Prospect Heights has long been a diverse community of residents with a range of needs and opinions. In June of 2004, PHNDC commissioned a study by the Pratt Center for Community Development of neighborhood priorities and concerns with respect to development in Prospect Heights. The study was based upon a survey of over 400 Prospect Heights community members designed by the Pratt Center. The results of the study, published in October 2004, highlighted common views held by many of the survey respondents.

Walk down the brownstone-lined streets Prospect Heights and you would be forgiven for thinking you were in a historic district. Located just to the north of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the cohesive district contains rows of beautiful Neo-Grec and Italianate style rowhouses built in the last 35 years of the nineteenth century. While the neighborhood has seen little change in the nearly 150 years since it first developed, major change is coming in the form of the Atlantic Yards project, as well as other current development.

Atlantic Yards is a proposal by the developer Forest City Ratner to build 16 towers and an arena on a 22 acre site in Prospect Heights. The project is being developed in conjunction with the Empire State Development Corporate under the New York State Urban Development Corporation law.

PHNDC has been concerned about the lack of community input and local oversight in the Atlantic Yards project since it was announced in December of 2003, and has consistently fought for greater involvement by the Prospect Heights community in the project's planning, review and construction. PHDNC has joined with other Brooklyn and citywide organizations in coalitions such as The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods and BrooklynSpeaks who are working to increase public awareness of the impacts of Atlantic Yards, and to demand accountability from government in addressing them. In the spring of 2011, PHNDC worked with the Park Slope Civic Council and the Boerum Hill Association to co-sponsor Atlantic Yards Watch, a community-led initiative to improve oversight of Atlantic Yards'construction and operations.

Related information:

• Comments on Atlantic Yards Draft Scope of Analysis
• Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Statement
• Comments on the Modified General Project Plan
• More articles on Atlantic Yards