The focus of the eighth Waterfront Management Advisory Board (WMAB) meeting was public outreach on the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, including a report out on recently completed virtual public workshops. DCP shared a summary of what we heard from New Yorkers during these workshops and how this feedback will be used to shape the goals and strategies of the plan. After this discussion, the WMAB participated in a brainstorming session to the begin crafting vision statements. The purpose of the vision statements is to lay out the broad aspirations for each of the plan’s topical areas.
Virtual public workshops
During the fall of 2020, DCP hosted 12 virtual public workshops to discuss the preliminary issues and goals within the CWP Framework. Each of the virtual public workshops focused on a different geography of NYC, but topics and discussions often spanned across the city and its waterways. Over 1,000 people registered for the virtual workshops from all five boroughs. Small breakout rooms were effective at encouraging participation and moving discussions from one topic to another. Many participants expressed interest in increasing public awareness and education on a range of waterfront topics, including climate risk, ecology, public access, water quality, and water safety.
Topic-specific feedback
Public Access
Water Quality/Natural Resources
The Working Waterfront
Ferries
Resilience and Climate Change
Economic Activity
Brainstorming Session
Public Access
Challenges: Inequitable access; a need to keep people away from certain uses on the waterfront for security reasons; being in the water poses risks to life safety including, temperature, currents, and maritime traffic; waterfront public spaces can be vulnerable to sea level rise; not everyone feels welcome at the waterfront; need for swimming education programs; poor perception of water quality may detract from use and interest in the water.
Opportunities: there are many ways to expand access to the waterfront; visual access can be meaningful when physical access to the water isn’t possible or prudent; there is potential for public access and industrial uses to coexist (e.g Sims, Newtown Creek WWTP); opportunity for co-benefits with public access and new or restored habitat (e.g. Hunters Point South)
Water Quality and Natural Resources
Challenges: lack of space for wetland migration; waterfront regulations and permitting can limit creative design solutions; despite improvements, CSO are still an issue in certain areas, especially in the South Bronx; water quality improvements are not uniform across the city; constrained waterbodies require creative solutions to improve water quality, beyond upgrading water pollution treatment plants; lack of commercial pump offs for ships.
Opportunities: stewardship opportunities; co-benefits, restored habitat can open up public access (Hunters Point South); promote fishing from piers; natural features may help reduce CSOs and improve water quality; requirements for green infrastructure such as green roofs, bioswales, etc. will help to absorb stormwater; East Kolkata Wetland is a good example of using fish and agriculture to manage CSOs; wetlands for water quality improvements (bio/phytoremediation).
The Working Waterfront
Challenges: aging infrastructure; redevelopment along secondary channels; dredging is cost prohibitive; need to protect waterways with deep drafts and hardened edges for maritime use; permitting challenges; lack of State level ‘Marine transportation plan’; need for education in NYC public schools to create maritime jobs pipeline.
Opportunities: elevate visibility; freight ferries for last mile distribution; marine mammals as working waterfront ambassadors; port is very well-positioned to be a hub for offshore wind.
Ferries
Challenges: Financially constrained; need to increase efficiency/reduce costs; poor connections to onshore transportation.
Opportunities: expand to underserved communities; safer than other modes of transit during COVID-19 (open air); electric ferries to promote sustainability; increase public education, signage; potential to increase public access at ferry sites; ferries promote connection to the waterfront; potential to offer whale watching/ecotourism.
Resilience and Climate Change
Challenges: Increasing risk of flooding; perception that only Manhattan is being protected from flooding; other communities have unique challenges that require locally-specific solutions; prioritization of resiliency funding is unclear and not guided by equity.
Opportunities: Work with communities to understand risk; improve public education so that communities understand risks and can advocate for solutions; identify pilot projects to test creative solutions (these can be applied across boroughs, with a focus on the most at risk areas or environmental justice communities); create incentives to engage the private sector; wetlands and other natural infrastructure as natural flood barriers.
Economic Activity
Challenges: NYC is facing a severe fiscal crisis; high unemployment rate in NYC related to COVID-19 pandemic.
Opportunities: leverage investment along the waterfront; further promote NYC as hub for maritime industry; economic activity is related to public health (promote healthy communities by creating waterfront access to improve health outcomes and support the economy); improve environment and stimulate the economy by training New Yorkers in emerging fields.
The focus of the seventh Waterfront Management Advisory Board (WMAB) meeting was the Department of City Planning’s recently released Framework document on the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. The Framework outlines the initial goals of the plan, which will continue to evolve through public outreach and collaboration with partner agencies and organizations. The Framework is organized under six topical themes: public access, water quality and natural resources, the working waterfront, economic activity, ferries, and resilience and climate change. During this meeting, WMAB members shared their general thoughts on the Framework and took deeper dives into several of the topical themes. Due to time constrains, the group did not discuss all six topics.
General Comments on the Framework
Water Quality and Natural Resources
The Working Waterfront
Public Access
Resilience and Climate Change
The focus of the sixth WMAB meeting was Management, Governance and Regulation on the waterfront. Members discussed how the regulatory process could be improved to support better outcomes as part of the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. Members also discussed how the recommendations of the previous Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, Visions 2020, were tracked and how success could be measured after the next plan is released.
Waterfront Regulations – Current Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement
The Working Waterfront
Improving Government Oversight
Meeting #5 was Coastal Wetlands and Ecology. Members heard presentations from wetland scientist, and WMAB member, Dr. Judith Weis, and Chief of Natural Resources at NYC Dept. Parks and Recreation, Marit Larson. They discussed the state of wetlands in NYC, and what can be done to protect and restore them in the face of increasing climate risks and development pressure. WMAB members then discussed ways to further support the preservation and expansion of waterfront habitats.
Presentation by Dr. Judith Weis on the Sustainability of Salt Marshes
Presentation by NYC Department of Parks and Recreation on the draft Wetlands Management Framework (WMF) for NYC
Resiliency was the focus of the 4th WMAB meeting. The Mayor’s Office of Resiliency (MOR), the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), and the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) presented high-level overviews of the City’s resiliency strategies and major initiatives. The subsequent discussion touched on how the City uses the NYC Panel on Climate Change’s (NPCC) projections for the purposes of land use, open space, and infrastructure planning and the City’s vulnerability to and strategies for addressing different types of climate-related events.
Coastal Flood Risk and Land Use Planning – DCP
Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines – MOR
Design and Planning for Flood Resiliency – DPR
Waterfront Public Access Implementation
DCP WOS presentation