Meetings This Week Invite Public Comment on FiDi Resiliency Plans
The plan to make the Financial District and South Street Seaport safe against rising sea levels and extreme-weather events has a new name and a possible new funding mechanism. Previously known as the FiDi and Seaport Coastal Resilience Plan, the project, which covers the nine-tenths of a mile between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Battery, has been rechristened “Fortifying Our Resilient Growth & Economy” (or “FiDi Forge”) by the Mayor’s Office of Climate Justice and the City’s Economic Development Corporation.
Perhaps more transformative than the revised nomenclature is a new plan to pay for the initiative, which is slated to cost between $8 and $10 billion and take a decade to build, although no start date for construction has been announced and almost no money thus far has been allocated for it.
At the June 15 meeting of the Environmental Protection Committee of Community Board 1, Alexis Taylor, the EDC’s vice president for climate resilience, said, “in order to advance this project with federal funding, the City has made the decision to pursue a partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers, through a Section 203 coastal storm risk management feasibility study and environmental review.”
Section 203 is a chapter of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which authorizes “non-federal interests, in this case the City, to undertake feasibility studies of proposed water resource development projects for submission directly to the Secretary of the Army for federal participation and cost share,” Ms. Taylor said.
The first steps in this process are the preparation of the environmental impact statement (EIS), which is beginning now with a public scoping period to determine the proposed overall scale and vision for the project. EIS scoping is an important opportunity for agencies and members of the public to submit questions and concerns about the huge project.
There are two EIS scoping meetings this week: in-person tonight (Tuesday, June 23), from 6pm to 8pm, at the National Museum of the American Indian, One Bowling Green, and an online meeting Thursday, June 25, from 6pm to 8pm. The meetings will offer the same content. Written comments also may be emailed to CENAN-FiDiFORGE-203-Study@usace.army.mil through July 14.
Public comments, with answers from planners, will be incorporated into the final draft environmental impact statement, to be completed by summer 2027. This will trigger a further round of meetings and comment periods, leading to final report in the spring of 2028.
The announcement that EDC is seeking federal funding from the Army Corps of Engineers for what is now called FiDi Forge may come as a relief to Lower Manhattan residents, given that the alternative was the possible creation of a so-called “special assessment district.” A December report from EDC said, “our financing strategy sets a precedent for how to advance projects without waiting for a disaster to unlock federal recovery dollars,” and “to secure one of the revenue streams identified, EDC will work with the City and stakeholders over the next year to advance plans to pilot a Lower Manhattan special assessment district.”
In February, a separate EDC analysis observed, “coastal resilience capital projects could be funded through broad-based charges, such as a Property Tax Surcharge (an additional percentage of the value of real property, as measured by assessed value); a Sales Tax Surcharge (an additional percentage added to the base sales tax rate for retail sales of certain tangible personal property and services); Property Insurance Surcharges (an additional percentage of a subset of property insurance premiums most tied to climate risk; and a [Shoreline Protection District, or SPD] User Fee (to properties protected by specific coastal resilience assets).” This document added, “there are many other potential revenue streams, including incremental payroll taxes, corporate taxes, personal income taxes, hotel taxes, ‘sin’ taxes, and real property transfer taxes.”
The February report went on to note, “the Lower Manhattan SPD would be the first to see its user fee activated. This SPD would include the area protected by the series of resilience projects around southern part of the island [that] runs from the Lower East Side down the southern tip of Manhattan and up to Battery Park City.” This document recommended that, “the State should create a new Resilience Finance Authority and Resilience Board,” with the legal power to levy taxes (or other fees) and issue bond debt, adding that, “the City may need to build up the capacity to deploy $1 to $2 billion per year in capital costs over several decades, reaching nearly $50 billion (in 2025 dollars) in the absence of federal or state subsidy.”
For Lower Manhattan residents, property owners, or business owners, the implications would be significant. The most recent population estimates for Lower Manhattan (defined here as the borders of Community Board 1, a catchment between the Hudson and East Rivers, bounded by Canal, Pearl, and Baxter Streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge) indicate that the area is home to 78,390 residents. If they were asked to bear entirely the $10 billion cost estimate for the FiDi and Seaport Coastal Resilience Plan, this would come to approximately $128,000 per man, woman, and child living in the community.