|
Dave Kraut, one of RIOC's Roosevelt Island resident board
members, chaired the meeting in his position as the head of
RIOC's Development Committee. He acknowledged that, until four
days earlier, neither he nor any other RIOC Board member had any
knowledge that the project even existed. He also admitted that
there had been no Development Committee meetings on the subject -
that, in fact, with the single exception of himself as head,
there were no members of the Development Committee.
Stephen Jemal is the principal of SSJ, the developer of the
proposed Marriott project. He has met with the separate Planning
and Development Committees of both RIOC and RIRA. He seems
genuinely puzzled over why we wouldn't want a two-tower resort
(26 stories each) with 350 first-class hotel rooms and 50
condominiums in a gated community in our back yard.
What does it matter to him that our single street, which was
designed and constructed for no vehicular traffic at all, would
now bear the burden of the taxi traffic needed to maintain 350
hotel rooms, let alone ongoing employee, guest and service
traffic?
SSJ would not extend the AVAC system and so plan to use dumpster
garbage trucks. Want to guess how much garbage a 350-room,
50-apartment resort/conference facility can produce? And what
goes out as garbage presumably has to come into the resort in the
first place, presumably in ten times the quantity.
Main Street would become a nightmare. It's as simple as that.
But the core issue is that the General Development Plan (GDP)
designates the entire area as open space parkland, to be
available to all New Yorkers, not simply Marriott's guests.
RIOC's attitude is that if no one can come up with the money to
develop the park site as a park, they can put it up for
commercial grabs.
The General Development Plan can be modified solely with the
approval of the City Council (though RIOC continues to dispute
that fact), and both Gifford Miller's office and Virginia Fields'
Manhattan Borough President's office have given us formal pledges
to protect the parkland, as well as Community Board 8 and the
Roosevelt Foundation.
Every one of RIOC's own Request for Proposals for development
here even states, as legally mandated:
"Development of sites, and each individual site, must be in
accordance with the City Lease and the GDP."
No modification of the GDP has ever been permitted without the
approval of the City Council (formerly the Board of Estimate).
It will be interesting indeed if RIOC takes this on now.
As you know, RIRA has retained legal counsel on this issue. The
firm, DeForest and Duer, is widely considered to have some of the
top land-use specialists in the city. And our community has
indicated its willingness to support this legal fight if that is
what is needed.
RIRA is not adamantly opposed to commercial development of part
of our parkland if that's what it takes to get the parkland
itself developed. But any development here, on parkland or not,
must be appropriate to this community. This proposal is
ludicrous in its wanton disregard for those who live here.
I am not entirely convinced that Rob Ryan understands how
strongly the community feels on this particular issue, so I ask
that you come to the meeting Monday night and let him know.
| 
