Transmitter Park Meeting Notes

April 15, 2008 by missheather
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic

I attended last night’s meeting of the “Friends of Transmitter Park”. There wasn’t much in the way of news, but I’ll relay the highlights.

The concept for this park was formed by a “Community Vision Meeting” in 2005. Per Rich Mazur, the point person for the park that is Transmitter, three points were particularly germane to its design:

It should have a pier with waterfront access…
so people can fish.
It will be a “low impact” park, e.g.; no concerts, noise, etc. It should be a place for relaxation.

As I mentioned in this post, the final schematic should be released by the Parks Department June of this year. That said, a few items have been excised from the above rendering:

The bird islands, because they are bad for fish.
No climbing wall for children. (DUH)

Here’s what is in:

Fishing piers (!)
Bird gardens

At this point in the meeting a woman voiced her concerns about “security*”, e.g.; will it be a gated park?

Per Jeff Sandgrund, the newly appointed Parks employee deemed with overseeing parks development in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, the answer is yes.

The aforementioned woman then asked if the community can be charged with opening and closing the park.

Mr. Sandgund advised against it. (I agree. This should be left to the city, not citizenry.) He also pointed out a few more changes that have been made to the original plan. They are as follows:

The pier will be straight and bereft of “pods”.
The schematic closest to what might be approved is this.

Note the annotations my fellow meeting goers saw fit to make on this map. They are a wee bit off.

One gentleman asked about the time table/financing for this park. Here are the answers we received:

The “schematic” is to be rolled out June of this year.
Ground-breaking will come to pass 2009. There was some debate as to whether this would be the beginning or end of 2009 .
It has a budget of “10-12 million dollars”. Per Stephanie Thayer (of the Open Space Alliance) it will be “fully funded” and there is a “contingency amount”.
It will be finished in 1-1/2 years (2010)

Then it was asked if the above funds included the pier. Answer:

It includes park.

Apparently the state has to approve the pier.

Then questions were raised about the India Street Park pier. There will be no pier because:

With the new zoning the developer will get FAR for building a pier.
What does this mean, you ask? Simply put: under discretionary zoning this developer can build over the alloted limit of 24 stories. How high can they go, you ask? FORTY stories.

Objections were made to calling this park “Transmitter Park”. Some thought it should be called WNYC Park. Mr. Sandgrund pointed out that the name of the park will be determined by the local community board.

And that’s when things wound down. Here’s a few points to close with:

The next “Friends of Transmitter Park” meeting is tentatively slated for April 28, 2008 at Word Books.
There will be a GWAPP meeting this Thursday, April 17, 2008 at the Warsaw (261 Driggs).
Word Books is building an “Independent Business Alliance”
There is talk of having a Bedford Avenue “Promenade” Saturdays from (and this was disputed) North 3rd Street to Metropolitan Avenue OR North 3rd to North 8th/9th Street.

Miss Heather

*Apparently there are concerns that this park (which will be located at Greenpoint Avenue west of West Street) might attract certain elements that see fit to hang out at the American Playgound (which is located at Franklin Street and Noble Street). Empty crack vials were discussed.