TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, NYC MAY EXPAND LOWER MANHATTAN INTO EAST RIVER

Gothamist: Nearly six years after the Bloomberg administration proposed the idea of building a counterpart to Battery Park City, the de Blasio administration is poised to argue that new land needs to be created in the East River to protect Lower Manhattan from the threat of climate change.

According to a planning document obtained by Gothamist, the proposal will be part of a coordinated effort to mitigate storm surges and sea level rise downtown. The area considered for new land would be south of the Brooklyn Bridge down to around the Battery, and out to the pier-heads, according to one person who was recently briefed by the city on the plan, and who is not authorized to speak to reporters.

The “Big U” protection system that won a 2014 design competition has since been broken down into separate parts—the East Side Coastal Resiliency project will shore up East 25th Street down to Montgomery Street, while the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency project covers the 0.82 mile stretch of the Two Bridges neighborhood, and the Battery Park City Authority has its own climate change plan in the works. The new land would cover the Seaport area and the Financial District. Read More>>

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