Battleground: Gowanus

EERIE CANAL? Developers see the Gowanus area as ripe for residential construction; community groups like FROGG, below, consider it vulnerable.

At stake: The environmentally plagued Gowanus Canal and its surroundings, an area that’s still a haven for artists’ studios and light industry that could be jeopardized by development

The combatants: Developers like Shaya Boymelgreen and Toll Brothers vs. residents, the still-sizable industry sector, community groups like Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) and artists who live nearby

Another Brooklyn showdown is gearing up near the site where the decisive clash in the original Battle of Long Island took place 230 years ago: Gowanus. This sagging valley between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens is divided by what was once Gowanus Creek; the creek was turned into a canal around 1870, commercial activity boomed, and many decades of hard-core pollution ensued, earning the waterway the nickname “Lavender Lake.”

Over the past 50 years, maritime use of the canal has plummeted to virtually nothing, and most heavy industry has cleared out. Artists and other residents began moving in during the 1970s, although the canal still emitted a fearsome stench before a pump, which broke in 1961, was replaced in 1999 (you can still catch an unpleasant whiff sometimes). Speculators have long been on the make, but in 2003 a stretch of Fourth Avenue, the area’s main drag, was “upzoned” to allow the construction of residential buildings up to 12 stories. Community organizations immediately mustered.

In the ’90s, the concept of the seedy avenue becoming lined with high-rises offering views of the canal seemed hilarious, but no one’s laughing now. Two of those towers are nearing completion, an eight-story Holiday Inn Express is scheduled to open any day, and another eight-story hotel is reportedly under way on Fourth Avenue. In 2008, a huge Whole Foods is expected to open on Third Avenue and 3rd Street.

Most significantly, developer Shaya Boymelgreen—the Ratner of Gowanus—and his partners have been snapping up properties in the area. His goal? Gowanus Village: a retail and residential community, including an esplanade and a park, to be designed by Enrique Norten. Luxury-home builders Toll Brothers have also purchased property along the canal.

But several area projects have not progressed for many months, including Gowanus Village, and several significant steps remain (not least rezoning) before plans can become reality. The canal area is essentially a low-lying wetland that’s vulnerable to flooding. Marlene Donnelly of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus says the situation could grow worse as more buildings—not to mention the proposed Atlantic Yards—would increase strain on the canal’s drainage capability (a condition global warming will only exacerbate). According to a 2003 report by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, the canal also contains the most pathogen-laden water in the New York/New Jersey harbor system.

“It’s an environmentally unsustainable situation,” Donnelly says. “People think they can engineer their way around anything, but the overall landscape of the watershed here makes it very different from building along a river’s edge. The [new residential] building on Fourth Avenue [and 5th Street] sits in a moat every time it rains; it’s at the bottom of a tidal watershed area. It just doesn’t take storm water well.”

Craig Hammerman of Community Board 6, which includes Gowanus, is more circumspect, and says he doesn’t think the delays and environmental concerns mean plans are in jeopardy. “Developers go into these situations with their eyes open,” he says, noting that the timetables of the various agencies involved make it hard to predict when construction will start or finish. (At press time, Boymelgreen’s representatives had not responded to requests for comment.)

Activists’ proposals vary from more modest development to turning the area back into wetlands. Will Gowanus become an expensive, family-friendly extension of Park Slope, an environmentally symbiotic light-industry zone or a toxic mess? Stay tuned.—Jem Aswad