Controversial Pier 6 Development In Brooklyn Bridge Park Gets Hearing

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A fierce battle over two dusty patches of land next to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 will begin Wednesday when the Brooklyn Heights Association takes the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation to court.

The Brooklyn Heights Association plans to debate its claim that two residential high rises planned for 15 and 50 Bridge Park Drive break a legally-binding promise, made by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, to develop real estate in the area only when it became a financial necessity for maintaining the park. The BBPC contends that is, in fact, a financial necessity.

Both the BHA and the BBP are expected to present their arguments to Justice Lucy Billings in New York Supreme Civil Court Wednesday afternoon.

The BHA suit — filed last summer after plans for a 155-foot-tall 16-story tower at 15 Bridge Park Drive and a 315-foot-tall, 30-story tower were approved by City Hall — argues that the BBP doesn’t need more money to maintain the park, that the buildings will cause overcrowding in the neighborhood’s schools, subway stations and streets, and that development in the area has already gone overboard.

“It’s like saying, why can’t a developer build a tower in the middle of Central Park?” said BHA Executive Director Peter Bray. “We think the park ought to be a park.”

The BBP countered BHA’s allegations with a warning — without a new influx of funds Brooklyn Bridge Park’s infrastructure would quickly fall into disrepair and large areas might need to close. Their statement, released in February, told BHA officials in no uncertain terms to check their math.

"The Pier 6 project will provide the park with funding it needs to serve millions of New Yorkers for decades to come” said a BBP spokesman in a statement Wednesday. “We have repeatedly made clear the necessity and merits of this project and look forward to tomorrow's hearing."

The neighborhood remains wary.

Chris Richter, 50, who has lived in Brooklyn Heights for almost 20 years, believes that wealthier people moving into the neighborhood can afford and should pay more taxes to upkeep public spaces and not depend on corporate backing.

“If we’re going to gentrify this neighborhood,” said Richter, “we have the financial ability to put in and we should be called upon to do so.”

And Matt Brogan, 57, who has been living in the neighborhood for 15 years, is concerned about what overcrowding will do to the park — a place that he likes because any New Yorker can enjoy it, regardless of income.

“I think with this development of the park, it’s going to cease to be a park — It’s going to become a backyard for wealthy people.”

Image via Kathleen Culliton