Landmark argument
Experts: City could break its own laws by turning Promenade into highway
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BY JULIANNE CUBA
The city’s controversial proposal
to turn the Brooklyn
Heights Promenade into a sixlane
speedway for cars and
trucks during the reconstruction
of the Brooklyn–Queens
Expressway’s triple cantilever
could violate decades-old laws
established to protect views
from the fabled walkway, according
to a landmarks expert.
“Our opposition is based in
law, we feel very strongly that
the Brooklyn Heights Promenade
is protected by a number
of environmental and preservation
laws, and those cannot
be ignored when contemplating
its future,” said Simeon
Bankoff, who heads the privately
run preservation group,
the Historic Districts Council.
Bankoff’s organization
teamed up with six civic
groups — which collectively
represent about 40,000 Brooklynites
— to pen a letter to city,
state, and federal transportation
leaders demanding the
local Department of Transportation
rethink its plan to
put a temporary highway on
the historic walkway as part
of its repairs to the threetiered
infrastructure, which
experts say could start to collapse
in 2026 under the weight
of the thousands of trucks that
travel it daily.
Turning the 70-year-old
Promenade, part of which
sits atop the triple cantilever,
into a highway would block
its world-famous views of the
East River and Manhattan
skyline — vistas the city protected
in 1974 when it named
the walkway a so-called Special
Scenic View District, forbidding
any obstructive construction
along its path, the
preservationists argued in
their letter.
“Transforming the Promenade
into a six-lane interstate
highway through a ‘temporary’
six-year, multi-billion
dollar project would infl ict
severe environmental, social,
and economic harm on the
neighboring communities and
their tens of thousands of residents
— and is unacceptable,”
the Jan. 31 missive read.
The Brooklyn Heights
walkway’s scenic-view designation
followed similar decrees
established as far back
as 1965, when the Landmarks
Preservation Commission
named the neighborhood as
the city’s fi rst historic district,
leading the Feds to christen
America’s First Suburb as
a National Historic Landmark
later that year.
The preservationists are
prepared to fi le suit against
the city if it moves forward
with transforming the Promenade
into a speedway for no
less than six years, according
to Bankoff, who said they
wouldn’t take legal action
while offi cials are reviewing
the options on the table to repair
the 1.5-mile stretch of expressway
between Atlantic
Avenue and Sands Street.
Those options include the
city’s so-called innovative approach
to send traffi c along
the Promenade, which offi -
cials say could allow the fi x
to wrap by 2026; its so-called
traditional approach, a laneby
lane repair that could
stretch into 2028 and cause
traffi c jams for up to 12 miles;
and a third option recently
submitted by a local architect,
which proposes sending
expressway traffi c down a
temporary roadway closer to
Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“You can’t fi le a lawsuit
unless some action has been
taken, no action has been
taken, the city is still looking
at several plans,” Bankoff
said.
Leaders of another group
formed specifi cally to oppose
transforming the Promenade
into a highway doubled down
on the preservationists’ demands,
expressing no reservations
about taking the city to
court if offi cials proceed with
their innovative option, which
Mayor DeBlasio endorsed last
October before dialing back
his support.
“The courts are always an
option of last resort, and we
are prepared to use every tool
to fi ght this to the end,” said Hilary
Jager, a spokeswoman for
advocacy group A Better Way
NYC, who lives in Brooklyn
Heights. “Our focus is on working
collaboratively to fi nd a
better way to reduce traffi c and
pollution across the city. That’s
why we’ve asked the city to stop
moving forward with its proposed
plan, engage with stakeholders,
look at and seriously
consider alternatives, and listen
to the community.”
ILLEGAL?: Private preservationists and local civic leaders penned a
letter to the city warning that offi cials may violate laws established to
protect the Brooklyn Heights Promenade’s views if they move forward
with turning the walkway into a six-lane speedway during repairs to the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway’s triple cantilever. Photo by Julianne Cuba