Case Study 18

UPROSE Asks Two Agencies for Assistance with the City Economic Development Corporation

Background

The United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE), an environmental justice group based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, completed a state and city-funded planning grant in 2013. Primary goals of this place-based planning work were (and continue to be) the expansion of the green manufacturing sector and the creation of open space along New York’s Lower Harbor.

Strategy

To achieve its goals, UPROSE determined it was essential to establish a working relationship with the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), as two of the strategic development sites the study identified are owned by the City of New York and controlled by EDC, and the third is a private site with large a lien for unpaid city property taxes. An EDC staff member joined UPROSE’s advisory committee and participated in conversations about the community’s vision for the three industrial sites.

As planning proceeded, it became clear to UPROSE that EDC did not consider the three sites ready for redevelopment because the capital investment they would require would not earn a competitive rate of return. To strengthen its relationship with EDC, UPROSE asked both the New York City Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) and the New York State Department of State (DOS), which participated in the advisory committee meetings with EDC, to meet with EDC. OER and DOS were able to communicate the importance to EDC representatives of UPROSE’s planning efforts and the projects UPROSE sought to redevelop.

Ultimately, the agencies’ efforts resulted in EDC’s support for an UPROSE application for State Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) funds. UPROSE won $1.2 million in state funds awarded to a joint partnership with the City Department of Transportation. The funds have been used to engage the community in the design of the Sunset Park Upland Connector, which will create bicycle paths and walkways connecting the area’s upland residential area with the waterfront, including the new Bush Terminal Park and the Sunset Park Greenway. At present, the Upland Connector is in design and being built.

Conclusion

Effective outreach to EDC was instrumental in obtaining City support, which in turn helped persuade the State to fund UPROSE’s plan for improved public access to the waterfront.

Related Development Strategy