Submitted by Carolyn Konheim, Mar 29, 2007 12:38

Traffic is the issue that has done in Wal-Mart in the communities where they have tried to build. Brian Ketcham's detailed analysis of traffic impacts on Staten Island was the rallying point for political opposition there and elsewhere in the region where Wal-Mart and other big box stores have been proposed. But Wal-Mart will have plenty of opportunity to return if the City HPD plan proceeds to turn over a third of the site that had been approved in 1996 for 2,400 housing units in Gateway Estates to more than double Gateway Center, creating the capacity for SEVEN Wal-Mart supercenters as of right. And, contrary to the Mayor's rhetoric about sustainable growth, the City seems determined to reward the superstore developers who reneged on their 1996 commitment to finance the housing. They are now financing the housing with public and non-profit funds, shrinking the housing area, changing the original proposal for a mixed income community, short-changing the parking area, guaranteeing overflow on local streets, and generating the need for an additional two lanes on the jammed Belt Parkway, which cannot be built. Not only did HPD not consult NYSDOT about the feasibility of the added traffic, they effectively excluded the community from commenting on the DEIS scope by holding the scoping hearing in Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn, just about as far away as one can get from the southeast Brooklyn site. No inconvenience for the legion of consultants, lawyers, developer reps and agency officials who all came by limo.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.