http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...msburg_wa.html
If bill passes, Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront park will come
BY RACHEL MONAHAN
November 29th 2007
A planned 28-acre park on the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront will finally be built if a state Assembly bill to be introduced Thursday is passed.
Eight acres of the planned Bushwick Inlet Park is owned by the company TransGas Energy, which has repeatedly revamped plans for a power plant, in part to evade city plans to seize the property, critics charge.
Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Greenpoint) is slated to introduce legislation Thursday to put an end to the long delays by having the state seize the property through eminent domain.
"This is an appropriate use of eminent domain. We're not taking people's houses. We're not trying to aid a private developer," Lentol said. "TransGas has been very clever in trying to put off what has been recommended long ago."
The park was included as part of the 2005 rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and the city attempted to seize the property.
Two years ago, a judge forced the city to wait for a ruling from the obscure state Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment.
Public officials and local leaders had blasted the Pataki administration as early as 2004 for not ruling on the power plant. TransGas has revised the project several times - including once to move the whole plant under ground.
The board received the latest revisions to the power plant in July, said Public Service Commission spokeswoman Anne Dalton.
"The pleadings and filings are under review," she said.