooklyn Academy of Music.Citing statistics showing Downtown Brooklyn to be the nation%u2019s sixth largest retail market, Hardy Adasco argues that the Atlantic Terminal area has been in dire need of an economic base to fill the void left by the meat packing industry which once thrived there.%u201cThe urban renewal plan for the area is drastically different from the original %u201960%u2019s conception,%u201d he noted. %u201cThat the plansw n n lH n h a n o o m r o r q tu rn H o n o r jo n o r in H m o oinevitable given the social, political and demographic changes that have occurred during that time.%u201d He believes the proposed development plan is the best way to ensure the resurgence and revitalization of the Atlantic Terminal area.the Flatlands, along what was later to become Flatbush Avenue.The progress of the Battle of Long Island when General George Washington ordered the retreat of the outnumbered and outflanked Continental Army from Brooklyn, after the landing of 15,000 British mercenary troops is brought to life by instructive plaques that were bolted onto the observation decks%u2019 railing during the bicentennial celebration.Baker%u2019s Tavern where some British soldiers were billeted during the %u201cRed Coat%u201d occupation of Brooklyn, is generallythought to have stood at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Fort Greene Place, just in front of the Williamsburg Bank Building.A few yards away on a site more recently occupied by the original Long Island Railroad terminal, could be found the home of the original landowners of the City-owned ATURA parcel, the Van Couwenhoven family. The land was first ceded in 1647 when New York was New Amsterdam, and governed by Peter Stuyvesant for the Dutch East India Company. Subject to final apThe W illia m s b u rg Bank B u ild in g rises over th e now -gone Ft. G reene M eat M arket.Page 6, THE P H O E N IX , M ay 29, 1986I %u25a0