De Blasio Picks New Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation President

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill de Blasio has nominated a new president for The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation as it battles residents over a planned housing development on its southern pier.

Eric Landau, the city’s environmental protection agency deputy commissioner, has been slated to head the nonprofit that manages the 85-acre coastline park, the mayor announced Tuesday in a press release.

“Eric Landau has advocated for green space and sustainability for over a decade for our city,” said de Blasio.

“My administration looks forward to working with the park board to continue the critical work of developing, maintaining and protecting Brooklyn Bridge Park.”

Landau joins the corporation as it battles the Brooklyn Heights Association, an activist group that represents local residents and hopes to prevent the BBPC from building apartments on Pier 6 at the southernmost end of the park.

The Brooklyn Heights Association filed suit against the corporation in 2016, arguing the development would congest traffic and ruin views of the harbor.

The corporation responded with a statement accusing the BHA of “cherry-picking” facts and making “basic arithmetic errors,” and added that the new development would add 100 badly-needed affordable housing units to the neighborhood.

Landau has more than a decade of working with environmentalists and New Yorkers — he previously served as vice president of the Prospect Park Alliance and is currently deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

“I’m honored to be nominated as the next President of Brooklyn Bridge Park,” Landau said in a statement.

“I look forward to working with the Park’s board of directors, community residents and elected officials to build upon the already massive success of the Park.”

Photo courtesy Brooklyn Bridge Park Facebook.