Long View Rendering of 126th Street and Citi Field. Image Credit: NYC EDC.
Appellate panel found the authorization for private construction on parkland did not extend to a shopping mall. On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved Queens Development Group’s planned 10-story, 200-room hotel and 30,000-square foot mall complex on the Willets Point West site, formerly the location of Shea Stadium. The site was once the north end of Flushing Meadows Park until the state legislature authorized the stadium’s construction in 1961. The development would anchor further construction of infrastructure improvements, mixed-income housing, and a school. Since the stadium’s demolition in 2009, the site has served as a parking lot for Citi Field, but remains classified as parkland.
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Michael Gruen, President of the City Club of New York
Juan Rivero, City Club Governing Committee
A disarmingly simple plan for rezoning Manhattan’s office district running from Grand Central Terminal north to about 58th Street has been approved by the Planning Commission and will come to a Council vote around the time of the November election.
It has three key components: 1) The City almost doubles the allowable floor area for new buildings on large sites along the major thoroughfares; 2) it sells to the landowner the right to build the increased space at the estimated market value of development rights (a base price of $250 per square foot); and 3) it applies the proceeds to unspecified transportation and pedestrian circulation improvement projects likely, when selected, to be located at Grand Central. (more…)
Long View Rendering of 126th Street and Citi Field. Image Credit: NYC EDC.
Public trust doctrine did not apply to Willets Point West development project. On August 15, 2014, the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan denied petitions for declarative and injunctive relief against the Willets Point Development Project in Queens. The petitions were brought by a coalition led by New York State Senator Tony Avella, The City Club of New York, and New York City Park Advocates. The petitioners argued that constructing a shopping mall and hotel was an improper use of the Willets Point West parkland, and that it should remain open for public events including circus performances and concerts.
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