Great news for local environmentalists and community activists: the Toll Brothers may scrap an approved plan to build a huge complex of luxury townhouses and condos on the Gowanus Canal if those dark, murky waters are declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A Superfund site is a special distinction that goes only to the the most toxic and contaminated natural resources in the U.S. Once listed, it also means that the EPA will pour money and ingenuity into the clean up and de-contamination of the canal (a win win for Brooklyn).
I guess I wasn't too far off the mark the other day when I said that the Toll Brothers probably wouldn't be too thrilled by news that the EPA was proposing to put the Gowanus Canal on the list of contaminated sites.
Clearly, views of a Superfund site is not the most appetizing PR for a high-end development project. Just imagine the scenic pictures in the publicity brochures. The clean up of the Gowanus will also spell years of delays for the builders, who have been besieged with complaints from local community groups. Now I'm wondering about Whole Foods and whether they are scapping their long delayed plans to build a mega store at Third Street and Third Avenue. Organic food near a Superfund site.
Here's the quote from a VP at Toll Brothers in the Daily News today:
"I don't think we would go forward with the development if they were to designate this as a Superfund site," said David Von Spreckelsen, a vice president at Toll Brothers, which got city approval last month to build 460 condos and townhouses.
"The
stigma attached to the property by being adjacent to a Superfund site I
don't think is something that you could really overcome," said Von
Spreckelsen,
This is not great news at all. It is actually bad news for the canal and the urban environment. Without responsible appropriate development in this previously industrial area, the canal will be left to fester and remain a toxic dump, EPA designation of it as a Superfund site or not. Now the developer will move on to pave over some marsh land in the suburbs where it is easy to build low density, energy wasting housing.
How was Toll planning to overcome the current stigma attached to the canal? The smell is hardly a reassuring selling point. Wouldn’t they want the smell to go away before they hold their first open house, or were they planning on having those events only in the dead of the winter.
Actually this is not great news at all, at least for those interested in the area. Contrary to the view of the classically NIMBY “community activists”, the Toll project was quite a nice one (not a “huge” one at all, it covered about 2 square blocks!), with 4 to 12 (2) story buildings arranged in a very sensitive way. Since the area is currently rather run down, this would have been a good start to revitalization. Check it here: http://www.tollbrothersgowanus.com/
The Toll project should be compared to the Atlantic Yards project as a model of moderate development and would’ve greatly improved the area.