The city held an open submission process to determine which company would develop the land at the corner of Smith and 5th streets, and after the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the community pored over the proposals, a selection was made.

The Gowanus Green proposal, which was put together by a group of developers, planners, and designers, was selected and is already in the initial planning stages. The developers introduced themselves and their plans to the neighborhood by way of last Thursday’s CB6 Land Use Committee meeting.

“It’s important that we have meaningful community input,” said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, one of the groups that is leading the Gowanus Green proposal. “Our goal is to create a mixed-use extension of the Carroll Gardens neighborhood and set an example for sustainable development while working with community organizations.”

At the meeting, representatives from each group involved with the project, including the Hudson Companies, Jonathan Rose Companies, the Bluestone Organization, and the aforementioned Fifth Avenue Committee, discussed the early stages of the project with the community, specifically focusing on the affordability of the units, remediation of the site, and the construction of new infrastructure to serve the several thousand residents who are expected to live there.
Many of the units at Public Place will be targeted towards senior citizens and low- and middle-income families who, without subsidies, would be unable to live in the neighborhood.
More than 100 units will be set aside for seniors, and 70 percent of the total units will be kept affordable to households with incomes between 30 and 130 percent of the area median income. The developers were particularly hopeful that a number of young families would move into the two- and three-bedroom units.

A focus on senior citizens and parents with small children raised some concerns among members of the public.

“I have my doubts that this site can be remediated at all,” said a member of CB6 in attendance. “If I vote in favor of this plan, and one person gets cancer or even sick, I couldn’t live with myself.”
“We’re in full agreement on this,” said de la Uz, who assured the meeting that similar gas sites have been effectively remediated elsewhere in the country. “This is a contaminated neighborhood, but the Public Place site is a bit isolated, and we can remediate it and cut off future contamination from seeping in.”

The developers are currently working in anticipation of the residential rezoning of the site. Neighbors at the meeting, upon seeing the timeline of the project, expressed concerns that the site would be residentially rezoned before it was remediated, and that, if the Public Place project somehow fails, it could open the door for less scrupulous developers to build on possibly toxic land.

The developers explained that, in order for the project to be completed by 2013, the ULURP and rezoning would have to be conducted prior or simultaneously to the two-year remediation project, and assured neighbors that they would carry out the full remediation before any ground was broken, and that the design of the project may be adjusted to accommodate the remediation.

Seemingly in defiance of the site’s history and the existing conditions of the Gowanus Canal, the proposal plans for the retail stores to be focused on the health of not only the residents, but the entire neighborhood. Retail tenants will include a bike shop, doctor’s office, restaurant, plant nursery, and daycare center.

Additionally, the new infrastructure that will be created for the site will be “green,” featuring planted roofs, innovative landscapes, and a storm water removal system that will create a small river running throughout the development. The public park, accessible to both residents and non-residents, will take advantage of the Gowanus Canal by offering canoeing, boating, and waterfront educational programming, which will likely encourage interest in the health and cleanliness of the canal itself.
Members of the Land Use Committee and the community were pleased that the developers of the Gowanus Green proposal were open to their concerns.

“We came to you today to give you a flavor, a sense of the project,” said de la Uz, who is currently working on an effective way to provide the community with ongoing updates about the project. “We expect to have many more conversations with you.”

A rendering of what the future holds for the Public Place site. These plans and more were discussed at length by the neighbors at a recent meeting of the CB6 Land Use Committee.

