February 11, 2006

Public Meeting Thursday Night
Residents Assn Blasts RIOC
For Haphazard Development

The Residents Association (RIRA) has lambasted the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) for abandoning community planning in its most recent development moves.

RIRA’s Common Council has adopted a position paper concluding that RIOC’s most recent offering of development parcels on the Island, and its intent to sell off retail space and its Motorgate interest to private parties, amount to an abandonment of key qualities that make the Island a desirable place to live.

"The Residents Association... has serious objections to each of these proposals and to RIOC’s approach to its development and management responsibilities in general," says the position paper, which is reprinted in this issue of The WIRE in The RIRA Column on page 3. The paper decries RIOC’s repeated departures from the Island’s General Development Plan (GDP) without creating a replacement plan. "These new [development] proposals have been formulated without any public discussion on RIOC’s vision of how the Island should be developed; how residents, workers, or visitors will access and exit the Island; or how its commercial property and public facilities should be managed. In other words, RIOC has chosen to ignore the GDP without ever discussing how it should be replaced."

The paper goes on to suggest that RIOC’s latest offerings have the earmarks of a last-minute deal by the outgoing Pataki administration: "In private discussions with some of the resident RIOC Board members, [we have learned that] these proposals were created and marketed without their knowledge or approval. One can only conclude that they were formulated as last-minute giveaways by the Governor’s office and the DHCR."

The paper criticizes RIOC’s current planning on seven points:

• Reduction in economic, racial, and ethnic diversity

• Failure to consider transportation needs

• Loss of parkland and recreational facilities

• Loss of the steam plant

• Parking, delivery, and shopper concerns for a proposed "big box" retailer

• Possible loss of vital commercial services

• Lack of an overall plan

The paper was just made available for publication. RIOC has issued no response but has rarely responded to such pronouncements by the Residents Association. In his last RIOC Column for The WIRE, however, RIOC President Herb Berman wrote, "...the financial structure underpinning our Island is often misrepresented or misunderstood by some Island activists." He concluded the column, "We encourage you to attend the RIOC Board meetings and join in the discussion about the future of our Island." However, only a handful of RIOC Board meetings each year invite resident comment, and then only after a meeting has concluded with votes taken and decisions made.

RIOC’s real-estate consultant, who receives commissions on his deals, will present the results of the most recent foray into the real-estate market in a public session Thursday (February 16) at 6:00 p.m., in Good Shepherd Community Center.