There’s no end in sight to the redevelopment of the Sunset Park Bush Terminal Piers into a new, multi-use 23-acre, $36 million public park. Two years after it was announced with great fanfare, the project has yet to enter remediation, the first phase of development that deals with the removal of pollutants or contamination from a brownfield site. (For photos of the current landscape, click here.)

At a presentation delivered last month before Community Board 7, representatives of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) presented their most recent plans for the park and discussed the delay with Board members. Chairperson Randolph Peers called the presentation “a disappointing message.” The disappointment was not about the vision for the park. The plans adhere to the basic principles outlined in the original proposal, including baseball and soccer fields, an environmental education center, a community hall, and other active and passive recreational areas. CB7 members, however, were expecting to hear that, after two years, the remediation phase would be coming to a close, with construction about to start. Instead, they learned that remediation has yet to begin.

CB7’s disappointment is a far cry from the optimism of spring 2006 when Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki first announced the $36 million renovation of the four brownfield piers. Now, NYCEDC representatives said, it is clear that the site’s redevelopment will not be completed by Mayor Bloomberg’s departure in 2009. With the priorities of the new administration still unknown, Board members said, the delayed project could face an uncertain future.

–Anna Lewis

(Yesterday, we noted similar issues about the big planned Bushwick Inlet Park, where there are major concerns in the community that land acquisition hasn’t even begun in the case of the properties that would make up the bulk of the park and that the project could be threatened by a change in Mayoral administrations.)