Moderated by: Dr. William Solecki

Panelists: Rutherford Platt • Robert Yaro • Linda CoxWilbur L. Woods • Cortney Worral

TURNING THE TIDE:New York’s Waterfront in Transition

TURNING THE TIDE: New York’s Waterfront in Transition

Four Public Colloquia on the Transformation of New York City’s Waterfront and Harbor.

Organized by

The Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York

in collaboration with

The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

and

The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

TURNING THE TIDE: NEW YORK’S WATERFRONT IN TRANSITION

Session Dates and Topics

Feb. 24: “Opening Out Toward the Water”– The Big Picture

Mar. 17: Waterfront Parks: Old, New, Green, Blue

April 7: Seizing Opportunities: Waterfront Works in Progress April 28: Reviving the Estuary: Science and Education

Session One“Opening up to the Water:” The Big Picture

February 24, 2010

Introduction by

Rutherford H. Platt

Series Organizer Senior Fellow, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities and

Professor of Geography Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst

www.humanemetropolis.org

This series is inspired by:

The Humane Metropolis:People and Nature in the 21st Century City

University of Massachusetts Press andLincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2006

•Green

•Healthy and Safe

•Sustainable

•Equitable

•People-Friendly!

What is a “Humane Metropolis”?

An urban community at any scale (metro, city, suburb, neighborhood, block) that strives to be more––

Environment Magazine

July/Aug. 2009

Posted at:

www.humanemetropolis.org

New York’s Waterfrontis a Grand Experimentin creating a more humane megacity . . .

How did we get from this . . .

. . .to THIS?!

New York: “Matriarch of Megacities”

•Among World’s Ten Largest Cities (1900)and

Ten Largest Urban Regions (2006)

•The only “western” megacity among top ten today

•Long history of adapting to growth, decline, and diversity

•Innovative applications of technology, law, finance, and planning

•Model for large cities world-wide

Some New York “Megacity Milestones”

1807 Commissioners Plan for Future Streets

1840s - Croton River Water Project

1860s - Central Park, Prospect Park

1880s - Brooklyn Bridge

1899 - Five Borough Consolidation

1916 - Nation’s First Zoning Ordinance

1928 - First RPA Regional Plan for Greater NY

1997 - NYC Watershed Management Agreement

2000s - PlaNYC

1858 Olmsted and Vaux Plan for Central Park,

Central Park Today

Truly a “Central Park”!

What About a “Perimeter Park” . . .

A maritime counterpartto Central Park?

In 1944, Paul and Percival Goodman proposedthat New York “Open out toward the water” . . .lining the waterfront with parks . . . and giving upCentral Park for business and industry!

Central Park is not about to be abandoned . . .

But New York is indeed “opening out toward the water . . .” not as a single vast project like Central Park, but as a mosaic of individualprojects, with very different purposes, stakeholders, and legal frameworks

“Manhattan WaterfrontGreenway”

•Playgrounds

•Adult exercise and fitness

•People watching

•Dogwalking and run areas

•Music and art festivals

•Views of Harbor and skyline

•Fishing

•Water transportation

•Adaptive reuse of maritime structures

•Ecological habitat restoration

•Environmental education

•History and sense of place

New waterfront facilities provide many benefits, both traditional and new . . .

• Bike lanes

•Water Trails

•Green Rooftop - Riverbank State Park

•Piers -- Hudson River Park, Chelsea Piers

•Greenstreets

•Eco-Docks -- Dyckman Marina, 69th St. Bay Ridge

Abandoned rail facilities -- High Line Greenway

Barges -- Floating Pool Lady, The Science Barge

Flower Gardens - Battery Park City

Native plant beds - Stuyvesant Cove Park, Riverside Park South

Underwater habitat -- Hudson River Estuarine Sanctuary

And they incorporate new physical components . . .

Some Glimpses of Coming Attractions . . .

