De Blasio's Climate Plan Would Extend FiDi 2 Blocks Into E River

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $10 billion plan to build up to two blocks of land into the East River to protect Lower Manhattan from the impacts of climate change on Thursday.

The proposal would protect the Financial District and Seaport District from sea level rise and storm surge — aimed to prevent such devastation seen when Hurricane Sandy wrecked Lower Manhattan in 2012.

"Sandy was a turning point," said Jainey Bavishi, the director of the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

"The destruction [during Sandy] was unlike anything we have seen before," Bavishi said.

The plan would be to protect Lower Manhattan from daily flooding expected on 20 percent of the area's streets by 2100 without any action, city officials said.

"No where is that threat greater than for the hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan," de Blasio said. The plan, he said, "is comprehensive to say the least. It is audacious. But most of all, it is necessary. This is a very, very big undertaking."

The shoreline extension would run from the east side of the Battery up to the Brooklyn Bridge — where up to 500 feet of fill would extend Manhattan's shoreline into the East River.

"A simple way to think about it is you're just filling in between the piers," de Blasio said.

The Mayor's announcement comes days after the Gothamist reported a leaked planning document regarding such a shoreline extension plan. Wednesday evening, the Mayor detailed his "climate-proof" pitch in an op-ed in New York Magazine, arguing the federal government should take more seriously funding coastal resiliency projects. Thursday, de Blasio said he hopes the Green New Deal — a climate and resiliency policy proposal that has gained steam among Democrats and the left in recent months — would fund such coastal projects in urban centers from New York City to Miami.

"This should be as much of a national priority as a local one — protecting the global center of commerce, the Federal Reserve, the home to a sector of our economy that touches every town and region in America," de Blasio wrote.

But without federal funds, de Blasio said some type of public-private partnership would be considered.

Private development dollars was how the 2013 Bloomberg-era plan Seaport City to extend Lower Manhattan's shoreline was expected to be funded at the time.

De Blasio argued a critical difference between the new plan and Seaport City is that his shoreline extension plan centers resiliency as its main goal and will incorporate other expected impacts of climate change besides storm surge alone.

Plus, the Bloomberg-era Seaport City would have extended further north to the Manhattan Bridge. De Blasio's shoreline extension ends at the Brooklyn Bridge.

"[T]he goal here is resiliency, not development," added James Patchett, head of the Economic Development Corporation.

The FiDi and Seaport climate resilience plan builds on five other projects in the works — all of which are expected to be implemented or at least break ground between now and 2021. Much of the other permanent measures are changes along the shoreline itself — something city officials determined was not feasible in FiDi and Seaport in particular due to underground infrastructure, they announced Thursday.

In South Street Seaport, the Financial District, and Two Bridges, the city will implement $3.5 million in temporary deployable barriers in time for the 2019 hurricane season — an interim measure ahead of more permanent solutions to protect neighborhoods from sea level rise and storm surge in the future.

Battery Park City Authority is planning a $134 million project to reconstruct its esplanade and open space, which will start construction in 2020.

A $165 million plan is underway to raise the esplanade and possibly implement a berm at the Battery beginning in 2021.

Some $200 million in permanent and "flip-up" flood barriers will break ground to protect the Two Bridges neighborhood by 2021.

The east side will be protected under a $1.45 billion project, expected to begin the formal public review process known as the uniform land use review procedure (ULURP) this spring.

The latest shoreline extension scheme would also snake through ULURP, city officials said.

Before that, the city will begin community engagement to continue developing the so-called "Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan" over the next two years.

Councilmember Margaret Chin was skeptical of any possible private funding for the $10 billion undertaking on Thursday.

"With this plan to provide protection for the entire coastline of Lower Manhattan, we now have a roadmap to a more resilient and sustainable future," Chin said. "However, this more resilient future cannot be paid for by private real estate development that would destroy the waterfront neighborhoods that we are trying to protect."

"With thousands of precious lives, as well as homes, businesses and vital infrastructure, on the line, we cannot fail at our duty to protect and strengthen our city for decades to come," Chin added.

Community Board 1 leaders emphasized community engagement is critical as the city develops its proposal.

"As we approach the seventh anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, we are encouraged to see progress towards a comprehensive resiliency infrastructure plan for Lower Manhattan and we look forward to a robust community engagement process," CB 1 chair Anthony Notaro said.

Catherine McVay Hughes, a longtime resiliency leader in Lower Manhattan and former chair of CB 1, said the "science is clear and the threat is real" of climate change.

"Every day we wait to begin Lower Manhattan resiliency raises the price and increases the risk of devastation by another superstorm," she said. "The success of this project requires engineering expertise and continuous community engagement."