The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is looking to clear the air with Community Board 5 (CB 5) over its plans for a Newtown Creek aeration facility in industrial Maspeth.
During its February meeting, CB 5 panned the DEP’s revised proposal for the plant at 58-26 47th St., which includes machines designed to inject oxygen into the creek and reduce water pollution. The plans excluded previously promised public waterfront access space.
But in a letter sent to CB 5 Chairman Vincent Arcuri following the meeting, DEP Associate Commissioner of Public Affairs Eric D. Landau stated that the agency is open to creek-side access at the facility on the condition that nearby sites first develop their own waterfronts for public use.
“[The] DEP will further enhance the site with waterfront access, if and when nearby properties have developed publicly-accessible waterfront spaces — what the community board has described to us as a larger waterfront promenade,” Landau said in the letter that the Times Newsweekly obtained on Thursday.
The plans include a walkway leading from 47th Street to the water’s edge, then a path immediately adjacent to the creek.
At the February CB 5 meeting, Tom Smith of the Department of City Planning said the DEP was excused from a city waterfront access mandate at the location due to concerns over public safety.
Landau also stated the DEP would “install benches and trees along the sidewalk” outside the facility “to create a seating area for the community.”
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