The City and its many partners like RPA, MWA, and the Bronx River Alliance envision a 21st Century waterfront that promotes recreation, health, jobs, mobility, and biodiversity across the five boroughs

Session 1 Today: “Opening Out to the Water” The Big Picture

Riverbank State Park -- ten acres of indoor and outdoor recreation -- on top of North River Sewage Treatment Plant!

Session 2 March 17: Waterfront Parks, Old, New, Green, Blue

Hudson River Park Established as a city-state partnership by

the Hudson River Trust Act in 1989

The High LineGreenway

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Battery Park City

Riverside Park South

Chelsea Piers

South Street SeaportIconic Rouse Festival Marketplace

(What next . . .?)

Governors Island, New York

Session 3 - Seizing Opportunities: Waterfront Works in Progress

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Cement Plant Park,Bronx River Greenway

South Bronx Greenway

Gateway National Recreation Area

New York City

Solar 2 Environmental Education Center (future)Courtesy: Colin Cathcart

Session 4 - Reviving the Estuary: Science and Education

The Urban Assembly Harbor School

New Home at Governors Island

“Turning the Tide”Closing Speaker:William Kornblum

Thank You!www.humanemetropolis.

org

Looking Ahead:Readying New York

Harbor for the 50 years

Bob YaroPresidentRegional Plan Association

February 24, 2010

“Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west,and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east.

Others will see the island large and small;Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross,

the sun half an hour high,A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence,

others will see them,Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide,

the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.”

-Walt Whitman, “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry,” 1856

Commerce & Industry Along the Edge

Source: New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott’s New York

1st Regional Plan

Relocating the seaport from Manhattan’s West Side to Newark Bay

2nd Regional Plan

Gateway National Park

River City andThe New JerseyWaterfrontRevitalization

3rd Regional Plan

Access to the Waterfront Today

Hudson River Park Queens West

Manhattan’s West Side Battery Park City

Residential and Commercial Development

New York - New Jersey Harbor

-8 million sq ft Commercial Space

- 4,000 New Housing Units

- $1.4 billion Invested

- Over 100 Park Initiatives costing $1-2 billion

Redefining the Harbor

Unfinished Agenda

$1–4 Million/Acre to Build

$135,000/Acre/Year to Manage

Arlington Marsh

Restoring andRebuilding the Seaport

Post-Panamax Cargo

Bridge

Panama Canal Expansion

Bayonne

Harnessing the Opportunities &

Overcoming the Challengesof Post-Panamax ShippingPort of

Baltimore

Port ofNorfolk

Bronx River Story

Stormwater Capture

Erosion Control

TM

VISION 2020VISION 2020New Comprehensive Waterfront PlanNew Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

February 24, 2010Turning the Tide Panel

Defining NYC’s Coastal Boundary

The area “landward from pierhead or property line, whichever is furthest seaward, to include coastal resources and the first mapped street.” (CEQR Technical Manual, 3K-l)

New York City Coastal Zone

1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (CWP)

• Issued 1992 by Department of City Planning

• First comprehensive inventory of city’s entire waterfront

• Framework to guide land use along the waterfront

• Directed transition from industrial to post-industrial waterfront landscape, envisioning:

– Redevelopment of vacant and underutilized lands

– Parks and public access throughout the city

– Clean waters for swimming, fishing, and boating

– Protected natural habitats

– Thriving maritime and other industries

– Ferries, bikeways, and pedestrian pathways

– New housing and jobs in attractive, safe settings

• Identified and planned for 4 Major Functional Categories:– The Redeveloping

Waterfront – The Natural Waterfront– The Working Waterfront– The Public Waterfront

• Identified prime natural and industrial areas for special consideration

• Detailed studies of 22

Waterfront Reaches (Borough Plans)

1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (cont.)

