We invite you to: review the material on our website as well as the information made public by the City Planning Commission. We encourage you to provide comments and suggestions and to show up at public hearings to make your voice heard about the future of this important site. Our previous projects such as Harlem USA and DC USA that we still own and manage benefited enormously from successful collaborations with the local community in terms of the types of tenants targeted, local recruitment for jobs, the identification of MWBE contractors, and the fostering of a customer friendly environment. Baychester Square is expected to create 830 construction jobs and 950 permanent jobs, a very large percentage of which will be local with the HireNYC program being mandated. We will be pleased to respond to questions and suggestions submitted via email through this website and we will also be available in person to listen to your suggestions at any number of public forums that are being scheduled over the next two months. 

APPROVAL PROCESS

ULURP certification by the NYC City Planning Commission was obtained on January 17th. We have now entered the public approval process. The first step in the process will be public hearings at the Community Planning Board 12. As part of the ULURP Application Philip Habib & Associates (PHA) prepared the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) to study impacts on traffic, air quality, noise, open space, various municipal services and impacts on the neighborhood socioeconomic conditions.  Traffic is almost always the biggest concern to the community on development projects. PHA working closely with NYC DOT provided a thorough analysis of potential traffic impacts, using very conservative assumptions. The project benefits from its direct highway access to and from Interstate 95 that will keep a large amount of the project traffic off of local streets and prevent it from adding in any appreciable way to the existing congestion at Coop City. Mitigation measures will help alleviate the impacts on local streets.  Proposed mitigation measures for Baychester Square would include a number of improvements along the East Gun Hill Road corridor, including signal timing changes, lane reconfiguration, and parking regulation modifications. In addition, there are three signalized intersections at which new protected left turn phases are proposed to be installed on East Gun Hill Road, including at i) the project site entrance, which currently serves the shopping plaza at 1750-1780 East Gun Hill Road, ii) East Gun Hill Road and Allerton Avenue, and iii) East Gun Hill Road and Burke Avenue. At the intersection of East Gun Hill Road and Allerton Avenue an existing pedestrian refuge island would also be modified, and a right turn ban is proposed, and at East Gun Hill Road and Burke Avenue a new bulb-out is proposed to provide a curb extension for pedestrians. There were several intersections that obvious mitigation solutions could not be provided for certain time periods. During the approval process conversations will be continuing with DOT and the community to develop mitigation solutions. The developers are also working with MTA to develop a new bus route or an extension of existing one that reduces vehicular traffic by enhancing bus access. 

Please click here to view our presentation to Community Board 12.