Group Proposes Public Park At Gowanus Canal Salt Lot

GOWANUS, NY — Land on the Gowanus Canal could be transformed into a public park with wetlands, hills and buildings inspired by other recently-demolished structures if a local group can get the city to okay the project.

Gowanus By Design released a proposal last week to turn the Salt Lot, near Second Avenue and Fifth Street, into a park as the officials gear up to build a four-gallon retention tank there.

"We just saw it a chance to contemplate how a piece of infrastructure could actually be part of a broader development," said David Briggs, executive director of the non-profit. "Particularly park space which there is a dearth of in the Gowanus Canal neighborhood.

"This is just an initial concept to get a conversation going," Briggs added.

The proposal calls for landscaping the west side of the triangular piece of land to add "sloping" hills and wetlands while building three structures to house canal infrastructure.

One building would be for the Environmental Protection Agency's mandated four-million gallon retention tank and the others for the Gowanus Field station and composting facility, Briggs said.

The proposal calls for the new buildings to use glass and terra cotter louver which harkens back to former coal storage bins that used to be on the lot.

While the city doesn't own the entire slice of land the proposed the park would be built on, the group hopes to work with the city to further develop the plan and figure out ways to acquire the property without eminent domain.

"It's definitely not final or intended to be," said Briggs. "It's just to initiate a conversation and we hope that the city will respond to that and sit down to the table."

Their proposal is the second push to build a park at the Salt Lot site by a community group recently. The Gowanus Canal Conservancy released a master plan last year to build a park, dubbed the "Gowanus Lowlands," with native plantings to turn it into the Venice of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

Gowanus By Design, made up of a team of volunteer architects, spent about a year developing their own plan with the idea sparked by the EPA's cleanup plan called to add two sewage and stormwater retention tanks to the canal. The goal was to figure out how to add them to the site but create some green space for the community, Briggs said.

The cleanup plans call to demolish the historic Gowanus Station building for another tank at the head of the canal, which locals have been fighting to save.

Once that tank project gets finalized, Briggs expects the government to look at the other one on the southern side and hopes they consider the park as part of it.

Images courtesy of Gowanus By Design