The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation voted unanimously in favor of a new $1.4 million water taxi at Pier Six on the waterfront end of Atlantic Avenue at a public meeting last week.

At the meeting the BBPDC, a subsidiary of Empire State Development Corporation, announced no new changes for their proposed waterfront park, which is still expected to open in 2010. Construction is underway.

Regina Myer, BBPDC’s president, presented a report of the progress of the project, highlighting various features planned for the park.

They included images of the Salt Marsh at Pier 1, the Spiral Pool at Pier 2 with kayak and boat docks, the River Steps (made from the granite donated from the Roosevelt Island Bridge), concrete footing at Pier 1, water play area at Pier 6, Stone water retention, Scour Protection, and the temporary nursery with 500 trees that is ready to be planted.

Beth Mitchell, the Down State Director of Public Affairs for ESDC, referred to the project as “the ultimate park.”

“We anticipate kids to be engaged longer than just on the swings,” Myer said. She said music, movie and art programs will be organized by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Incorporation and will also be funded by private donations.

“It’s exciting if you’re a park geek like me,” said New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who attended the meeting. “This year, with the economy, it’s a record year for park attendance.”

He added, of the park, that “our baby’s [finally] going to be born.”

Benepe said the 21-acre section underneath the Brooklyn Bridge is two times the size of Washington Square Park and ten times the size of Harlem Piers Park.

Myer said the community groups have been involved in the planning process for the park all along, something critics of the park disagree with.

The opposition group Brooklyn Bridge Defense Fund is working to sue BBPDC for their push to include housing inside the park footprint.

Plans call for about 1,200 luxury housing units, stores, restaurants and a 200-bed hotel inside the grounds. Instead of paying property taxes, under the current proposal the collected revenue for the apartments, hotel, and stores will go to the maintenance of the park.

Although the lawsuit has been ignored, the opposition group plans to take their case to the Court of Appeals.

The meeting also addressed the Maritime Study for the harbor’s water quality, which has been declining steadily in the past five years. Myer said the water quality under the Brooklyn Bridge is no worse there than other sections.

“The underwater condition has deteriorated,” she said. “But the deterioration is no different from anywhere in the harbor.”

At the upcoming September meeting she said there will be more in-depth information on the cost and progress of the Maritime Study. Myer assured the public that water quality is “a major concern for us.”