Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Marty Maher
Councilmember Brad Lander with Marty Mahr
Assemblywoman JoAnne Simon
Existing Conditions of Carroll Park
First Carroll Park conceptual design presented in September 2019
Updated Visioning Plan for Carroll Park, presented this past Wednesday.
The New York Parks Department came to PS58 in Carroll Gardens this past Wednesday evening to present their revised Carroll Park Community Vision Plan to the Community Board Parks and Recreation Committee. The meeting was not well attended, perhaps because it was held so close to the holidays and because of bad weather. That was a pity, since the discussion about a redesign for Carroll Park should involve as many local residents as possible.
The revised Carroll Park Vision Plan presented on Wednesday was created after gathering the community's ideas during the Public Workshop in February 2019 and after hearing the community's feedback at the CB6 meeting in September 2019. It is fair to say that the community was less than enthusiastic about the first concept, because it would shift the play equipment and water features to the ball field at Court Street.
It was the loss of the multipurpose play area with its baseball and basketball features that prompted a big outcry from local residents.
However, as Brooklyn's Park Commissioner Maher explained in September and on Wednesday evening, much of the recreational and sports features in our park are now out of compliance and need much more space around them to meet current safety codes. In addition, no new equipment that needs to be anchored into the ground can be installed under the canopy of a tree since it could damage the tree's roots.
Given these new regulations and the fact that Carroll Park has many enormous old trees, the options of where to put play equipment and what features can be incorporated in a new design are limited.
With that in mind, Maher presented a revised concept sketch of the vision plan showing one way to incorporate the community's wishes. It was necessarily vague because there is no funding for a redesign at present and our community must continue to work toward consensus and a design which will not result in the loss of what we value most.
The redesign did try to honor the request for preserving most of the ball field as a multi purpose play area, but without the baseball field and fencing.
In addition, the park house may be renovated, and the bathrooms made handicapped accessible. The area in front of the house would be set aside as a 'civic space' and for special events.
The central portion of the park where the World War 1 Memorial is located would stay pretty much the same as would the seating area along Smith Street.
There was also talk of changing the entrances to the park at Court Street, as well as the possible removal of the iron fencing around the park's periphery or replacing it with a lower one because of the Park's Department's current "Parks Without Borders" initiative.
No dog park will be incorporated into the design.
Carroll Park was last renovated in 1994. Normally, New York City parks get renovated every 30 - 40 years, depending on their use and their condition.There is currently no money set aside in the budget for a total renovation of Carroll Park. Therefore, any such renovation is still five to ten years, if not further down the road and would likely be done in several stages.
This round of visioning, was made possible with a grant of $25,000 by Councilmember Brad Lander.
The next steps, according to the Parks department is to use the current Vision Plan to advocate for funding. Once funded, further community input sessions will be held.
In the meantime, The Friends of Carroll Park will be hosting design workshops and conducting surveys to build consensus and support for new ideas like turning Carroll street into a play street and gaining access to the schoolyard at PS58 outside of school hours so please stay engaged in this issue.
We have time to think outside of the box and come up with an improved plan, which will help the Parks Department to design an even better Carroll Park.
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2 comments:
Why don’t they just cut down all the trees so there can be more space for adult fitness. Ugh. Sorry. What does more space around mean? And I love how they call the space with the giant bolder a nature area when everyone knows the kids trample around the perimeters anyway. This should be the dog run. Shame on them. There’s never a dog run here. And we love the open space baseball basketball etc. it’s fun for all. Kids learning to ride bikes etc. and am I missing something? No more bacci area?..has it been removed?.anyway. Don’t ruin it people.
Let's see...20,000 new apts in Brad Lander's district since he has been councilman and not one - not one - acre of new park lands. That is what Gowanus should be - ALL parkland. Of course, this is the guy who LOST the opportunity to protect the parklands surrounding LICH - now one is incorporated into a condo complex on Henry Street and the others will be shadowed by the coming 50 story tower on Hicks at Pacific. And this is a guy who supported housing inside of Brooklyn Bridge Park despite winning his campaign on his promise to prevent housing in that park (and the complete lack of need for any new housing at Pier 6 because the that pay to play park has a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars before the new towers there). Carroll Park is beloved because it is so needed. DUMP Lander and see if another mayor will prioritize more park lands with actual playing fields for our kids.
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