!!!Unnecessary and Unwarranted Housing on Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park in Face of Looming Questions on Back Room Deal by State!!! Wednesday, May 18, 2016: The Brooklyn Heights Association, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, and People for Green Space Foundation were astonished and dismayed by the announcement of a back room deal, now apparently sidelined, between the City and State to permit unnecessary development on Pier 6. The New York State Economic Development Corporation (ESD) had previously made clear that it expected the City to work with the community and its elected officials prior to allowing any development to proceed. However, the City never reached out to us or our local elected officials, something that the ESD knew well. We are equally astonished and dismayed by Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen’s statement that the City will proceed with this development without ESD’s approval of a modification to the General Project Plan. Doing so would be a clear violation of the Plan’s requirement that no housing be built unless needed to support the Park. As the lead agency under New York State’s environmental review laws, it is ESD’s responsibility to ensure that agreements reached pursuant to them are enforced. We continue our astonishment and dismay at the lack of meaningful City or State response to the expert reports presented by the community that clearly demonstrate the lack of need for any new housing at Pier 6. Financial experts exposed more that $800 million in excess funds for the Park, without any building on Pier 6. Serious questions have been raised about potentially improper and illegal relationships between Robert A. Levine, the potential developer of Pier 6, and City officials as part of an expanding investigation of the deBlasio administration. We certainly support the investigation of such relationships and believe that this investigation should be completed before any additional steps are taken to move this project forward. We believe the best solution for the Park right now is to finish its mission as a Park without any new housing whatsoever. We stand by the statement of our local elected officials in their letter that was released minutes before the deal was announced yesterday that: “No more housing be built on Pier 6”.