By Jeffrey Harmatz

Brooklyn Downtown Star

Anyway, hindi naman talaga yun ang topic eh. Mukhang napahaba pa ang intro ko sa mismong topic ko. =) Well, gusto ko lang naman ibahagi sa inyo ang isang nakakainis na pangyayari nung isang araw sa akin. Morning shift ako madalas ngayon and pag mga bandang 2pm onwards wala ng tao masyado kasi ng-uwian na ang mga agents. Kasi nga naman madaling araw na sa America kaya malamang tuloy na ang mga Kano. Isang hapon na nagutom ako, nagpunta ako ng pantry para chumitsa at manuod na rin ng aking paboritong telenovela na "Prinsesa ng Banyera". Pag-pasok ko ng pantry, ayun bumulaga sa akin ang dalawang mag-jowa, nakaupo sa iisang upuan, sa harap mismo ng tv, at nag-iiyakan. Tiningnan ko ang palabas, nakakatawa naman. Nag-kunwari akong kukuha ng kape, pero lihim ko silang inoobserbahan. Naku, my LQ (lover's quarrel) pala ang dalawa. At naman... mega eksena ang mag-jowa. My paluhod luhod pa ang papa.

So lumabas na lang ako at nagpunta sa 30th floor pantry namin.

Kinabukasan, sa parehong oras, nag-punta ulit ako ng pantry para manuod ng "Prinsesa ng Banyera" at kumain. Naku, nandun na naman ang mag-jowa. At sa pagkakakataong ito, ginawa na nilang sinehan, park at motel ang office pantry. Sa pakiwari ko, iisang katawan nalang sila at dalwang ulo ang nakita ko.

Hindi ba nakikita ng CCTV ito? 

Alam ko hindi na kami mga highschool para ipagbawal ang too much affection sa mga boyfriend at girlfriend. Pero naman, siguro naman nasa tamang pag-iisip na rin sila para gawin ang mga bagay na ganun sa lugar na private at hindi sa opisina.

Hay, nakakainis talaga yung mga mag-jowang PDA at higit sa lahat, nakakainis yung mga mag-jowang nag-aaway at gumagawa ng eksena sa public places lalu na kung ang pangit nilang mag-jowa. As far as I'm concerned, ang mapapalagpas ko lang na ganung eksena eh kung si John Lloyd and Bea yun.

Located at the southeast corner of 5th and Smith streets and bounded to the east by the Gowanus Canal, Public Place, as the development will be known, will feature over “25,000 square feet of cultural space, 38,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and nearly 100,000 square feet of public open space located along the canal,” according to the HPD. “The canal-side park, in addition to landscaped waterfront space for passive and active recreation, will feature arts and educational programming and significant recreational opportunities for the surrounding community.”

The former home of a gas manufacturing plant, the Public Place site is said to be extensively polluted and is therefore considered a key test of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC sustainability efforts, as well as the New Housing Marketplace Plan—a ten-year proposal to create affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers. Reclamation of “brownfields” is a major component of PlaNYC, acting to both “create” new land for needed development and improve the environmental quality of the surrounding neighborhoods. Several of the buildings are slated to apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) Gold designation and the overall development is being designed to qualify for the LEED Neighborhood Development program.

The project is expected to be financed in part through t city’s Housing Development Corp., as well as through subsidies from the New York City Housing Trust Fund. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2010 and will be completed in spring 2014.

By Ben Muessig

Crains New York

The Gowanus Green Partnership — a collaboration by the Hudson Companies, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp., the Fifth Avenue Committee, the Bluestone Organization and the Jonathan Rose Companies — plans to build 774 units of mixed-income housing, storefronts, community group space and an open area on the so-called “Public Place” site, a former gas plant roughly bounded by Smith, Fifth and Huntington streets and the canal. The group is also negotiating with the owner of a warehouse just to the south of the Public Place site, sources told The Brooklyn Paper — a deal that could almost double the size of the project.

Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan called the approved Partnership design (pictured) “a precedent for future developments by integrating sustainable design features with an impressive level of affordability.”

It will have to be; toxins released by the gas plant decades ago have left the site heavily polluted, and chemicals still leak into the canal. The state is overseeing the site’s cleanup, which must be at least partially completed before construction can begin.

The neighborhood’s industrial legacy made the Gowanus an improbable setting for redevelopment until Mayor Bloomberg began pushing to redevelop the area along the stinky canal. Since then, developers have gobbled up lots on both sides of the channel in anticipation of a zoning change that would allow potentially lucrative residential construction.