Achievements Since 1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

City-wide strategies adopted and implemented to:

• Protect tidal and freshwater wetlands • Protect significant coastal fish and

wildlife habitats• Combat coastal erosion• Improve water quality through

significant and continued investment in city’s treatment upgrades and remediation programs

Plan for the Natural Waterfront

• Harbor Herons Complex

• Long Island Sound / Upper East River

Designated 3 Special Natural Waterfront Areas:

• Jamaica Bay

• Increased publicly accessible waterfront by approximately 29 miles of shoreline, plus an additional 13 miles in progress.

• Planned and developed linear public access corridors, including over 75 miles of waterfront greenways.

• Required public access and view corridors in over 40 new private developments.

• Provided point access: street ends and local parks in all five boroughs.

IKEA along Brooklyn’s Erie Basin

The Plan for the Public Waterfront

Achievements Since 1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

IKEA Esplanade on Erie Basin, Brooklyn

The Plan for the Working Waterfront• Designated Significant

Maritime / Industrial Areas (SMIAs):1. Kill Van Kull2. Brooklyn – Sunset Park3. Brooklyn - Red Hook4. Brooklyn Navy Yard5. Newtown Creek6. South Bronx

• Major Projects:- Howland Hook Container Terminal and Arlington Yards- Brooklyn Cruise Terminal- Brooklyn Navy Yard Film Studio- Visy Paper, Arthur Kill- Red Hook Bargeport- Oak Point Rail Link and Harlem River Yards

12

3 4

5

6

Achievements Since 1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

The Plan for the Redeveloping Waterfront

• Encouraged redevelopment of waterfront to foster economic growth, housing development, public access, and a better quality of life.• Amended city zoning regulations to better regulate waterfront development.• Identified specific rezoning opportunities in each borough• Specific projects have been implemented, and activity has been steady and growing.

Achievements Since 1992 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

Hunters Point South Development, Queens

Waterfront Zoning Regulations• Adopted 1993• Advanced many CWP recommendations• Applies primarily to residential, commercial, and mixed-

used developments on waterfront – industrial and water-dependent uses exempted from many regulations

• Applies when redevelopment occurs• Updated in 2009 to improve public access design

standards

| WRP | Illustrations

Costco, East River, Queens

ACCESS TO WATER

COMPLEMENT SITE CONDITIONS

DESIGN QUALITY

DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCES

VISUAL AND PHYSICAL CONNECTIVITY

“READ AS PUBLIC”

PRIVATELY OWNED WATERFRONT PUBLIC ACCESSdesign standards text amendment 2009: goals for public access components

2002: New Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP)

WRP is the city’s principal coastal management tool.

• New WRP approved by NYS and Department of Commerce in 2002

• WRP intended to: – Maximize benefits derived

from economic development, environmental preservation, and public use of the waterfront

– Promote activities appropriate to specific locations

– Coordinate decisions and streamline regulatory process

What is the new Comprehensive Waterfront Plan?

• City Council legislation (Intro 809-a) adopted in late 2008 requires the Department of City Planning to update the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (CWP) by December 31, 2010, and every 10 years thereafter.

• The primary requirements of the legislation are that the Plan should:

1. Set out a Vision for the city’s waterfront for the next 10 years (2010 – 2020).

2. Provide an Assessment of Waterfront Resources to include the current opportunities and challenges.

3. Develop planning policy alternatives for discussion with the public, and in consultation with appropriate governmental agencies and elected officials.

4. Provide a statement of the planning policy of the Department of City Planning and proposals for implementing the planning policy by amendment of the zoning resolution, development of plans or otherwise.

Major Themes of the CWP Update/Vision 2020

The major themes of the CWP Update/Vision 2020 are based on our experience and consideration of the waterfront planning issues identified recently by DCP’s Borough Offices. These themes mix the elements from the four functional categories of the 1992 Plan – the public, developing, working and natural waterfronts – plus the issues inherent in the water itself, or the “blue network”. The seven themes are:

1. Expanding public access on private and public property

Brooklyn Bridge ParkWilliamsburg Edge

2. Enlivening the waterfront with attractive uses, high-quality public spaces, and publicly oriented water-dependent uses, integrated with adjacent upland communities.

Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront:Design Schematic

Lower Concourse Waterfront Plan

3. Supporting economic development on the working waterfront

New York Container Terminal - Staten Island

4. Restoring degraded natural waterfronts and protecting wetlands and shorefront habitats

Jamaica Bay Wetlands Management Area

Arlington MarshNorth Shore Staten Island

5. Enhancing the public experience of the “blue network” by expanding waterborne transportation, in-water recreation, as well as water-oriented educational and cultural activities

New York Water Taxi

Bronx RiverMarine Instruction

6. Maintaining and improving the environmental quality of our water bodies.

Bronx River

Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant

7. Pursuing strategies to improve the sustainability of the city’s waterfront, including increased resilience to climate change and projected sea-level rise.

Hamilton Beach, Queens – October 18, 2009

Waterfront Reaches

• City’s waterfront divided into 22 local planning segments, or reaches

• Organizing framework for detailed site-specific recommendations

| Zoning | WRP | Illustrations

Expanding Waterborne Transportation

Source: NYC Economic Development Corporation

Revitalizing Waterfront Areas

Sunset Park Vision Plan Goals:• Maximize the efficient movement of goods• Protect and grow industrial employment• Promote green practices• Balance neighborhood needs

Source: NYC Economic Development Corporation

Questions and Discussion

TM

February 24, 2010Turning the Tide Panel

Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

www.waterfrontalliance.org

MWA’s Mission

MWA is determined to transform the New York and New Jersey Harbor and Waterways to make them clean and accessible, a vibrant place to play, learn and work, with great parks, great jobs, and great transportation for all.

A waterfront cut off from people

San Francisco

Rotterdam

London

Sydney

Who are we?

• An alliance of nearly 400 organizations in the metropolitan region

• Committed to revitalizing the NY-NJ waterfront

• A BROAD coalition—from the paddlers of the Sebago Canoe Club on Jamaica Bay to the international shippers of the New York Shipping Association

MWA as waterfront convener

Waterfront Policy: The Waterfront Action Agenda

Policy Platform for

NY- NJ Waterfront

Transforming the Waterfront

2000 2050

Task Forces Convene 2007

A short history2000 to 2050

Today

MWA’s Programs

• Waterfront Permitting• Community Eco-Docks• Waterfront Edge Design• Harbor Camp• Task Forces/Comprehensive

Waterfront Plan

©2008 Guardia Architects

Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

• Updated by end of 2010

• Critically Important Year for Waterfront

• Public meetings • MWA Waterfront

Conference

Working Waterfront

Working Waterfront

• 230,000 Waterfront Jobs• Port Commerce = $20 billion• Cruise Industry = $1 billion• Rising costs and real estate pressure

Processed Dredge Costs

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1999 2005 2010

Year

Higher Range

Lower Range

$23 to $29

$29 to $42

$50 to $100

Green Harbor and Restoration

New York/ New Jersey Harbor

Long Island Sound Study

Great Lakes

Restoration Funding

$4.24 million/ year

$168 million/ year

$580,000/year

$3200/mi2 $1800/mi2 $36/mi2

$0.20/person $4.90/person $0.03/person

Great Lakes Long Island Sound

NY/NJ Harbor

Comparison of Funding

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

50.0

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Year

Fu

nd

ing

(in

Mil

lio

ns)

LISS

GL

NY/NJ

475.0

How do we measure progress?

Join the Blue Movement!

MWA has helped to develop and promote waterfront programs that will develop and maintain a healthy and lasting harbor. Stay informed as members of the MWA Alliance.

Stay Tuned for 2010!

• MWA Task Force meetings• Comprehensive Waterfront Plan

meetings

• City of Water Day – July 24th

• MWA’s Waterfront Conference - December