'Seaport City' is revival of projects never realized
By Annie Karnie
June 14, 2013
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Another nice waterfront development for NYC!
By Annie Karnie
June 14, 2013
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"The basic idea of LoLo is also in the Seaport City ideathe use of new development to pay for flood mitigation and levee protection," Mr. Chakrabarti said. "Instead of looking at it as running from the water, we need to protect it. New development may be part of the answer for how you pay for it." City officials agreed Seaport City is intended to double as a storm-surge barrier and economic engine. "This is primarily a resiliency initiative, not a development initiative," the president of the city's Economic Development Corp., Seth Pinsky, said in a phone interview. "But it is one that has the added benefit of providing economic-development dividends. We know that there's demand for land in Manhattan." The eastern edge of lower Manhattan, from the Battery to Chinatown, is one of the island's lowest-lying areas, according to the city's report. Seaport City represents the administration's best idea for a longer-term approach for a protection system that could, in a best-case scenario, cost nothing or even raise money to fund resiliency initiatives in other parts of the city. "If it is properly designed, and depending on what the market is at the time," Mr. Pinsky said, "we could create a project that has the capacity to fund itselfor at least fund itself in partand maybe even generate surplus revenue to allow us to fund other resiliency measures in other parts of the city." He added, "Based on the current market, there certainly are ways that you could imagine financing this privately or that you could cover the cost through the proceeds you would get from selling the land. It's too early, though, to be able to say that definitively." |
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The biggest challenges in building Seaport City involve strict statutes enforced by the state Department of Environmental Conservation that govern landfill. "Ever since Battery Park City, you basically can't do landfills in America anymore," said architect Stanton Eckstut, who designed the master plan for Battery Park City. "It's a no-no. But the mayor's idea is exactly right, and it's something that has been desirable from lower Manhattan's perspective for a long time." While the mayor did not identify a source of landfill, the possibilities are many. "There's plenty of material you could get over the course of time," said Mr. Eckstut, noting that the navigation channels in the harbor are being dredged and could provide clean muck. Additional subway excavation could also provide fill. But Mr. Chakrabarti said the first step would be regulatory changes. "Maybe one solution is a federal override of state regulations when flood-protection measures are involved," he said. Seaport City would be a long way off even if the mayor were just starting his term. As it stands, the best hope for the last 200 days of his administration is to get an in-depth study off the ground. But there's little downside to trying, engineering experts argued. "If you couldn't get traction for Seaport City, a contingency plan would be to extend the integrated flood wall," said John Boule, vice president and Sandy program director at engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff. "That way, it wouldn't leave a big hole." The current plan calls for adaptable flood walls to be installed in the Lower East Side, Chinatown and the financial district. Mr. Boule, who worked with the city to design the coastal-protection parts of the plan, agreed Seaport City was a heavy lift, but he remained optimistic for the idea to finally become a reality. "Between resourcing and regulatory barriers, it's like putting people on the moon," said Mr. Boule said. "But I think that happened." |
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Another nice waterfront development for NYC!