A Hudson Companies partner said his group would not have been interested in the site were it not for a show of commitment to the Gowanus by the city and a new requirement that National Grid, the international energy giant that now owns Keyspan, will pay for and undertake the two-year clean-up.

“We tend to shy away from sites that have been contaminated in some severe way,” said Alan Bell, but “[Public Place] has a long history and the city is really committed to getting this cleaned up.”

Construction could begin in 2010 and finish in 2014. There will be 541 sub-market-rate housing units, including 120 apartments for senior citizens; open space; a boathouse; a promenade; a waterfront bar and restaurant; and retail strip along the Smith Street side of the nine-building complex.

Not so fast, says Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, because the project must now go through the city’s lengthy land-use review process to get the necessary zoning changes.

“We don’t know what’s going to get built. These are just concepts,” Hammerman said, suggesting the current plan, though popular, could be significantly revised before getting final approval.

By Mike McLaughlin

The Brooklyn Paper

The Gowanus Canal area is a hotbed of new development plans, including a residential complex by Toll Brothers and another at Public Place (which we learned today will be developed by Hudson Companies). As such, many neighbors are thinking about the impacts of new development, and about how the canal's pollution problem will be addressed. According to the Conservancy, the idea is for the park to be "beautiful" while simultaneously addressing the CSO (combined sewage overflow) problem (hence the name "Sponge Park"). According to Gowanus Lounge, "The land involved is currently a Verizon parking lot and the 'Gowanus Village' property owned by developer Shaya Boymelgreen that has been put back on the market for $20 million." Nothing in the Conservancy's release addressed how this land will be obtained for public use.

Those interested can find out more at the meeting, April 21, 2008 at 6:30 p.m., at P.S. 58 (330 Smith Street, corner of Carroll Street).

Menurut sejarahnya (aku juga barusan tahu dari sini, klik disitu juga kalau mau lihat letaknya lewat lewat Google Map) nama Taman Bungkul berasal dari nama Sunan Bungkul yang kebetulan makamnya ada disana juga. Well, kadang2x aku memang melihat ada yang ziarah kesana tapi aku gak pernah tahu kalau itu makamnya Sunan Bungkul

Salah Satu Landmark Taman Bungkul

Sebenarnya gak ada yang istimewa sebenarnya tempat ini. Fasilitas yg ditawarkan antara lain :

Bagi yang hobby wisata kuliner, dibagian belakang taman bungkul terdapat berbagai macam penjaja makanan. Yang paling laris yaitu "Sedap Malam" yang berjualan nasi rawon dan soto. Tapi beneran aku gak ngerti kenapa mereka bisa rame begitu. Karena menurutku sih rasanya biasa aja, masih banyak tempat lain yang lebih enak. Well, different people different taste. Memang selera orang macem-macem jadi gak ada standar baku untuk yang namanya makanan.

Dengan letaknya yang strategis ditengah pusat kota Taman Bungkul bisa jadi tempat alternatif untuk menghabiskan waktu dengan teman atau keluarga. At least it's free and you get what you paid for :)

Ini beberapa foto yang sengaja aku ambil dengan kamera HP SE Z530i. Kualitasnya ya begitu itu deh...

Performing Stage

Another view of Performing Stage

Taman Rumput

With a rezoning of the area coming as early as the late spring or summer, and another large development at Gowanus' "Public Place" site coming soon, it is heartening to see the community organizing around the public input process.

The scoping hearing for the Toll Brothers development takes place March 13 at 2pm, at the Department of City Planning's Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street. For more information about scoping hearings, please see our Coney Island case study.

Photo of the Gowanus Canal from Flickr - check out the Gowanus photo group.

Both plans call for the creation of more than 700 units of housing — more than 60 percent of them “affordable” — plus public access to an esplanade along the canal and community and retail spaces. But therein lay the controversy.

“My clear favorite is what we were promised — a public park,” said Diane Buxbaum, a longtime Carroll Gardens resident, referring to a city recommendation in 1978 to turn most of the so-called “Public Place,” into playing fields.

But that’s ancient history to the area’s younger guard.

