The city is nearing the start of the second phase of its sweeping redevelopment of Lower Manhattan’s East River Waterfront.

By November, the city says it plans to begin tearing up the existing sidewalk and bikeway along a 1,165-foot section of Lower Manhattan’s frontage on the East River, between the Battery Maritime Building and Wall Street. That stretch, “Package 2” of the city’s $150 million redevelopment of the waterfront between Whitehall Street and Rutgers Slip, will take approximately 14 months to finish and could open to the public as early as January 2012.

The southern section lacks the bolder attraction of the first phase of work now underway, which includes a new Pier 15 with pavilion and rooftop green space, and the “habitat restoration” work at Pier 35. But it will include the same hexagonal pavers, sleek-looking benches and lacquered wood-and-steel railings used throughout the planned two-mile, 14-million-square-foot park.

First shown the preliminary plans for the next phase last December, members of Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee said they liked what they saw, with one notable exception: a series of shimmering metal walls used to separate cyclists and pedestrians. The committee members criticized the walls for their design and worried about their safety. On Monday, July 19, representatives of the city’s Economic Development Corp. returned to the committee with renderings of redesigned walls, much shorter in height than the original set.

“I like this much better,” Committee Chairman Bob Townley said. “I think it’s great that the EDC went back and listened to our suggestions.”

EDC had contemplated building a 6-foot-high, 150-foot-long perforated aluminum wall along the southernmost portion of the bikeway/walkway that would separate bike riders from pedestrians. But some CB1 members objected to the height and look of the wall, fearing that pedestrians might feel trapped as they walked between the wall and the rail at the water’s edge and lessening the experience of being by the water. There was also a complaint that the wall would block the vista for cyclists.

Now, SHoP Architect representative Cathy Jones told the committee, a three-and-a-half-foot high fence made of weathered steel will be erected, finished in a burnt orange paint matched to the hue of much of the new park’s wooden elements. The committee unanimously supported the change.

North of the Battery Maritime Building, near Pier 6, juniper trees and coastal grass would separate cyclists from pedestrians. Just below Pier 11, the north-south bike lanes would split to accommodate the current Fire Department parking lot beneath the FDR Drive. Along South Street, the city removed the bus-parking lane that once occupied the east side of the street in order to expand the bike lane. EDC had intended to hide the parking lot with an aluminum wall similar to one planned for the southern portion of the esplanade. That wall too has been replaced with the new, shorter design.

“It still has that slight undulation to it,” Jones said. “So we’re still kind of mimicking that idea of movement of the original wall.”

Above Pier 11, where the city will need to maintain an open corridor for the thousands of ferry riders, pedestrians will see little change. The new pavers, benches and railings would be installed around the pier to maintain uniformity with the rest of the park, Jones said, but the general layout of the pier and the adjacent plaza would remain largely the same.

Community Board 1 had previously supported zoning variances needed for the redevelopment project on the condition that the EDC bring its designs for the project before the board for its recommendations before construction begins. An EDC spokesman said the scope of work in Package 2 received final approval from the city’s Public Design Commission in April.