Dear Cobble Hill Community,

Hope you are all enjoying this hectic, but always festive season!

This latest update contains recent news along with details of, and some follow-up on, the CHA’s fall general meeting in November, for those who were unable to be there.

Before we get to business, please mark your calendars for next Thursday, December 22. The CHA is pleased to announce our Holiday Sing event: a group of professional singers from OperaOnTap.org will gather in Cobble Hill Park starting at 4:30 and will then proceed to a few neighboring blocks, including Warren, Henry, and Clinton. Please join in. SONGBOOKS WILL BE PROVIDED. The event will end around 6pm. Thank you to our sponsors – La Vara, Tekoa and two generous neighbors who stepped forward to help bring us good cheer.

On to business:

THE MATTER OF FORTIS:
Fortis has announced that they are going As of Right (AOR) and made filings to the Department of Buildings (DOB) for 347 Henry Street and 352 Hicks Street. We want to temper fears that a short time clock has started ticking. Experts have advised us it could be six to eight months for those plans to be approved by the DOB, which is when we will be allowed to see them. In the meantime, we will continue working to protect the historic district and our community.

During the November meeting, we reviewed how the community came to consensus – supported by Councilmember Brad Lander – that the ULURP proposed by Fortis was out of context and unacceptable. The As-Of-Right (AOR) plan will bring lower population density than the ULURP, but Fortis is not required to seek input from the community on its plans or design. There are concerns about the treatment of the eastside of Henry Street, because of its adjacency to the historic district; about the intended usage of the community facility space; about the height of the overall development; and the impact on our infrastructure. Once the DOB approves Fortis’s plans, we have a brief window – 45 days – to examine the plans and challenge the elements we find unacceptable. The CHA will hire land use and zoning professionals to undertake that review, and if legal action is needed, to engage an attorney.

Communities opposing development are sometimes derided as NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). The CHA wants our philosophy to be more correctly labeled PIMBY — Planning In My Back Yard.  We continue to advance this philosophy in all of our interactions.

The CHA’s Urban Planning Committee, chaired by Susan and Ben Baxt, has enunciated a set of urban design principles that can easily be applied to the LICH development, and that would integrate future development into our existing neighborhood. Several members of the committee and the board have met with City Hall, which showed great interest in a PIMBY approach. Some ideas from the CHA Urban Planning Committee include:

• underground parking and deliveries
• a wider, landscaped walkway on the Pacific Street easement
• a public plaza on Henry Street
• a green connection between upper and lower Van Voorhees Parks
• more green and open spaces.

Some of the improvements would require agreement and implementation by Fortis. The CHA’s position is to keep an open dialogue with Fortis to bring attention to our planning concerns.

At the November CHA meeting, reactions to the AOR announcement by Fortis from community members ranged from relief that the AOR project won’t be as dense as the ULURP, to calls for the protection of the eastside of Henry Street, to frustration from those who maintain a NO development of any kind stance.

The CHA encourages everyone in the community to accept the fact that development is happening. At the November meeting, CM Brad Lander reminded the community that the sale of LICH to Fortis has been litigated and found to be legal. We need to move forward. CM Lander also encouraged the CHA to continue to try to work with Fortis to make the buildings as appealing as possible. We are actively working on this effort.

DEMOLITION, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE ISSUES
We continue communications with Fortis regarding maintenance and construction issues. In our most recent meeting, Fortis confirmed that demolition will not take place on the holiday weekends, but night work will continue. We were told that the demo of 339 Hicks Street is scheduled for completion by the latter half of January.

In the meantime, in the wake of the many Noise and Air complaints lodged by community members around the demolition at 339 Hicks Street (Fuller Pavilion) we reached out to State Senator Daniel Squadron’s office who put us in touch with Mario Bruno, Assistant Commissioner, NYC Environmental Protection. He had a chief inspector visit the site and review a year’s worth of inspections conducted at various times of day and night as well as weekends. No violations were found, and according to the inspectors, all permits were properly filed. We will reach out to neighbors who contacted us and if they wish to follow up with the inspector they will be able to do so. If 311 calls are filed anonymously, follow-up is not possible. Please keep that in mind when filing a complaint. Because of the volume of complaints we received, we have requested a community meeting with Commissioner Bruno and members of his Noise and Air team. More demolition will occur on the other LICH sites and this will help to inform the community about the process and regulations.  Look for a date in January or February.