Both plans are great” because of the high ratio of sub-market rate housing, said Brad Lander, a member of the task force that winnowed the six proposals for the 5.8-acre wasteland bounded by Smith and Fifth and the canal to the two finalists.

“Team A” would build 725 units of housing, of which 61 percent would be earmarked for sub-market rates. “Team B” would construct 774 units, including 64 percent affordable units. Each project features about 100 units of senior housing.

By Mike McLaughlin

The Brooklyn Paper

The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation’s proposal outlines a vision for the city’s first environmentally sensitive community with a sustainable mix of local industry, retail, and residential uses.

“We want a San Antonio Riverwalk along the Gowanus,” said GCCD board member Buddy Scotto, who emphasized the need for more affordable housing in the area, particularly for seniors.

The Quixotic proposal — the latest in a decades-old effort to transform the area — calls for more residential development north of Third Street.

The area south of Third Street would remain mostly industrial, with some retail and residential mixed in.

Specifically, the plan called for the redevelopment of several neighborhood trouble spots, including the intersection of Smith and Ninth streets, a former gas manufacturing plant near Fifth Street that’s commonly known as the Public Place site, and Second Avenue’s industrial corridor.

Of course, before Gowanus can become “green,” it will have to be decontaminated. The neighborhood’s long industrial history has left it much of it soaked with potential hazards.

The report lists 10 “potential contaminants” in the neighborhood’s soil and water, from cyanide to mercury to PCBs.

Aside from the substantial environmental obstacles, these dreams for a better Gowanus will remain just that unless the Department of City Planning gets on board. So far, the agency’s response has been noncommittal.

“In response to community requests, DCP will be conducting a series of meetings, hosted by Community Board 6, to develop a zoning framework to guide future land use decisions in the Gowanus Canal area,” said Jennifer Torres, an agency spokeswoman. “This meeting is the beginning of a discussion and will be the first of many.”

Scotto, for one, is less worried about the city’s tepid response than his own neighbors’ reaction.

“My concern is that there are groups out there representing the old economy who will do everything they can to frustrate the process,” said Scotto, who has fought for the canal clean-up since the late 1960s. He still vows to swim the canal should it ever be de-contaminated.

“Goddamnit, one of these days maybe I’ll be able to do that,” said Scotto.

By Dana Rubinstein

The Brooklyn Paper

The Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which Lopez founded in the 1970s, will team up with two groups founded by Carroll Gardens activist Salvatore “Buddy” Scotto—the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (GCCDC) and the Carroll Gardens Association (CGA).

“It’s a pretty formidable team,” Scotto said.

Scotto said the team will also be joined by a private entity which has not yet been named.

Lopez, who chairs the Assembly’s Housing Committee, is not directly involved in the potential bid, Scotto noted.

Ridgewood-Bushwick, Scotto said, is the “only not-for-profit development corporation that has any serious experience dealing with a large contaminated site,” referring to the group’s role in the city-funded redevelopment of the former Rheingold brewery site, a 6.7-acre city-owned property.

“There will be a lot of housing at the site,” Scotto said. “There isn’t any one of the three groups that can handle the whole thing themselves.” The CGA develops affordable housing and the GCCDC promotes the revitalization of the region.

Scotto said his relationship with Lopez goes back decades, when the party boss was a social worker. “When his mother died, I buried her,” said Scotto, who owns a funeral home in Carroll Gardens.

“Vito is not personally involved, but our local elected officials will be. I’m sure he [Lopez] wants everybody to build affordable housing,” Scotto said.

Lopez, contacted last week, had little to say. “I have no information to lend to you on this topic, since I am unfamiliar with the issue,” he said.

The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) recently hosted a bidder’s conference related to the request for proposals (RFP) it issued, which seeks a development team for the site, located on 5.8 acres of land at Smith and 5th Streets.

After the October deadline for submissions, HPD will take several months to select one development team for the now-contaminated site, once home to a manufactured gas plant.

