East Side Coastal Resiliency: Environmental Review

In the face of climate change and sea level rise, New York City has begun implementation of the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project designed to uniquely protect waterfront parks and communities on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that were inundated during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. This project will protect tens of thousands of New Yorkers who live in this high impact area.

Implementation of the ESCR Project involves substantial activities within City parkland, therefore the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks) assumed the role of Lead Agency in fulfilling the environmental review requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR).

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was prepared for public review as of September 13, 2019. The FEIS incorporated responses to the public comments received on the DEIS and was updated to reflect the design and programmatic changes to the proposed project after the completion of the DEIS. A copy of the FEIS is available at the links below. Following the release of the FEIS, a number of minor technical enhancements had been proposed in the design of the Preferred Alternative; so a Technical Memorandum was prepared to examine whether these modifications would result in any new or different significant adverse environmental impacts not already identified in the FEIS. These project modifications are described in detail in Technical Memorandum (001), which is available below.

On December 6, 2019, NYC Parks and the New York City Mayor's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Joint Record of Decision and Statement of Findings (Joint ROD and Findings Statement) for the ESCR Project. OMB and NYC Parks selected Alternative 4: Flood Protection System with a Raised East River Park for the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (the Preferred Alternative). This alternative is fully described in Chapter 2.0, “Project Alternatives,” of the FEIS. The Joint ROD and Findings Statement can be found below.

In December 2021 a second Technical Memorandum (002) was released, which concludes that the revised NRHP eligibility determination to include the East River Park Track House and Tennis Center Comfort Station would not affect the conclusions of the FEIS.

A third Technical Memorandum (003) has been released as of April 2022, which examined whether a modification to the construction access and egress to/from East River Park during construction would affect the conclusions of the FEIS, the Joint ROD and Findings Statement, or the subsequent Technical Memoranda. It concluded that no new or different significant adverse effects from those already identified FEIS and subsequent reviews would result from the proposed modification.

For questions, please contact:

Colleen Alderson, Chief of Parklands and Real Estate
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
The Arsenal, Central Park
830 Fifth Avenue, Room 401
New York, New York 10065
Email: escr@parks.nyc.gov

Related Files

• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Draft Scope of Work to Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Draft Scope of Work to Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Spanish
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Draft Scope of Work to Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Chinese
• Download the Early Notice and Public Review of a Proposed Activity in a 100-Year Floodplain
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Final Scope of Work to Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Notice of Completion for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project: Draft Environmental Impact Statement Appendix
• Download the Notice of Completion for the Final Environmental Impact Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Technical Memorandum (001)
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Joint ROD and Findings Statement
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Technical Memorandum (002)
• Download the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Technical Memorandum (003)

Final Environmental Impact Statement

Table of Contents

• Cover
• Foreword
• Appendix N: Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Consultation
• Table of Contents
• 1.0: Purpose and Need
• 2.0: Project Alternatives
• 3.0: Process, Agency Coordination, and Public Participation
• 4.0: Analysis Framework
• 5.1: Land Use, Zoning, and Public Policy
• 5.2: Socioeconomic Conditions
• 5.3: Open Space
• 5.4: Historic and Cultural Resources
• 5.5: Urban Design and Visual Resources
• 5.6: Natural
• 5.7: Hazardous Materials
• 5.8: Water and Sewer
• 5.9: Transportation
• 5.10: Neighborhood Character
• 5.11: Environmental Justice
• 6.0: Construction Overview
• 6.1: Construction—Socioeconomics
• 6.2: Construction—Open Space
• 6.3: Construction—Historic and Cultural Resources
• 6.4: Construction—Urban Design and Visual Resources
• 6.5: Construction—Natural Resources
• 6.6: Construction—Hazardous Materials
• 6.7: Construction—Water and Sewer Infrastructure
• 6.8: Construction—Energy
• 6.9: Construction—Transportation
• 6.10: Construction—Air Quality
• 6.11: Construction—Greenhouse Gas
• 6.12: Construction—Noise and Vibration
• 6.13: Construction—Public Health
• 7.0: Indirect and Cumulative Effects
• 8.0: Unavoidable Adverse Impacts
• 9.0: Irretrievable and Irreversible Commitment of Resources
• 10.0: Response to Comments on the DEIS
• 11.0: List of Preparers
• 12.0: Glossary of Terms
• 13.0: List of Acronyms
• 14.0: ESCR Project DEIS Referenced Documents

Appendices

• Appendix A1: List of No Action Projects
• Appendix A2: Final Scope of Work
• Appendix B: CEQR Screening Analyses
• Appendix C: Conceptual Engineering Design Plans
• Appendix C1a: Preferred Alternative – Title, Legend, and Key Map
• Appendix C1b: Preferred Alternative – Bridge Plans, Elevation, and Sections
• Appendix C1c: Preferred Alternative – Civil Plans
• Appendix C1d: Preferred Alternative – Floodwalls and Structural Plans
• Appendix C1e: Preferred Alternative – Esplanade Structural Plan and Cross Sections
• Appendix C1f: Preferred Alternative – Flood Protection and Cross Sections
• Appendix C1g: Preferred Alternative – Closure Structures
• Appendix C1h: Preferred Alternative – Shared Use Path Plan
• Appendix C1i: Preferred Alternative – Stuyvesant Cove Plan
• Appendix C1j: Preferred Alternative – Parallel Conveyance Civil Plan and Profile
• Appendix C1k: Preferred Alternative – Interceptor Gate Plans
• Appendix C1l: Preferred Alternative – Flyover Bridge Plan
• Appendix C1m: Preferred Alternative – Tree Removal and Protection Plan
• Appendix C1n: Preferred Alternative – Tree Mitigation Schedule
• Appendix C1o: Preferred Alternative – Landscaping Plan and Section
• Appendix C2: Alternative 2 – Conceptual Plans
• Appendix C3: Alternative 3 – Conceptual Plans
• Appendix D: New York City Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP)
• Appendix E: Historic and Cultural Resources Consultation
• Appendix F1: Natural Resources Survey
• Appendix F2: Jurisdictional Determination
• Appendix G: NOAA NMFS Section 7 and EFH
• Appendix H1: NYNHP Consultation
• Appendix H2: USFWS Section 7 Consultation
• Appendix I: Tree Survey
• Appendix J: Transportation Study
• Appendix K1: Construction Air Quality
• Appendix K2: Construction Noise
• Appendix L: Eight-Step Planning Process for Floodplains and Wetlands
• Appendix L: Eight-Step Planning Process for Floodplains and Wetlands
• Appendix M: Comments Received on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement