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The restaurant-and-marina plans for Greenpoint\u2019s tiny WNYC Transmitter Park, announced in July and greeted with a blast of neighborhood opposition<\/a>, are dead. A community-board meeting Tuesday scrapped the plan, persuaded in part by a petition<\/a>\u00a0suggesting the project was far too large, which got 500 signatures. A new resolution discussed Tuesday night<\/a> will send the Department of Parks & Recreation on a separate quest to get a desperately needed public bathroom into the park \u2014 potentially via another concessionaire who\u2019ll incorporate one into whatever they open.<\/p>\n The plan had been unpopular from the start because of its scale, which had in turn stemmed from a particular Parks requirement: The winning operator would have been required to renovate the 1937 building, the former WNYC radio-broadcasting center that gives the park its name. It\u2019s been closed for decades and leaky, and the city\u2019s estimate for rehabbing it was around $5 million, a council member said<\/a>.\u00a0At least one local business looked<\/a> at the numbers and dropped out. The winning proposal, on the other hand, found a way to make the numbers work, apparently from docking fees and party rentals. But the proposal was vague on details and skipped over making a promise to renovate.<\/p>\n This new proposal amendment, if passed, won\u2019t require retention of the building, which could become a preservationist issue. (It\u2019s not clear what the building\u2019s fate will be, only that a concessionaire won\u2019t bear the cost of remodeling.) \u201cI don\u2019t think everyone is going to be happy,\u201d says Elissa Iberti, chair of Friends of WNYC Transmitter Park<\/a>. \u201cBut in the end, we\u2019re focusing on what the park needs, and for me, that was not the focus of the plan that came forward.\u201d In other words, the park needs a bathroom and a garden-equipment storage shed. What it doesn\u2019t need, in her view, is to become a wedding venue or a stop for tourists on sunset cruises.<\/p>\n The meeting pulled together members of a subcommittee that oversees waterfront parks for Brooklyn\u2019s Community Board 1 as well as volunteers from the park and city park officials. According to Iberti, the subcommittee passed a resolution that trades a requirement for a full renovation of the old building and replaces it with an obligation to install a plaque or other monument to its history. As to whether there might be an issue canceling the winning operator\u2019s contract, a Parks employee who focuses on concessions shared the strange news that it had never actually been signed, Iberti said. In the meantime, she added, the city may explore other ways to get a bathroom in the park. (Could Transmitter soon be the site of one of the mayor\u2019s slick new public restrooms<\/a>?) \u201cI will be completely honest,\u201d Iberti said, sounding relieved, \u201cI did not think Parks would come back and listen. I think this is sort of unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter<\/p>\n A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n