According to the agency, the project could create at least 400 units of mixed-income housing, affordable to a range of income groups. Parkland, commercial uses and community space are also part of the plan. HPD was the agency that helped fund the development of the Rheingold site.

A person who attended the meeting wondered if the ‘dream team’ might turn out to be a nightmare for the competition.

The Ridgewood-Bushwick representative at the meeting was Scott Short, a person who attended said. Lopez did not attend, those who were at the July 31 conference said.

At press time, Short did not return a call for comment. Angela Battaglia, the housing director for the not-for-profit organization, also did not return a call for comment.

Battaglia, who serves as a commissioner on the City Planning Commission, is Lopez’s girlfriend, according to several published reports.

“Chairman Lopez is the head of the Housing Committee, and to that end he is in a position to influence projects and their development. He has done a lot of good work but it also puts him in a position to influence a development of the site,” said a political insider, who did not wish to be named.

Assemblymember Joan Millman, who attended the conference, said bidding for the development of the site “is an open process, open to anybody.”

She said Ridgewood-Bushwick “has a proven track record, and has done some interesting and creative housing and met the needs of that community.”

“Give credit where credit is due,” Millman said.

She said Lopez, known mostly for work in Bushwick, does have a history in Carroll Gardens.

“I remember when he taught a course at Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Women,” an adult literacy program on Smith Street. “He certainly has some connection here.”

“I hope that whoever does it [develops the site] it is done in a way that benefits the most people,” the state lawmaker said.

Brad Lander, who sits on the Public Place Task Force, said HPD has a “good track record” for awarding RFP’s on the merits.

Lander, who chairs Community Board 6’s Housing Committee, and is the executive director of the Pratt Area Community Council, said he is confident many different teams will emerge with a desire to develop the property, and optimistic that the outcome will benefit the neighborhood, which has waited decades for something positive to emerge from this barren tract.

The person who attended the conference agreed that it appears Lopez has no formal role in the potential bid.

“But he has a lot of power. He can get [HPD Commissioner] Shaun Donovan on the phone in literally five minutes—and I’ve seen it.” By Gary Buiso

Courier-Life Publications

Housing is coming to the banks of the Gowanus Canal at long last.

After years of lobbying by advocates, city officials yesterday began soliciting bids to turn a long-polluted industrial lot on 5th and Smith Sts. into a mix of market-rate and affordable apartments, senior housing and a waterfront park.

"I've been hoping this would happen for the last 30 years," said Carroll Gardens activist Buddy Scotto, who has long pushed to turn the banks of the notorious canal into a waterfront esplanade. "People used to look at me like I'd lost it."

The city-owned site, known as Public Place, has sat contaminated and largely unused for decades after a century-old gas plant there closed in 1959.

KeySpan, whose predecessor Brooklyn Union Gas bought the facility in 1895, is slated to begin cleaning the lot next year.

Developers have about three months to come up with proposals for the site that include at least 400 apartments above retail stores and a community facility, such as a boathouse, a youth center or art galleries.

The city also wants roughly 100 of those apartments to be set aside for low-income seniors, with 20% of the remaining units earmarked for moderate income - a family of four earning up to $56,700 a year - and 30% for a slightly higher-income tier - a family making as much as $92,170 a year.

"It brings together the wants and desires of the community at large," said Jerry Armer, former Community Board 6 chairman and a member of city's Public Place Task Force. Armer said he hopes nothing is cut from the wish list in the final project.

The move comes as the city is studying a possible rezoning of the industrialized canal, which has been cleaned up in recent years and now finds itself caught between trendy Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.

Big-name developers have bought large parcels they hope will soon sprout luxury housing. But manufacturing advocates have been fighting to keep factories there.

Advocates on both sides said the city's plans for Public Place could set a precedent.

"What happens on the Public Place site is a good indication of what will probably happen on the rest of the canal," Scotto said.

Phaedra Thomas, executive director of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp., said the city has to be careful of a "domino effect" that could drive out businesses. "Whatever happens at the site will spill over," she said.

BY ELIZABETH HAYS
DAILY NEWS