Community Board 1 unanimously passed a resolution last night stating that the city's Department of Sanitation Spring Street facility "as presently envisioned poses an unacceptable threat to air quality and public health."
The resolution maintained that the board and Community Board 2, which represents much of Greenwich Village to the north, call "for a moratorium on the department's garage site location plans...until these issues have been addressed in writing to the satisfaction of the Borough President" and his working group.
The Borough President convened a meeting July 12 of representatives of community boards 1, 2 and 4 and located elected officials on the issue of the proposed garage, which would be about 130 feet high and block some views of the Hudson River from some new residential condominium projects.
According to the resolution, the working group now awaits a written response from the department "about concerns that the air quality in the vicinity of the Spring Street proposal will be impossible to mitigate, specifically noting that while air pollution from 'particulates' might decline (assuming the City actually implemented the clean fuel options it is touting), the concentration of particulate pollution would increase and that the air pollution mitigation measures the City appears to be relying on - including improved catalytic converters - actually change the chemical nature of the resulting emissions, creating highly toxic compounds that have been linked to demonstrable adverse health impacts."
The resolution maintained that the board and Community Board 2, which represents much of Greenwich Village to the north, call "for a moratorium on the department's garage site location plans...until these issues have been addressed in writing to the satisfaction of the Borough President" and his working group.
The Borough President convened a meeting July 12 of representatives of community boards 1, 2 and 4 and located elected officials on the issue of the proposed garage, which would be about 130 feet high and block some views of the Hudson River from some new residential condominium projects.
According to the resolution, the working group now awaits a written response from the department "about concerns that the air quality in the vicinity of the Spring Street proposal will be impossible to mitigate, specifically noting that while air pollution from 'particulates' might decline (assuming the City actually implemented the clean fuel options it is touting), the concentration of particulate pollution would increase and that the air pollution mitigation measures the City appears to be relying on - including improved catalytic converters - actually change the chemical nature of the resulting emissions, creating highly toxic compounds that have been linked to demonstrable adverse health impacts."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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