By Janet Kwon
While the city’s Art Commission rejected the first plan for park space along a strip of the West Side Highway, the State Department of Transportation has high hopes of getting approval for plans concerning a different section of the highway.
State D.O.T. presented a detailed rendering of a renovated strip of parkland at a Battery Park City Committee meeting on June 8. This strip, which exists between Albany and W. Thames Sts. along the edge of Route 9A, is part of a larger strip referred to as Promenade North stretching from W. Thames to Chambers Sts.
The rending of the strip displayed the different types of uses the park area would include, such as playground areas, lawn space, picnic areas, basketball courts, arbors, dog runs, small sitting areas as well as community gardens in that park space. As for south of W. Thames St., tentative plans have been made to create lawn space and other open space amenities. Previous plans were drawn up by the D.O.T. in March to create activity stations on pieces of parkland on First, Second and Third Pls. right below W. Thames, but these plans were turned down by the city Art Commission, which needs to ultimately approve plans in order for any work to go forward.
After the rejection of the March plans, the commission suggested to the D.O.T. that a local artist should be incorporated into the plans for First –Third Pl., as well as other changes for the space. However, according to Christopher Cotter, urban design director of the State D.O.T., a new plan hasn’t been drafted yet.
“We’re under a schedule; we’re prepping for the rest of the project, so it’s on hold for now,” Cotter said.
Cotter added that the door isn’t closed for the southern section and that a plan may surface in the future. He said the agency will focus on the rest of the project now that the Art Commission had “stopped us in our tracks.”
In regards to the plan that Cotter was presenting to the board, the commission hasn’t spoken against it.
“[The plan] is on track with the way the Art Commission has commented. We’re looking for preliminary approval now, and we’ve achieved conceptual approval, and we’re going through the process,” Cotter said, referring to informal dialogue exchanged between State D.O.T. and the commission. D.O.T. will formally present the plan to the commission in July.
Although Cotter’s assurance of the plan’s viability through the Art Commission’s watchful eyes seemed to assuage some of the board members at the meeting, committee chairperson Linda Belfer remained skeptical.
“Do you think there’s any possibility that they’re going to screw us in the end?” asked Belfer, referring to the commission’s previous rejection of the March proposal.
“We don’t seem to have any large issues there, so I’m confident that everything will be fine,” Cotter said.
The board was in agreement with the types of uses the space will get, with a few concerns of making certain spaces bigger than others. For example, a Rector St. resident who is a community gardener expressed concerns that the community garden space, which will take the place of the current Battery Park City parking lot adjacent to Albany St., should be expanded to take up more of the planned sitting area.
After some argument from one side and the other, Belfer concluded, “We have, unfortunately, many, many competing interests and it’s our goal to try to satisfy as many groups as possible in this park… we tried our best to satisfy everybody.”
The construction is slated to begin in March or April of 2007, last a total of approximately 26 months and end around June 2009, said Cotter.
In addition, Richard Schmalz, D.O.T.’s project director of the Route 9A project, updated the committee on broader 9A information. Schmalz said that throughout the project’s construction, the temporary Vesey St. pedestrian bridge would possibly be taken down in March 2009. An at-grade crossing will be provided in place of the bridge, or pedestrians can take the East-West underground concourse, which is scheduled to be finished by then. Also, the pedestrian bridge at Liberty St. will remain intact.
As for the Promenade South designs that the Arts Commission rejected in March, the B.P.C. Committee has written a letter demanding an explanation of the rejection from the committee. Belfer said there has been no response from the commission thus far. The committee is planning on writing a follow-up letter to the commission.
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