New York will demolish and elevate a waterfront park to fight floods, angering some neighbors

Wagner Park, a cherished waterfront greenspace in Battery Park City, boasts unobstructed views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor. Built astir 30 years ago, the parkland has served arsenic an flight for residents of the fast-paced, densely packed vicinity successful Lower Manhattan.

But successful a fewer weeks, the parkland volition beryllium demolished. As portion of a large $221 cardinal clime resilience plan, the Battery Park City Authority volition teardrop down Wagner Park, reconstruct it with caller flood-prevention features and rise it by 10 feet. The alteration volition support the vicinity from flooding, tempest surge and rising oversea levels.

The operation by the state-chartered corp follows years of aggravated protests and litigation from section residents who person argued that destroying the parkland is unnecessary and person called for a little melodramatic program to combat flooding.

The raised Wagner Park volition see a buried flood partition on with elevated berms and pop-up walls — infrastructure that's been identified arsenic captious successful an epoch of clime change. The parkland volition besides diagnostic a 63,000-gallon subterranean cistern for retaining, storing and reusing tempest water, arsenic good arsenic planted gardens designed to withstand oversea level emergence and utmost weather.

The conflict implicit Wagner Park reflects a broader situation for New York City and different regions that volition beryllium forced to instrumentality progressively drastic measures to support shoreline communities from the effects of clime change. Nearly 2.5 cardinal New Yorkers already live successful a 100-year floodplain. As clime alteration projections turn much dire, officials, scientists and municipality planners warn, the metropolis isn't moving rapidly capable to debar aboriginal catastrophic flooding.

"Wagner Park points to a batch of the challenges we're going to look for years successful presumption of clime adaptation," said Thad Pawlowski, managing manager astatine the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes astatine Columbia University. "It's going to beryllium a batch of these small section battles implicit time."

Wagner Park is located successful a chiefly residential vicinity of upscale high-rise flat buildings successful Battery Park City. It's sited connected a landfill from the World Trade Center tract and contains 3.5 acres of lawns, walkways and planted gardens. After a delay, the elevated parkland is acceptable to beryllium implicit successful 2025.

The last program to teardrop down and rebuild Wagner Park did not travel easily. Over the past fewer years, residents came unneurotic to signifier the Battery Park City Neighborhood Association and held protests against the BPCA's resilience plan.

The vicinity relation hired Machado Silvetti and Olin, the 2 plan firms that helped make Wagner Park astir 3 decades ago, to propose an alternate strategy that didn't impact demolition.

The group's program progressive maintaining the existing greenish spaces, trees and pavilion portion adding a imperishable flood extortion partition located down the parkland and further from the water. The partition would spell up astir 7 feet and would beryllium manually opened and closed during utmost upwind events.

Residents rallied again successful August aft learning the BPCA's task would trim the magnitude of tract abstraction from the existing Wagner Park. On the aforesaid time of the protest, the BPCA changed its plan plan to slash the size of gardens and walkways successful bid to boost greenspace. But the raised parkland volition inactive see 10% little greenspace than the existing park.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman, enforcement manager of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, wrote a missive successful August defending the clime projections utilized by the BPCA for its flood plan, arguing its attack was accordant with different captious coastal resilience projects crossed the city.

In November, the BPCA notified elected officials that it had rejected elements of the vicinity association's alternate plan, citing cardinal engineering, logistical and plan considerations. The BPCA had antecedently drafted a comprehensive document addressing the group's concerns astir the project's clime modeling and plan arsenic good arsenic the level of assemblage engagement successful the process.

But 1 period later, the vicinity relation filed a suit successful Manhattan Supreme Court that alleged the BPCA failed to comply with authorities biology reappraisal instrumentality by not afloat examining alternate designs and by utilizing exaggerated clime projections.

Efforts by residents to halt operation were yet thwarted successful February, aft New York Supreme Court Judge Sabrina Kraus denied the vicinity association's petition for an injunction to temporarily halt the plan, citing "considerable" costs of delaying a "critical flood hazard simplification project."

B.J. Jones, president and CEO of the BPCA, said the bureau took into relationship extended nationalist feedback arsenic portion of its program but that the BPCA yet has a work to marque the vicinity resilient to clime change.

"Change is hard and alteration is necessary. Getting a unanimously, universally approved plan is not possible," Jones said. "The Wagner Park program has gotten immoderate captious attraction from a few, but it's besides gotten a batch of support."

Britni Erez, a Battery Park City nonmigratory and subordinate of the vicinity association, thinks the BPCA's resilience program shouldn't person been approved. The vicinity group's program was a much sustainable alternate that would supply capable extortion for the area, Erez argued.

"The authority's program is simply a much environmentally damaging approach," said Erez, who frequents the parkland with her family. "Yes, their program volition support from oversea level emergence and tempest surge, but successful the process, they're contributing to the clime occupation by reducing greenspace and emitting much greenhouse gases."

Community conflicts similar the 1 implicit Wagner Park volition go much communal successful the coming decades arsenic city, authorities and national agencies effort to enforce clime resilience plans with antithetic approaches and levels of connection with residents.

The BPCA's broader plan, called the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, develops an integrated coastal flood hazard absorption strategy from the Museum of Jewish Heritage done Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza and on the bluish borderline of the historical Battery.

As portion of the overall Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency plan, the task was acceptable to beryllium the 3rd resilience program to commencement successful the borough, pursuing the Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resiliency project and East Side Coastal Resiliency project.

BPCA's program is unsocial successful immoderate ways, arsenic the bureau tin usage enslaved backing and coordinate resources successful ways that different authorities entities with little fiscal leverage and powerfulness can't. BPCA officials person emphasized that the assemblage has been profoundly progressive successful the flood hazard program for Wagner Park, including a slew of nationalist meetings that addressed residents' concerns.

Amy Chester, a managing manager of Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit that helps communities retrieve from disasters, said collaboration betwixt the assemblage and authorities is captious to achieving palmy clime resilience plans crossed the city, authorities and country. All clime resilience projects, she added, volition necessitate important alteration and tradeoffs.

"There are truthful galore complexities to these resiliency program designs and support processes, and they're not going to get easier successful New York and anyplace else," Chester said. "What the authorities is missing is simply a unified attack and a sole entity that is accountable to reply each the questions."

For instance, officials updated the last program based connected assemblage feedback to summation the magnitude of tract space. But transforming operation plans entirely, they said, would person caused costly and important delays, putting the parkland and surrounding assemblage astatine precocious risk.

"We're astatine hazard until this enactment is done," Jones said. "We've got to get a determination on."

"Ultimately, erstwhile we're done this hard enactment and we person a much resilient Battery Park City and Manhattan, I deliberation radical volition admit having large nationalist spaces that tin present basal the trial of time."

Pawlowski, the municipality designer, said the complaints from residents of a affluent vicinity astir a caller and improved parkland felt peculiarly privileged and self-serving. He said the precocious level of contention implicit the Wagner Park demolition points to however clime adaptation and wealthiness inequality are powerfully connected.

"Because the Wagner program has this high-profile determination and these high-profile players, it tin rise consciousness astir underlying issues here," Pawlowski said. "The bittersweet information astir clime alteration is that mediocre radical are going to endure much ... and affluent neighborhoods are going to adapt."

"This assemblage is going to beryllium good 1 mode oregon the other," Pawlowski said of Battery Park City. "But nationalist lodging residents and mediocre radical are besides truly needing the resources for clime adaptation from the government."