Dear Cobble Hill Community,
The CHA board has met weekly to continue to build CHA committees, to resolve neighborhood issues, to meet with local elected officials, and to organize community events. Below is a report on our second month in office:
THE MATTER OF FORTIS
The board met with City Councilmember Brad Lander, State Senator Daniel Squadron, and State Assembly member Jo Anne Simon, and restarted communications with City Hall over the future of LICH.
Councilmember Lander showed us a recent iteration (nothing new has been seen since January) of the ULURP plan presented to him by Fortis. Unfortunately, there was no meaningful reduction in square footage, the school size and location remained problematic, and the issues of population density and usage (e.g., pedestrian traffic, vehicular traffic, green space, parking) continue to be inadequately addressed. Because of Fortis’ failure to address these overarching issues, and in accordance with the community consensus demonstrated at the November 18, 2015 CHA meeting, the board voted to oppose the latest ULURP plan. We also informed Councilmember Lander and City Hall that we are highly skeptical that any ULURP plan from Fortis will address our community’s legitimate concerns. We will, of course, continue to consult with Councilmember Lander and our other local elected officials on the next steps. (See the end of this email for more details on the process thus far.)
LEGAL WORK
As we reported last month, we are continuing to obtain documents and to review the legal work on the Fortis development that was completed before May 11, 2016. As reported by the former CHA treasurer at the Spring meeting, CHA in December 2015 paid a $25,000 retainer to attorney Marvin Mitzner, who agreed to provide monthly statements of legal fees charged against the retainer. No statements or invoices were received by this board or the prior board until May 2016 when the current board received two invoices dated March 30, 2016 and May 24, 2016 showing that the $25,000 retainer had been used up by the time of the March 30 invoice, and that a significant balance for additional services had been incurred. Mr. Mitzner has told us that the outstanding balance must be paid before he will turn any over legal files to the CHA.
Franklin Stone, a member of the CHA Legal Committee and legal consultant to the previous board, and Buzz Doherty, former CHA First Vice President, who were listed as the primary participants in phone calls with the lawyer, were asked to verify that they spoke with the attorney on the stated occasions and that the work the attorney undertook was as per their instructions. Buzz verified that the attorney had worked as directed. Franklin has not verified all the phone conversations. Since those conversations represented the bulk of the time charged, and since the outstanding amount is significant, we requested that the attorney give us further details about his time entries. We will keep you updated on legal matters.
SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
This summer we have moved the series to Tuesday nights based on community input. We are fortunate to have the assistance of CHA board member George Sanchez with his knowledge and expertise in music and the performing arts. George, in collaboration with CHA Community Life Chair Michelle Mannix, has put together an excellent line-up: SWEETCANE on July 19, ROOKIN on July 26 and AUDRA ROX on August 2. Please come out to Cobble Hill Park and get your groove on! Concerts are FREE and start at 7pm.
NEW CHA COMMITTEES
All CHA committees have a chair and a board liaison. In addition to the committees formed in our first month, the following committees have been initiated in the last month:
Standing Committees (as per the bylaws):
The newly formed standing committees are:
LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMITTEE: Jonathan Mellon, chair; Leslie Cohen, liaison. This committee shall protect, preserve and promote the integrity of the architectural heritage of Cobble Hill. The committee is familiar with architectural preservation statutes, rules and regulations to work with government agencies to ensure enforcement.
HISTORY COMMITTEE: Susan K. Harris, chair; Susan Mulcahy, liaison. This committee will research and report on the history of Cobble Hill. The committee is currently working with former members on research that was started several years ago. The goal is to make this information easily assessable through our new website coming in the autumn.
Special Committee:
ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Amy Breedlove, chair; Bennette Kramer, liaison. This committee works with the president to provide guidance on legal, financial, and political matters. Neighbors who have deep experience in these fields will provide assistance on specific issues.
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE LANDMARKS LAW (INTRO 775)
This fall, new Landmarks Committee chair Jonathan Mellon will update the community as to how Intro 775 will affect Cobble Hill at a meeting specific to this topic. Date TBD.
FORMER SHELL STATION
We thank those neighbors who reported issues with the construction on the former Shell Station lot (122 Atlantic Avenue) – those who called 311 to lodge complaints with the Department of Buildings (DOB), who followed up with CB6 in some cases, and who also contacted the CHA. We reported back to these neighbors on July 1st about our actions in response to their reports. First Vice President Michael Epstein will continue to be the contact for issues relating to construction in the neighborhood.
POLICE INCIDENT
We were alerted to an issue relating to property damage (Henry Public) and vagrancy in and around the LICH site. Jerry Armer, chair of the Safety and 76thPrecinct Committee, is working with neighbors and the 76th Precinct to rectify and monitor this issue.
We thank you for your involvement with the CHA.
Please continue to send comments, suggestions, and offers of help. Part of what makes Cobble Hill great is our sense of neighborhood. We appreciate everyone’s efforts to promote a neighborly community.
My best wishes for a wonderful July and, for those of you who are traveling, for a lot of fun and a safe return.
Warmly,
Amy Breedlove
President, CHA
The Cobble Hill Association’s involvement with the Fortis Group’s plans to develop the LICH site
- In May 2015, the Fortis Group revealed to the Cobble Hill community its plans for a possible ULURP and a possible As of Right (AOR). The community was shocked and angry. Cobble Hill and surrounding neighborhoods had had a fully functioning hospital that was sold out from under them by the state of New York. Fortis somehow won the right to develop the LICH site in the RFP process. The plans shown to the community gave rise to an overwhelming sentiment that Fortis has no regard for our neighborhood or to developing within our community in a responsible and respectful way.
- To help mitigate the situation, in August a community process led by Councilmember Brad Lander was undertaken to obtain feedback from the community. The community reviewed the proposed ULURP and AOR plans and again gave a strongly negative response.
- To further educate and engage our community, in the autumn of 2015, the CHA held twenty small-group meetings on nearly every block of Cobble Hill to provide an opportunity for our neighbors to further understand what was being proposed and to gain their feedback on how to proceed.
- On November 18, 2015, more than three hundred well-informed members of the Cobble Hill community met to discuss the two proposed plans.
- The overwhelming consensus of the Cobble Hill community at that meeting was that the proposed ULURP was unacceptable: the plan was out of scale and not reflective of the Cobble Hill context. The community voted to reject the proposal, although they knew that the likely outcome would be an As of Right development.
- Councilmember Lander agreed that the plan as presented, was unacceptable and pledged to seek a Council veto should Fortis put it forward in a ULURP.
- In response to our community’s petition to City Hall in December 2015, the City convened three meetings in which relevant city agencies, Fortis, NYU, CHA and our local elected officials participated to determine if Fortis would develop a plan that was more acceptable to Cobble Hill – i.e., in-scale, reflective of urban design principles, and respectful of the Cobble Hill context.
- The plan Fortis presented that December, and a subsequent plan presented to Councilmember Lander on June 30, 2016, did not significantly improve the plan’s overall acceptability to the community. Indeed, the June 30 proposal increased square footage that had been reduced after the December meeting. The proposed ULURP development plan is still too large, does not incorporate basic urban design principles, threatens our existing playgrounds and public green spaces, and does little to mitigate the tremendous negative effect this project would have on us, on our historic neighborhood, and on our community as a whole.
- Over the past year and a half, three successive CHA boards have worked to find an acceptable outcome. Under Roy Sloane’s leadership the design was somewhat modified. The subsequent interim CHA board (September 2015 through May 2016), with the hard work of Councilmember Lander, obtained a reduction in square footage and called into question the size and location of the school proposed for the public park/playground at Henry and Pacific Streets. The current board (May 2016 to the present) restarted the dialogue with City Hall and Fortis that had ended in January.
- At this point, the CHA board opposes the most recent ULURP plan and is skeptical that we will ever see a ULURP plan that incorporates our intimate understanding of our neighborhood and our way of life. In an effort to work toward a ULURP that would enhance the neighborhood, we developed what we believe are reasonable and realistic urban design concepts, incorporated into the development guidelines below. However, we do not see that the potential problems caused by a development of this size are being mitigated sufficiently to preserve the character and livability of our beloved and historically significant neighborhood.
Cobble Hill Development Guidelines:
- The development should incorporate new and existing neighborhood residents.
- The development should respect and contribute to the physical context of the Cobble Hill Historic District.
- The development should generate a vibrant public life (e.g., green spaces and a public plaza).
- The development should draw upon and add to local assets (cultural, historic, social, educational, economic, environmental).