BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — The battle against the developments rising in Brooklyn Bridge Park brought hundreds of locals to a town hall meeting this week to discuss the ongoing disputes against the city-run corporation that operates the park.
Opponents claim the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has deliberately mislead the community in its development of the Pierhouse and proposed condo towers with affordable housing at Pier 6.
The corporation, however, maintains that it has not acted improperly.
Roughly 400 residents packed the pews Wednesday night at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, located at 157 Montague St., for the meeting organized by four local advocacy groups. The audience also included elected officials or their representatives.
"To have so many people come out, it's just fabulous," said Steven Guterman, president of Save the View Now. "It just really does show the frustration the community has."
Brooklyn Bridge Park, which stretches 1.3 miles along the East River, was built on the premise that income from residential and commercial development within the park would be necessary for its maintenance and operation.
That includes the buildings at Pier 6, the corporation that runs the park has said.
But the local groups, which have analyzed the park's finances independently, claim there is no financial need to develop Pier 6. The corporation initially stated it would not develop the green space beyond the financial requirement, Guterman said.
"Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation needs to realize that this is a park, not a developer's playground," Guterman said at the meeting.
More than a third of the proposed 339 units in the two condo towers at Pier 6 would be affordable. Those towers have been endorsed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in his push for more affordable housing in the city, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But the project recently stalled after the Empire State Development board, a state oversight panel, found there was huge public opposition from locals and elected officials, the newspaper reported in February.
During the meeting, groups urged locals to sign a petition addressed to the mayor, urging him to "adhere to the commitment that were made to our community at the time that the Brooklyn Bridge Park was created."
Those commitments include protecting views of the Brooklyn Bridge and from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade "as well as that commercial and residential development within the park be limited to only that needed to support the Park financially," the petition said.
"However, now more than ten years later, we find that those commitments have been cast aside by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation."
In December, Save the View Now and the Brooklyn Heights Association filed a lawsuit against the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, the city and Toll Brothers, which is the developer behind the construction of the Pierhouse on the East River.
The lawsuit claims the penthouse of the waterfront condo under construction at 130 Furman St. blocks part of a city-protected scenic view from the Brooklyn Heights promenade. That case is currently under review by the court.
A separate and earlier case filed by Save the View Now claimed that the Pierhouse project was now taller than what had been originally planned. That case was tossed out by a state Supreme Court judge in September, but the group has appealed the decision and is awaiting a date for oral arguments.
The Pierhouse will include 108 multi-million dollar condos and a hotel operated by Starwood, called 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has previously said that the Pierhouse development will "comply with the scenic view zoning requirements.”
