Joint Statement: City Club, Resilient Red Hook, and NYC 2030 District Call for All-Maritime Vision at Brooklyn Marine Terminal

Three leading civic organizations have formally submitted joint comments urging the City to evaluate a community-led, all-maritime alternative for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) that prioritizes climate resilience and clean energy.

The City Club of New York released an updated all-maritime plan for the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal. “Creating a Blue Highway Hub at Brooklyn Marine Terminal” (Feb. 9, 2026) was developed with input from leading maritime professionals, environmental planners, local elected officials, community organizations and residents from Red Hook and the adjacent neighborhoods. The effort builds on decades of public commitment to preserving Red Hook's historic working waterfront, as outlined in many community planning studies over the years.

An all-maritime alternative plan was requested by community members and the BMT Task Force throughout the EDC engagement but one was never provided. This plan acts as a catalyst for reimagining the BMT as a vibrant maritime and logistics hub—a Blue Highway gateway that expands commercial port activity, creates local jobs, and strengthens our neighborhood’s climate resilience and emergency preparedness.

The Blue Highway can help fulfill the long-standing objective of removing large freight trucks from NYC’s streets and highways. The BMT all-maritime plan will reduce many of the EDC project's negative environmental impacts on local air quality and burdens on utilities, surface transportation and essential municipal services.

The proposed BMT DSOW regarding energy and climate change is thoroughly inadequate. The scope of this major project must include securing the EIS DSOW’s GOAL # 3: "Improve resiliency to prepare the Site and adjoining neighborhoods for sea-level rise and climate change."

Resilient Red Hook and NYC 2030 District support the City Club’s all-maritime alternative plan and have developed a compatible companion plan to realize the clean energy and resilience potential for the BMT and neighboring vulnerable communities.

RRH and NYC2030, in consultation with clean energy experts and practitioners, have issued “BMT Community Energy Network” (Mar. 22, 2026) to present an integrated BMT energy system connected to the adjacent neighborhoods. This plan represents a unique once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop a major infrastructure project tied to a community-scale renewable and resilient energy network with reciprocal benefits.

The two subject plans and a related study, ‘Resiliency Planning for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal: A Preliminary Analysis’ by the City Club Waterfront Committee, are posted on the City Club website.

The City Club of New York, Resilient Red Hook and NYC 2030 District stress the complementary benefits of the ‘Blue Highway Hub’ and ‘Community Energy Network’ plans. The groups endorse the plans for consideration as an alternate path for the BMT development, along with a complete assessment of area flood protections.

We urge the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination to assess and NYC EDC to undertake a full evaluation of this alternate BMT vision with genuine community input. We ask NYC EDC to fairly report the results of the evaluations and comparative benefits/costs of the respective plans to all BMT stakeholders and to the public.

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Fox

Trustee, The City Club of New York

Victoria (Hagman) Alexander

Interim Chair, Resilient Red Hook

Haym Gross, Architect

Chair, NYC 2030 District

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