Hudson River pier project foes pledge federal court fight

Opponents of a controversial proposal by the Hudson River Park Trust to build a new park and concert venue out in the Hudson River say they will go to federal court to prevent the start of construction of the $170 million project. 

Earlier this week HRPT secured the required Army Corps of Engineers permits, clearing the way for construction to start as soon as this summer. State permits were granted last month.

The park and performance space near 13th Street on Manhattan’s west side will be connected to the waterfront by a 186-foot bridge. It will accommodate 2,500 people with three performance settings on a 2.7-acre platform that will have a park-like setting.

The project is sponsored by Barry Diller, the former movie executive and chairman of IAC, a media and internet company, and his wife, Diane von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The couple has committed to put up much of the $130 million and fund the venue’s operating expenses for 20 years.

The additional $39.5 million for the project will come from New York City, the state and the HRPT. 

Opponents are concerned about the environmental impacts of the project, its vulnerability to a Superstorm Sandy-like storm surge and what they maintain was a lack of transparency in the project’s planning.

“Today the Hudson River is cherished but in the past it had been treated very poorly,” said Richard Emery, the attorney representing the City Club of New York, an environmental and planning advocacy group. “Now there is a special public appreciation of this unique natural resource, yet this project was developed behind closed doors without proper public input or an environmental impact study.”

Emery told City & State he was hoping that the HRPT would be willing to hold off on starting construction, including the driving of piles into the riverbed, pending a resolution of the outstanding legal issues. A spokesperson for HRPT said no such conversation had occurred yet.

The project’s boosters dismissed Emery’s critique, noting the project had the support of the local community board and that City Club’s state lawsuit was dismissed earlier this month by state Supreme Court Judge Joan Lobis. The City Club is appealing.  

“As stewards of the Hudson River, the Trust worked carefully to reconstruct Pier 54 in a way that would be respectful of the environment,” Madelyn Wils, the president and CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, said in a statement. “The Pier 55 project is a shining example of what innovative public-private partnerships can accomplish for the good of the city, and now that the regulatory agencies have issued their permits, we are excited to be in a position to start construction.”

The project enjoys the support of both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo but is opposed by several environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, NYPIRG, Clean Air Campaign (CAC) and CAC’s Open Rivers Project. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, environmentalists successfully used the federal courts to defeat the Westway highway and development project to be built into the Hudson River, arguing that the Army Corps’ permitting of that project violated the Clean Water Act and other federal laws.

“A river like the lower Hudson River is a river. It’s not an upland park,” said Marcie Benstock of the Clean Air Campaign’s Open Rivers Project, which led the opposition to the Westway project. “It’s a navigable public waterway used in interstate commerce.  Under common law, the water in the river belongs to all the people – not just a wealthy and powerful few.”

But the project's supporters say it is in the public interest and that it has been designed to be high enough off the water to account for a possible storm surge.

“New York City attracts the best and the brightest from around the world to relocate, live and visit because its cultural attractions and recreational spaces are second to none,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said. “Hudson River Park Trust and Barry Diller have envisioned and planned another jewel in the crown for New York City. I frequently ride my bike up Hudson River Park and I can’t wait to stop at the new Pier 55 for a concert, a show, or to just watch the river roll by. The Army Corps made the right decision giving this project the thumbs up; now let’s get to work.”