Park Housing Plan Clears Hurdle, But Ground Still Shaky

of the 85-acre waterfront gem, according to a recently released report. But some are questioning the report's objectivity, and are grumbling that the most viable alternative to housing – the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Properties – wasn't even considered.

On Tuesday, the Committee on Alternatives to Housing voted to send the final report on alternative financing options to the full Brooklyn Bridge Park Board for approval. Two members of the committee, John Raskin and Anne Strahle, voted against the motion.

"This report has a strategic political purpose," said Raskin, who is State Senator Daniel Squadron's appointee to the committee. "It was written with the conclusion City Hall wants it to have."

By voting against sending the report to the board for a vote, Raskin and Strahle, who represents State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, are sending a strong message.

Millman and Squadron hold veto power over any private housing development in the park, and Squadron has said he will keep that option on the table.

Raskin's complaints focused primarily on the omission of a thorough study of the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Properties. Recently, a coalition made up of every elected official, both Community Boards that represent the area, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Community Advisory Council and a strong coalition of community organizations

"Watchtower is a vital element," said Raskin. "City Hall did not want to include that in the report and in the end it wasn't there."

The sale of the Watchtower properties, spread across Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo, is expected to net hundreds of millions of dollars.

At a park board of directors meeting that preceeded the housing committee, it was also revealed that the taxes for One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the large luxury housing development at Pier 6 and already in the footprint of the park, had been lowered due to dragging sales, reducing the amount of money put into the parks coffers by $1 million.

The development is still 40 percent undersold, which calls the whole concept of housing in the park into question.

Emotions ran high at the meeting, which took place at the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Seth Pinsky, President of the city's Economic Development Corporation, a position appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, pushed back against Raskin's claims that the report wasn't objective.

"I wish that people could accept that people can have honest disagreements," he said. "But that's not the era we live in. It's unfortunate."

Following the vote, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, who chairs the committee, said Raskin mentioned City Hall "19 times" in his attempt to criticize the mayor's involvement in the study.

Pinsky said the Watchtower Properties do not meet the criteria as a possible alternative revenue stream because the money from the sale of the properties could go to the city, and funding for the park cannot divert cash from the city. 

But many members of the community, including Councilmembers Stephen Levin and Brad Lander, believe the Watchtower Properties should be on the table.

"The Watchtower Properties ought to have been considered," said Levin. "I'm disappointed."

Many in the room weren't surprised by the Watchtower omission.

"It is as I said it was. The Mayor wants what he wants. You go along or you shut up," said longtime Cobble Hill resident and activist Dorothy Siegel.

"It [the report] is what I had feared it to be: a document written with the result and conclusion City Hall wanted it to have," said Raskin. "We wanted an honest, comprehensive study. The report in front of us today doesn't do that."