Petition Pushes For Vacant Gowanus Site To Be Turned Into Park

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A proposal to turn a city-owned site slated for a housing complex into a park instead will face the community board this week.

Community Board 6's Landmarks and Land Use Committee will hear a presentation Thursday from a group who envision turning a vacant brownfield site next to the Gowanus Canal near Fifth and Smith streets into a waterfront park, instead of the city's plan for an affordable housing complex.

The "Gowanus Lands" proposal has gotten the attention of several hundred New Yorkers who have so far signed a petition about the idea.

"This site is a public asset, and City Hall will decide what to do with it," the group writes on their website. "If enough people say they want a park, City Hall will listen!"

The former industrial site, known by some as "Public Place," is currently slated by the city for a development known as "Gowanus Green," which will include more than 700 housing units, and outdoor amphitheater, a school and a smaller park.

The development is led by the city, Hudson Companies Fifth Avenue Committee, Bluestone Organization and Jonathan Rose Companies.

The development, which was first proposed in 2008, has been put on hold due to the upcoming rezoning of the neighborhood and an ongoing federal clean-up in the canal.

Residents pushing for the "Gowanus Lands" park plan say they aren't necessarily opposed to the city's proposal, but hope to add the idea for a larger park to the conversation.

“The renderings are really more of a first concept, we’re just trying to spark people’s imagination and give them a sense of what it could be,” Mac Thayer, one of two neighbors behind the proposal, told Brownstoner.

The "Gowanus Lands" proposal is set to face the community board committee during their virtual meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday. Find more information about how to tune in here. Find renderings of the "Gowanus Lands" proposal and more information about the idea here.