Public Discussion This Evening Will Review Park Resiliency Plans for Tribeca and Battery Park City’s North Esplanade
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) will host a public meeting about its North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project tonight (Thursday, February 16) at Stuyvesant High School (345 Chambers Street), starting at 6:30pm. All interested persons are invited to attend.
The session will give participants an overview of evolving plans for the creation of a flood-risk management system stretching from a point near First Place and the Esplanade (in the neighborhood’s southern section), where it will link up with the BPCA’s South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, which is slated to begin construction in the near future. From this southern anchor, the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project (NWBPCR) will proceed along the Hudson River waterfront to behind Stuyvesant High School, before turning north and then east into Tribeca, where it will terminate at a highpoint on Greenwich Street, north of Chambers Street.
With early budget estimates pegging construction costs at approximately $630 million, the Authority’s plans for resiliency along the Esplanade divide the scope of the project into seven “reaches”—discrete stretches of waterfront and adjacent upland acreage. Tonight’s session (the ninth in a series of public discussions dedicated to NWBPCR) will focus on both Reach One (encompassing Tribeca, the Borough of Manhattan Community College, and the Hudson River Park), and Reach Two (the North Esplanade).
Reach One falls entirely outside of Battery Park City, enveloping part of Tribeca, along with the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the Hudson River Park (below North Moore Street), where the flood barrier system will be comprised of a combination of passive and deployable structures that “tie‐back” to higher ground at Greenwich Street. The final path of this alignment remains undecided—with routes along either North Moore Street or Chambers Street still under consideration.
Reach Two encompasses the North Esplanade (north side of Stuyvesant High School). In this section, a passive flood protection structure will be concealed within a terraced garden landscape, with a new platform built three feet higher than the current elevation and extending further into the adjacent water than the present configuration.
In its December meeting, Community Board 1 (CB1) examined these plans and prepared a detailed response to the BPCA’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the North/West Resiliency project. This response was enacted as a resolution by CB1.
Among the concerns that CB1 voiced about Reach One were the potential for trapped water pooling behind barriers after flooding recedes, and the suggestion construction plans incorporate a proposal to convert one traffic lane of West Street to a bike path.
The Board’s reservations about Reach Two included “the disruption of local school and learning programs, particularly Stuyvesant High School and P.S. 89,” and the possible impacts on boating facilities and other water uses in the Hudson River Park, near Pier 25.
Tonight’s meeting is scheduled to begin with a brief presentation to offer an overview of the project, following which participants will be invited to join small group discussions with BPCA planners about design options for the the Tribeca and North Esplanade reaches.
“We look forward to this next round of meaningful community engagement about the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project,” said BPCA president B.J. Jones. “These reach-specific meetings are intended as working sessions, where attendees can sit side by side with the architects and engineers doing the tough and necessary work of designing protective measures that meet Lower Manhattan’s resiliency needs, while keeping our parks and public spaces vibrant and appealing. We invite everyone with an interest in this important work to attend and be part of this ongoing process.”
For more information about NWBPCR, please visit bpca.ny.gov/nwbpcr/ or email: nwbpcrinfo@bpca.ny.gov.