If the city has its way, Downtown residents and others will stroll along a tree-lined path below the FDR Drive, past playgrounds and retail pavilions on their way to the well-tended sand of a beach near the Brooklyn Bridge.

		Planning officials told Community Board 1 last month that in the near future the chain-link fence and concrete barriers that separate 14 acres of East River waterfront from the city can be removed, lights may be installed under the FDR Drive to soften the gloom, and the waterfronts on Manhattan's east and west sides may finally be joined through Battery Park. "Most of these are short term things that don't require a lot of regulatory requirements and can be done within three to five years," said Gregg Pasquarelli, an architect with Sharples, Holden and Pasquarelli Architects. His firm and Richard Rogers Partnership were named by the city as lead consultants on the design team for the master plan to revitalize the waterfront. Pasquarelli presented the team's initial plans at a meeting of three community board committees. If elements of the plan seemed familiar to committee members, it was intentional. Much of it was inspired by the board's own two-year-old proposal for the East River waterfront.
"There are so many ideas in there that we looked at and think are fantastic and the right way to go," Pasquarelli said. The plan's first phase focuses on land-based improvements, setting aside for now proposed pier construction and projects on the water that will require environmental studies. The "keystone" of the initial phase of the project is a link between the east-side and west-side waterfronts, providing a continuous bike and pedestrian path from the gardens of Battery Park City to the piers jutting from the banks of the East River. "To put it simply, you can't get there from here," said Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, who spoke enthusiastically about the proposal. Pasquarelli described the two most viable options for accomplishing such a link. One would create a passageway through an unused second-level portico in the Battery Maritime Building. The second would link the esplanade at street level at Coenties Slip. Enhancing access to the waterfront along the two-mile stretch from Battery Park to Montgomery Street on the Lower East side is central to the plan and could be as simple in the short term as removing "the chain link fences and Jersey barriers that block 14 acres of open land," Pasquarelli said. The city is also considering narrowing South Street to 60 feet to expand the walkway beneath the FDR Drive, and sweeping away parking lots and other obstacles under the elevated roadway to create clear sight lines along cross streets to the river. "Right now, it's kind of a no-man's land down there-a dark empty space that has become this sort of demilitarized zone where buses park," said Pasquarelli. The plan also calls for the installation of new lighting beneath the FDR Drive and the creation of pavilions to house year-round retail businesses. Of the 370,000 square feet that the project encompasses, the city plans for 150,000 to serve as retail space. Ken Smith, a landscape architect and consultant on the project, said the waterfront's rough edges could be softened by greenery, noting the plan calls for 1,000 pine birch trees and planter boxes along the sides of the FDR Drive. A small sandy area near the Brooklyn Bridge could be cleaned up and transformed into a public beach, he said. "There's almost no place in New York City where you can get out to the water and actually touch it." Plans are not limited to the water's edge. Pasquarelli proposed connecting the surrounding neighborhood to the waterfront with trees and other streetscape elements. "Really, it's about moving across the waterfront and into the neighborhoods," he said. "The neighborhoods are the gateways to the East River waterfront." The city was seeking input from the community board on the initial plan and is set to come back in the fall for approval on the first phase of the project. Robert Balder, director of Lower Manhattan development for the Mayor's office, said the cost of the project and a way to pay for it were yet to be determined. "We're trying now to identify sources of funding, whether it's through federal or state dollars or through the [Lower Manhattan Development Corporation]. Right now, we have money for the study but nothing for the implementation." The community board in April named the waterfront its top spending priority for the remaining $1 billion in federal grants for the revitalization of Lower Manhattan after Sept. 11. During a panel discussion regarding the waterfront hosted by the South Street Seaport Museum a few days prior to the plan's unveiling, District Manager Paul Goldstein expressed concern that the project, as popular as it may be among members of CB1, would never be funded. Madelyn Wils, CB1's chairwoman, who also sits on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, said funding for the project through the LMDC was contingent on full community support. "I don't believe the LMDC could fund it unless we have a public agreement," she said. "Personally, I could only support money going to the project if there was full agreement." She further cautioned that planners should keep in mind that the waterfront doesn't need a "revitalization so much as it needs a beautification." "We already have a vital neighborhood," she explained. "Economic development needs to happen to the west, not at the waterfront." While board members remain concerned that the neighborhood could be overrun by developers and tourists, most seemed taken with the city's plan to spruce up the neighborhood. "What we'd like on the east side is just what we have on the west side," board member John Fratta said. "A beautiful waterfront that residents can enjoy."

Also see Giant Ferris Wheel Proposed as a Lure For Tourist Dollars