All photos by Sam Franqui - RREPP, Inc.PLANS FOR RESERVOIR
Parks Dept. Mulls Its Options For $50M Renovation Project
By Rob Pozarycki, Times Newsweekly
January 31, 2008
Though final plan designs for the renovation of the Ridgewood Reservoir are far from complete, the Parks
Department has announced three preliminary options for the 50-acre site adjacent to Highland Park on the
Brooklyn-Queens border.
While each of the plans would protect at least two of the reservoir’s three chambers as nature preserves, two of the options being considered would transform one of the basins into a recreational park, an idea met with criticism by some activists.
According to the Parks Department, the options were drafted based on ideas obtained by the agency from various listening sessions held last year in Brooklyn and Queens in which members of the public gave their vision of what can be done with the reservoir.
Last year, the Parks Department announced that the reservoir would undergo a $50 million renovation project to make the site a “regional park” as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2030 master plan.
The site – which was constructed in 1848 to provide drinking water to the city of Brooklyn – was taken out of New York City’s water system during the latter half of the 20th century. While left stagnant since being closed, plant and wildlife have sprung in each of the basins.
The Times Newsweekly joined City Comptroller William Thompson, members of Brooklyn Community Board 5 and the Ridgewood Reservoir Preservation Project as well as local residents on a tour of the site on Monday, January 28.
A walk around and through the grounds revealed a wide variety of plants including various vines and trees that have grown in two of the three reservoir chambers as well as along the pathway circling the reservoir.
The center basin was also found to contain a lake – largely frozen due to the cold of winter – that reportedly grew out of a combination of rain and groundwater from the aquifer below the site.
Following the tour, Comptroller Thompson said that he found the site to be “very impressive” and added that he would “take what we’ve seen” back to his office to formulate ideas on how to approach the project.
Plans for preserve, park
One of the options being considered by the Parks Department would maintain the entire 50-acre site as a nature preserve while making improvements to the perimeter of the reservoir as well as the habitat within, Queens Borough Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said.
In order to protect the plant and wildlife within the middle and easternmost basins, it was noted, the agency would limit access to two of the basins. She added that the department would work to establish a nature center at one of the former pumping stations on the property to hold various educational programs for local students and the general public.
Another option would result in the creation of a nature preserve at the middle and easternmost basins, while the westernmost section of the reservoir – located near Vermont Place – would be developed as a “naturalistic passive park,” according to information provided by the department.
The public green – which would encompass most of the 23-acre basin – would include “adventure-type recreation,” it was noted. Lewandowski said that the kind of activities that would be placed inside the green
would not be known until further study is conducted.
“There’s a combination of wetlands and valuable plant material” within that basin, she said. “There could be limitations on what [we] could do there.”
As for access, the Parks Department has proposed creating a “cut-through” in the wall of the reservoir below the perimeter walkway adjacent to Vermont Place. The commissioner said that the plan is similar to a tunnel created at Jerome Park in the Bronx, which was developed at the site of a former reservoir.
The third preliminary option is similar to the second plan, but the Parks Department indicated that a more active recreation area would be created in the westernmost basin of the reservoir, including the creation of athletic fields.
Commissioner Lewandowski said that the agency has received numerous requests for the development of new football, soccer and baseball fields in the area based on a review of waiting lists for athletic fields at other parks in the area.
It was noted that $2.5 million has been allocated by City Council Member Erik Martin Dilan for the improvement of ballfields at nearby Highland Park. The commissioner added that funding has also been reserved for the renovation of baseball diamonds in the northern section of Highland Park, which is scheduled to begin this spring.
Improving Security, Access
No matter what the options are, Lewandowski said that the agency would work to improve security in and around the site. She noted that the department would likely establish an office for Parks Enforcement Patrol officers and maintenance crews at one of the former pumping stations on the reservoir site.
Additionally, the department would seek to install new vandal-proof security lighting along the reservoir’s perimeter walkway. Existing lamps along the path have been damaged by vandals and are not in working order presently.
Improving access to and from the site is high on the Parks Department’s list of goals for the renovation of the Ridgewood Reservoir, Lewandowski indicated. The agency is looking to renovate and enhance paths that run north-to-south between the westernmost and middle basins and the middle and easternmost basins.
Lewandowski added that the agency would “create attractive entryways” to the site from Vermont Place as well as Cypress Hills Street near the entrance to the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Based on ideas raised by the public at listening sessions last year, she said, the Parks Department would also contact the MTA to discuss the potential rerouting of area bus lines in the vicinity of the reservoir.
Along with creating an educational center at the site, the commissioner added that the department would also
seek to improve the lake that has been created in the middle basin as well as providing some access to the
public. She noted that the Parks Department currently has a number of canoe and kayak programs in place at
other locations that might be appropriate at the reservoir site.
“It is a gorgeous opportunity to restore what [the reservoir] once was and to improve it for the future,”
Lewandowski observed of the entire project.
Against Recreation Option
Even though the plans seem to be far from final, a member of the Ridgewood Reservoir Education Project – which is campaigning for the creation of a nature preserve at the site – criticized aspects of each proposal that would result in the clearing of part of the site.
Rob Jett observed that the creation of a passive or active recreational park inside the westernmost basin seemed “counterintuitive” and ran contrary to the goal of planting a million trees around New York City under Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 proposal.
“It’s a natural forest,” he told the Times Newsweekly, “not something you can plant on the street. I’m all for active recreation, but Highland Park has been there for decades. Why don’t they just go in there and fix it up?”
Keeping the site as a nature preserve would provide residents young and old with “a wonderful opportunity to study and learn” about the various habitats that have been created at the reservoir in recent years, said Jett, who identifies himself as a birdwatcher who has frequented the reservoir regularly.
He heralded the creation of an education center on the site while also calling on the Parks Department to rebuild the original wrought-iron fences that once lined the site in order to provide additional protection.
Jett expressed his confidence that the group can convince the city to keep the Ridgewood Reservoir as a nature preserve while acknowledging that something needs to be done to improve the current state of the area.
“If [the department] has this money, they should turn Highland Park into Prospect Park and turn the Ridgewood Reservoir into the most incredible urban sanctuary and educational center in the country,” he added. “They have to have some kind of vision.”