FUNDRAISING: We need to raise money to increase our reserves in order to hire the appropriate professionals, including zoning and land-use experts and an attorney, if litigation is appropriate. Several donations were made in the days following the November meeting, and a fundraising appeal is underway. We were advised by a neighbor and non-profit fundraising professional to hold house parties hosted by neighborhood leaders and advocates. Please let the CHA know as soon as possible if you are willing to host a house party to help raise funds.

We must be prepared. We do not want to end up in a situation like that which occurred in Brooklyn Bridge Park, where legal papers challenging the height of the Pierhouse were filed too late to be considered. Your financial help and neighborly support to this effort will be extremely beneficial to Cobble Hill.

OTHER NOTES FROM THE MEETING:

Committees:

• LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMITTEE: Laurie and Stan Maurer, Co-chairs

• PARKS COMMITTEE: Barbara Krongel, Chair
• SAFETY AND 76 PRECINCT: Jerry Armer, Chair
• TREE COMMITTEE: Georgia Willett and Tom Synnott, Co-chairs
• SCHOOLS COMMITTEE: Margaret Kelley, Chair
• HISTORY COMMITTEE: Susan K. Harris, Chair
• COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE: Rebecca Johnson, Chair
• COMMUNITY LIFE COMMITTEE: Katharine Earnhardt and Amanda Nichols, Co- Chairs
• URBAN PLANNING COMMITTEE: Susan and Ben Baxt, Co-chairs
• FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE: Gretchen Crary and Open Search, Co-chairs
• MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: Leslie Cohen, Chair
• ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Amy Breedlove, Chair

Since the meeting, community members have stepped forward to join us as committee chairs (new chairs in bold above).  We thank Margaret Kelley, Katharine Earnhardt, and Amanda Nichols for taking the lead on important committees.  We will provide more information about committee work in upcoming Community Updates.  Please join me in supporting their efforts for the CHA and the neighborhood.

Communications: The CHA will launch its new website at cobblehill.nyc before year’s end. When that happens, the CHA will have a new email address. The Communications Committee, led by Rebecca Johnson, could use more writers for the website and other projects, as could the History Committee, led by Susan Kumin Harris.  Please let us know if you want to help!

Landmarks Preservation: Long-time residents Laurie and Stan Maurer are the new co-chairs of the Landmarks Preservation Committee. The CHA has worked for more than 50 years to prevent damage to, and enhance the quality of our historic district.

The developer of 118 Amity Street has made an application for a curb cut and surface parking in the side yard. The CHA finds this to be inappropriate for our historic district and is actively opposing this application at the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

DOT Issues: 
— BQE triple cantilever: The work on the cantilever will start in 2021 at the earliest, and will extend from Congress Street to Dumbo. State Senator Squadron has asked for the state to contribute to the cost, which at the moment is set to be paid by the city. There will be some upside to the pain of construction: Van Voorhees Park will be preserved, and the Atlantic Avenue exit will be improved.
—TRUCKS within the bounds of the neighborhood: The CHA is working collaboratively with State Senator Squadron’s office and the NYPD to stop the recent influx of 18-wheeler trucks on our residential streets. Unlawful truck traffic is a safety and quality of life issue that we want to eliminate.

NYU’s ER: The CHA has had two meetings with NYU. The CHA and NYU plan to jointly host informational sessions in the near future. Information gathered from the meetings includes:

• Any transfer of a patient from the Emergency Department to another NYU facility such as to NYU at 34^th Street or NYU Langone/Lutheran Hospital would not incur an additional charge, and would not require re-admission. If the patient were to be transferred to a hospital other than an NYU facility, there would be a charge for the transfer.
• There is a new dedicated pediatric section of the ED.
• Patients can check waiting times at the Emergency Department (ED) by going to the web site, which is updated every five minutes — nyulangone.org/locations/nyu-langone-cobble-hill

F Express:  Because the proposal to trim services on the F train does not offer any significant improvement for riders further south on the F line, and would pose a real burden on areas like ours to which service would be cut, a movement is growing to convince the MTA to rethink this idea. There is a website – dontcutlocalf.com – devoted to the “F Express” proposal. The CHA’s goal is to have the MTA reconsider its proposed changes in F service. We have asked a Cobble Hill resident, who is a retired Transit and Transportation Consultant, to produce a position paper for us to send to our elected officials and the MTA.

BQX – Meeting January 10^th, 2017 at the Cobble Hill Health Center
The meeting about the proposed streetcar line will be lead by the BQX project team and will start at 7pm.

The CHA board and committees will take a break through the end of the year. We hope to see you next Thursday in the CH park at 4:30 for our Holiday Sing! Best wishes for the end of your 2016 and the start to 2017.

Warmly,
Amy Breedlove
President, CHA