Illustrative rendering of applicant’s proposed five- and twelve-story development between West 22nd and West 23rd Street, Coney Island, Brooklyn. Image Credit: CPC.
City Planning voted no in part to questions regarding alleged comments made by project attorney at Community Board hearing. On January 9, 2019, the City Planning Commission voted to disapprove a proposed rezoning of the northern portion of a block situated between Surf Avenue to the north, Reigelman Boardwalk to the south, West 22nd Street to the east, and West 23rd Street to the west, in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The rezoning would have allowed for a new five- and twelve-story mixed-use building with retail and 78 dwelling units, 20 of which would have been permanently affordable. A public hearing on this application was held on December 5, 2018. (read more…)
Domenic M. Recchia Jr., District 47 Council Member. Credit: Official NYC Council Photo by William Alatriste.
New York City Council Member Domenic M. Recchia Jr. represents District 47, covering Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Coney Island, and Brighton Beach neighborhoods. He is Chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee. He graduated from Brooklyn’s John Dewey High School, played football and received his undergraduate degree at Kent State University, and earned his juris doctor from Atlanta Law School. Recchia also has a Brooklyn private practice specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury.
Brooklyn beginnings. Recchia represents the community he’s grown up and lived in for most of his life. He fondly remembers his childhood days spent at Steeplechase Park. To memorialize those times and perhaps to predict his bright leadership ahead, he has a picture of himself as a young boy with his father at Coney Island, his bathing suit reading “I’m the boss.” As a boy, he witnessed the somber closing of Steeplechase Park in 1964. He recalls the long economic decline of the area, when Steeplechase Park remained vacant after plans to build high-rise apartments fell through and projects like MCU Park, built in 2001, were erected without forethought to smart future development. Though he thinks the field brings enormous economic benefits to the area, the Park was placed in the middle of City-owned land, which made rezoning and planning difficult during the Coney Island Comprehensive Rezoning Plan process. (See CityLand’s past coverage here). As Council Member, Recchia has been instrumental in breathing new life into the area through his work on the Comprehensive Rezoning Plan and is forging the way back from Hurricane Sandy’s devastation to the area.
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Street grade elevation will connect West 21st Street to the boardwalk. On November 3, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning and Taconic Investment Partners’ proposal to raise the grade of two streets in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The plan will raise the elevation of West 21st Street between Surf Avenue and the Riegelmann Boardwalk. Taconic owns the landmarked Childs Restaurant on the west side of West 21st and a vacant parcel across the street. The proposal would also affect Ocean Way, a new street established by the City’s 2009 Coney Island Rezoning Plan that will run parallel to the boardwalk.
The Coney Island Plan rezoned nineteen blocks to create a new entertainment district, established new streets, and raised the grades of several existing streets to ease access to the boardwalk and to enable the area’s ground floor commercial uses to comply with the federally established base flood elevation level. 6 CityLand 104 (Aug. 15, 2009). West 21st Street, however, was not included in the proposal because Taconic had not finalized plans for the future uses of its properties.
The existing grade of West 21st Street, which sits below the boardwalk, was not ideal for the rehabilitation of the landmarked restaurant, and the City agreed to file a joint proposal with Taconic to request a modification of the street grade. The grade changes will enable pedestrian access from street level to the first floor of the Childs Restaurant building and eliminate the need for the wooden ramps that provide access to the boardwalk from street level. Landmarks’ staff reviewed the grade change proposal and issued a certificate of no effect. Future alterations or renovations of the Childs Restaurant building would still be subject to Landmarks review.
No one opposed the proposal at the City Planning Commission’s public hearing, and the plan was unanimously approved. (read more…)
Community group challenged City’s 47-acre Coney Island rezoning. In 2007, the City unveiled a comprehensive rezoning plan for the redevelopment of a 47-acre portion of Coney Island, Brooklyn. The plan sought to revitalize the iconic beachfront amusement area by transforming it into a year-round amusement and entertainment destination alongside new residential and retail uses. The proposal included rezoning nineteen blocks in order to permit new residential and hotel development around a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district. The plan also called for demapping nine acres of parkland to provide new housing and for creating fifteen acres of newly mapped parkland.
During the plan’s environmental review, the City revised the proposal by reducing the amount of new parkland from fifteen to nine acres. The City Planning Commission approved the plan and a final environmental impact statement in June 2009, and the City Council approved the plan the following month. 6 CityLand 104 (Aug. 15, 2009). (read more…)
Council increases affordable housing component and removes Wonder Wheel from new parkland. The City Council approved the City’s controversial rezoning and revitalization plan for Coney Island at its July 29, 2009 meeting. In addition to rezoning 19 blocks running from West 8th to West 20th Streets between Mermaid Avenue and the Riegelmann Boardwalk, the City will also create a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district. The City will map new streets, including Wonder Wheel Way east of KeySpan Park, and create new parkland. The plan will also facilitate the construction of 4,500 residential units and 500,000 sq.ft. of retail and neighborhood services. 6 CityLand 89 (July 15, 2009).
At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing on July 1, City Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky presented details of the plan. Pinsky said that the City did not intend to use condemnation to acquire property for redevelopment, but that he was not in a position to say the City was “taking it off the table.” (read more…)
Image of the Coney Island Comprehensive Rezoning Plan used with permission of the New York City Department of City Planning. All rights reserved.
Modifications include increasing ground floor amusement requirements and easing bulk restrictions. On June 17, 2009, the City Planning Commission approved the seven linked applications comprising the City’s extensive redevelopment plan for Coney Island. The approval included demapping of streets and parkland, creation of new streets and parkland, and a 19-block rezoning, running from West 8th to West 20th Streets between Mermaid Avenue and the Riegelmann Boardwalk.
The product of over 300 public meetings dating back to 2005, the City’s plan aims to foster Coney Island’s redevelopment while insuring permanency for the amusement uses. Under the plan, the City would acquire the ride and arcade area surrounding the Wonder Wheel, map it permanently as City parkland, and connect it to the two currently mapped, protected attractions: the Cyclone and the Parachute Jump. This action would create a contiguous, permanent park along the boardwalk extending from the Parachute Jump to the New York Aquarium.
Most of the 19 blocks in the rezoning have a C7 zoning, which permits large-scale open amusement parks, but prohibits complementary uses like restaurants without entertainment. The rezoning plan would create a new Special Coney Island District, establishing regulations that would supplement and supersede the newly proposed zoning. Amusement uses would be concentrated in the Coney East subdistrict, roughly extending east of KeySpan Park from Surf Avenue to the boardwalk. Coney East would remain a C7 district, but special provisions within the Special Coney Island District would broaden permitted uses, including restaurants, bars, skate parks, and hotels, and require complementary amusement uses along the street level of new developments. Three other subdistricts would permit residential, other entertainment, and retail uses, facilitating 4,500 units of new housing, 900 of which would be affordable. (read more…)
