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Parking Spots and Sidewalks Lost to Make 16-Ft. Wall at Atlantic Yards Site

By Rachel Holliday Smith | November 26, 2014 1:03pm | Updated on December 1, 2014 8:59am
 Parking, a bike lane and sidewalks will be affected by new construction starting in December at Atlantic Yards.
Construction Plans at Atlantic Yards
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PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Up to 100 parking spaces and three blocks of sidewalk will be walled off in Prospect Heights for the next two years as the newest phase of the Atlantic Yards project begins, the developers said.

Workers have already blocked off the space needed to build a 16-foot-high, 6-foot-wide construction wall meant to reduce noise at the block-long construction site on Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, where two high-rises are set to break ground in the coming months, according to a site plan from the developers.

During the two years of construction, no parking will be allowed on Carlton Avenue, Dean Street or Vanderbilt Avenue, totaling 85 to 100 spots, according to a presentation by the developers at a community meeting held last week.

Sidewalks directly adjacent to the construction on Carlton Avenue, Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue will be closed, the plan said, and one B65 bus stop will be temporarily relocated. The bike lane on Carlton Avenue between Dean and Pacific streets will share a lane with vehicle traffic; the dedicated bike lanes on Dean and Vanderbilt will remain unchanged.

“This is obviously a tight squeeze and a disruption to the community,” Ashley Cotton, a spokeswoman for developer Greenland Forest City Partners, said of the construction barrier. She added that Forest City will monitor it closely with the help of the NYPD and Department of Transportation “to make sure it’s a safe place for our pedestrians and cars.”

In December, work will start on 535 Carlton Ave., an 18-story affordable housing complex revealed in August by Greenland Forest City Partners, and will continue in the new year with 550 Vanderbilt Ave., a market-rate building with plans for 275 units.

The developers agreed to include “sound attenuation,” or noise reduction, at the Atlantic Yards site as part of an environmental impact agreement with the state, Cotton said, which she said is the reason the wall is so large.

“There’s always give and take with these things. We get sound attenuation and we lose 6 more feet of street,” she said.

News of the construction changes was first reported by the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report.

In September, the state seized seven properties including a storage facility currently being vacated of tenants — on behalf of Forest City in the footprint of the 22-acre building project at Atlantic Yards, renamed Pacific Park this summer.

Four residential buildings, a public school and space open to the public will ultimately be built at the site.