The city’s failure to adhere to pollution laws is about to be good news for Greenpoint.
Thanks to a 2008 settlement with the state for fouling local waters during its upgrade of an area sewage plant, $7 million will now be allocated for waterfront improvements throughout the neighborhood.
In the coming weeks, Brooklyn residents will be able to cast ballots with the City Parks Foundation to help allocate the cash in a half-mile radius from the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Below are some of the proposals on the table:
• Pedestrian Plaza at American Playground: A car-free plaza with additional blacktop and new tree plantings at Franklin Street between Milton and Noble Streets.
• Apollo Street End: Improving public access to Newtown Creek — possibly removing the street to turn it into a park — at the end of Apollo Street near Norman Avenue.
• Barge Park Renovations and Dog Run: Including a fenced-in $500,000 park, just for pooches, renovating the Greenpoint Playground with $4 million, and new greening and landscaping in Barge Park, a tiny pocket park at Commercial Street and West and DuPont Streets.
• Biosculpture on North Henry Street: These intricate public art sculptures cost $2.4 million and are designed to resemble the iconic sewage plant. They’ll simultaneously filter dirty stormwater and create a wetlands park along Newtown Creek, at North Henry Street and Kingsland Avenue.
• Greenpoint Boathouse: A $5-million public boathouse, educational facility and boat launch in the renovated ground floor of the Greenpoint Manufacturing Design Center at the end of Manhattan Avenue at Ash Street. The project would also extend the waterfront esplanade and restore the bulkhead in Newtown Creek at the street end.
• Greenpoint Monitor Museum: Additional site preparation work, including temporary structures to house educational programs for the naval-themed museum at a cost of $650,000 at Quay Street and West Street.
• McCarren Pool additions: New spiral water slides, a handicapped-accessible elevator and another bathroom for $3 million at the Moses-era pool at Lorimer Street at Bayard Street.
• McCarren Park: Renovating the brick field house for $4 million at Nassau Avenue and Lorimer Street, refurbishing pathways for $2 million, and adding lighting to the tennis courts at Bedford and N. 12th Street for $1 million.
• McGolrick Park: Refurbishing existing pathways and adding stormwater management programs for $5 million at Russell Street and Driggs Avenue.
• Newtown Creek tunnel: A $1-billion tunnel from Bowery Bay to Greenpoint would flush polluted sediment — though it is unlikely to be built because of its cost.
• Park bandshell: The Parks Department is interested in finding a location for a theater with a bandshell at a cost of $5 million.
• Parkland at 65 Commercial St.: Proposal calls for several ball fields on an MTA bus lot on the end of Commercial Street — but the MTA remains attached to the real estate. The City Parks Foundation wants to get the project moving again.
• Pedestrian Bridge on Manhattan Avenue: Construction of a footbridge over Newtown Creek near Manhattan Avenue and Ash Street to Long Island City at a cost of $10 million.
• Pulaski Bridge: An architectural study at a cost of $1 million to begin to remake the bridge at McGuinness Boulevard and DuPont Street to make it more accommodating to pedestrians and cyclists.
• Skate Park at Commercial Street: The Parks Department is interested in a new public skate park in North Brooklyn, possibly along Commercial Street, but no location has been identified.
• Stormwater management: Stormwater filtration projects on North Henry Street at Nassau Avenue, Jewel Street and Nassau Avenue, West Street from Commercial to Quay Street, and Bushwick Inlet Park on Kent Avenue at N. 10th Street.
• Transmitter Park: Refurbishing the one-story concrete transmitter building inside the park as a bathroom, community meeting space or even a restaurant, at a cost between $5 million and $6 million at Kent Street and West Street.
• Tree plantings on McGuinness Boulevard: Addition of tree beds on Greenpoint’s busiest and most dangerous street, at a cost of $1,500 per street tree.
• Velodrome: The Parks Department wants a bicycle racing facility that could be used for the Goodwill Games. No cost estimate or location has been released.