Children's Aid - New Goodhue Center Environmental Assessment

Challenge

For Children’s Aid, the proposed new Goodhue Center meant bringing a 20,200-square-foot community building and 74-space parking lot to a site already home to an outdoor pool and recreation areas. Those changes into the landscape required careful consideration. Located within Staten Island’s Special Hillsides Preservation District, the property includes steep slopes, trees, and drainage needs, and development and tree removal are subject to discretionary review. With the pool and associated buildings to remain and the main entrance proposed to move to Lafayette Avenue, the environmental review needed to examine both changes on the site and their potential effects on the surrounding neighborhood.
 

Solution

GZA brought the site and neighborhood questions together in an Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS), prepared and submitted for review under the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) process. The assessment described how the proposed building, parking, driveways, and recreation areas would fit alongside the existing facilities and the natural area planned to remain. It examined land use, zoning and public policy, open space, historic and cultural resources, natural resources, hazardous materials, transportation, air quality, construction, and effects on disadvantaged communities.

To understand how families would travel to the center, GZA surveyed participants in the afterschool and summer camp programs about travel modes, arrival and departure times, and vehicle occupancy. Those responses informed trip forecasts and intersection analysis for the proposed Lafayette Avenue entrance. The supporting analysis reported existing study-area intersection operations at level of service C or better during the analyzed peak hours. GZA also screened project-related traffic and used dispersion modeling to evaluate fine particulate matter; predicted concentrations were below applicable standards, and increments were below CEQR significance criteria. Alongside that work, the EAS documented tree preservation and removal associated with site work, while a Phase IA archaeological documentary study prepared for GZA by Historical Perspectives, Inc. evaluated archaeological sensitivity.

 

Benefit

The resulting EAS gave the lead agency a project-specific basis for considering the requested discretionary actions, connecting the proposed center’s plans with an assessment of the site and neighborhood. It reported that no further archaeological study was recommended and that significant adverse mobile-source air quality impacts were not predicted. With the EAS submitted, the proposal has an environmental review document to support agency consideration.