East Side Resiliency Plan To Get Independent Review

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The storm protection project that will redo the East River Park will be reviewed by an independent consultant, two Manhattan politicians announced Monday.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmember Carlina Rivera have hired Netherlands-based group Deltares to review the sweeping resiliency project two weeks before the City Planning Commission holds a vote on the plan.

Hans Gehrels, the manager of Deltares' corporate market team on urban resilience, will lead the review. His expertise is in urban resilience, sustainability, flood risk, and climate adaptation. He has worked around the world, from Argentina and Costa Rica to Singapore and Sri Lanka.

"We usually don't have people who have international experience [during the city's review process]," Brewer told Patch. "I think it's very exciting to have somebody of this quality helping us figure out is this good, indifferent, bad, perfect, in-between, change this, don't do this, bad idea, good idea."

East siders have previously called for an independent review of the plan, which was drastically changed nearly a year ago to a new plan that would bury and rebuild the East River Park some eight feet higher to protect the neighborhood from devastation from storms like Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The plan, which city officials say will protect the park from going offline from future flooding and prevent nighttime FDR Drive closures during work, has drawn the ire of neighbors since it will also require closing the park for three and a half years.

"I think he gives people — no matter what he comes up with — some solace that somebody other than the city is looking at this," Brewer said.

The review is in addition to a consultant expected to be hired by the Department of Design and Construction to review the project under sustainability guidelines called Envision, though as recently as Friday, a DDC spokesperson said a contract for a consultant had not been registered.

Rivera, who holds a pivotal vote in City Council on the plan, has repeatedly called for staged construction to avoid a full East River Park closure.

She said in a statement: "Since earlier this year, our community has requested a third-party expert review that would bring greater scrutiny and clarity to ESCR."

"I look forward to the Deltares team's expert and independent insight into the project as we work to ensure the City gets its first major storm resiliency project done quickly and correctly for the communities impacted," Rivera said.

Deltares will issue a report based on his review of the draft environmental impact statement, project drawings, the cost-benefit analyses with the proposed project and three other alternatives detailed in hundreds of pages of city documents, and interviews with stakeholders, Brewer's office said.

Gehrels will finish his review by September 23, when City Planning votes on the project. Brewer's and Rivera's offices will split the cost of hiring the firm, which totals some $20,000, according to Brewer.

The public can submit comments and concerns to Deltares by emailing ESCR@manhattanbp.nyc.gov.