A public meeting for the "Downtown Brooklyn Transportation Blueprint," a new NYC DOT planning effort meant to determine transportation needs for the next 20 years, will be December 6th at Brooklyn Borough Hall. It’s good news the agency is beginning a dialogue on how the area will deal with what many project to be a big development boom during that time frame.

The study comes on the heels of a recent Downtown Brooklyn rezoning which could accommodate 5-6 million square feet of office and retail development and 1,000 units of new housing. Forest City Ratner’s proposal for a mixed use development and NBA Basketball arena at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues may further stress the local transportation network. The blueprint will seek to identify transportation priorities to accommodate both short- and long-term growth.

Ideas likely to be broached are bus rapid transit techniques, East River bridge tolls, implementing the recommendations of a downtown Brooklyn traffic calming study carried out over many years (see MTR #424) and rail and ferry connections to connect the area to suburban workforces.

Economic development in the area will depend on a fast, reliable transportation network. Given downtown Brooklyn’s congestion levels today, curbing car traffic with a variety of means will be vital to the district’s success as a 24-hour commercial, residential and entertainment hub. It will be interesting to see whether the public calls on the city to institute developer impact fees or other techniques to pay for needed transportation improvements.

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