WATERFRONT ACCESS PLAN New York City zoning requires all residential, commercial, and community facility developments on the waterfront to provide and maintain public open space. Along the Gowanus waterfront, these public spaces will be developed over time by multiple property owners.
Waterfront zoning requires a minumum 20% of each waterfront site be dedicated to public access through three main components: 1. Shore Public Walkway (SPWW) 2. Upland Connections 3. Supplemental Public Access Areas
Schematic of waterfront zoning requirements, Department of City Planning
As part of the Gowanus Rezoning, the City is developing a Gowanus Waterfront Access Plan (WAP), which will amend waterfront zoning to address Gowanus-specific conditions. The key recommendations for the WAP below celebrate the unique conditions and character of Gowanus, suggest programs and principles that align with community needs, and identify opportunities to promote better site design to promote the development of a vibrant, resilient, diverse, connective, and activated waterfront.
CREATE A CONTINUOUS PUBLIC PARK ALONG THE CANAL • Require or incentivize the construction and maintenance of publicly-owned street ends, bridge easements and street plazas as extensions of shore public walkways, allowing for a continuous public park along the canal. • Require or incentivize supplemental public space at bridge crossings and key corridors. • Promote use of a collage of new and reused materials that speak to the unique industrial history of Gowanus. • Adjust the lighting requirements to account for a narrow 2-sided waterbody, acknowledge the desire for dark skies in the community, and account for advances in lighting technology.
IMPROVE DRAINAGE AND RESILIENCY • • • • • •
Promote diverse elevations across the waterfront. Allow plantings below boardwalks and below mean high tide to count towards planting requirement. Encourage native, drought-tolerant, and salt-tolerant plantings in all required plantings. Reduce lawn requirement for supplemental public access areas. Promote low bulkheads where possible to allow access, drainage, and habitat and for structural stability. Allow innovative stormwater techniques, such as wet swales, at the waterfront to count toward stormwater mitigation requirements for new development.
ENCOURAGE AN ACTIVE WATERFRONT • Incentivize program spaces, such as playgrounds, public art, boat launches, and active recreation, within the entirety of the shore public walkway. • Include a provision that requires or facilitates community-driven programming in privately-owned public spaces. See more detail on text recommendations in “GCC Gowanus Waterfront Access Plan Recommendations”
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DRAFT DECEMBER 2019
GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY