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    City Planning Commission Approves Plans to Build Socrates Sculpture Park

    City Map Amendment  •  Long Island City, Queens
    Diagram of the proposed map amendment. Image credit: CPC

    Diagram of the proposed City map amendment. Image credit: CPC

    The site has been operating as an open public space for use by local artists and community members since 1986. On April 13, 2016, the City Planning Commission adopted a resolution to approve the amending of the City Map to include the Socrates Sculpture Park, located at 32-01 Vernon Boulevard in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The site has been functioning effectively as a public park for local artists and community members for thirty years, and its memorialization on the City Map as official parkland would protect its existence in perpetuity.

    (read more…)

    Tags : City map amendment, Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Department of Parks & Recreation, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Queens Community Board 1, Socrates Sculpture Park
    Date:05/20/2016
    Category : City Planning Commission
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    Council Approves Conversion of Saint Vincent’s Triangle into City Parkland with AIDS Memorial

    Land Use Application  •  Greenwich Village, Manhattan
    Councilmember Corey Johnson at a Stated Meeting of the New York City Council. Image credit: William Alatriste/New York City Council

    Councilmember Corey Johnson at a Stated Meeting of the New York City Council. Image credit: William Alatriste/New York City Council

    Privately-owned open space will be converted into a new City park that includes an aptly-placed Aids memorial across the street from the former-Saint Vincent’s Hospital.  On August 13, 2015, the City Council approved West Village Residences, LLC and the Department of Parks and Recreation’s application to transfer ownership of WVR-owned open space to the City and officially map the space as City parkland.  The open space is bounded by Seventh Avenue South, West 12th Street, and Greenwich Avenue, and its main feature will be New York’s largest AIDS memorial.  The park officially opened on August 21st, and the AIDS memorial is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

    (read more…)

    Tags : City Council, City parkland, Council Member Corey Johnson, Council Member Donovan Richards, Department of Parks & Recreation, Department of Parks and Recreation, Fried Frank, Global Holdings Inc, Greenwich Village, Land Use Committee, LLC, New York City AIDS Memorial, New York City Council, Rudin Management Company Inc, St. Vincent's Hospital redevelopment, Studio a+I, Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, ULURP, West Village Residences
    Date:09/09/2015
    Category : City Council
    (1) Comment

    Challenge to NYU Expansion Plan Overturned on Appeal

    City Council  •  Greenwich Village, Manhattan
    NYU superblock development as originally proposed. Image credit: NYU.

    NYU superblock proposec development. Image credit: NYU.

    Coalition of local residents, Greenwich Village community organizations, and elected officials sought to prevent NYU’s development of two superblocks north of Houston Street. In 2012, the City Council voted to approve multiple actions to allow an expansion plan by New York University to develop two superblocks bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, Mercer Street and LaGuardia place in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The project, projected to take 20 years to complete, would entail the construction of four new buildings to be used for student housing and faculty residences, academic use, public space, and a grocery store to replace one eliminated by the development. The largest building, the Zipper Building, would be 980,000 gross square feet. NYU claimed the project would create approximately four acres of publicly accessible open space and amenities. (read more…)

    Tags : Andrew Berman, Deborah Glick, Department of Parks & Recreation, John Beckman, Judge Donna Mills, NYU Expansion Project
    Date:10/22/2014
    Category : Court Decisions
    (2) Comment

    Mayor Announces Citywide Community Parks Initiative

    Park Rehabilitation  •  Citywide
    Mayor announces Community Parks Initiative. Image Credit: Mayor's Office.

    Mayor announces Community Parks Initiative at Queens Press Conference . Image Credit: Mayor’s Office.

    $130 million secured to invest in 35 under-resourced parks throughout NYC. On October 7, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver announced a $130 million investment in 35 community parks throughout the five boroughs. This is the first phase of a multi-faceted program to support investment in the most under-resourced parks and communities, known as the Community Parks Initiative. The Mayor’s capital budget raised $110 million of program financing. The City Council, Borough Presidents, and foundation grants cumulatively contributed another $20 million. (read more…)

    Tags : City Parks Foundation, Community Parks Initiative, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Parks & Recreation, G, Geoffrey Croft, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mitchell J, NYC Park Advocates, Silver
    Date:10/20/2014
    Category : Department of Parks & Recreation
    (1) Comment

    City Moves to Acquire Northern Portion of the High Line

    Acquisition  •  Hudson Yards, Manhattan

    Image: Joel Sternfeld ©2000, courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

    Acquisition of the High Line’s third section would allow the City to complete contiguous 1.45-mile elevated public park. On May 12, 2010, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Parks & Recreation’s proposal to acquire the northern portion of the High Line elevated rail line from CSX Corporation. This section branches out from Tenth Avenue and 30th Street — a portion referred to as the “spur” — and runs east along the perimeter of the Hudson Yards on West 30th Street before turning north up Twelfth Avenue and terminating below grade at West 34th Street. The acquisition would facilitate the transfer of ownership to the City and permit the development of the High Line’s third and final section.

    The High Line is a 1.45-mile elevated steel and concrete rail line built in the 1930s to deliver meat and other goods throughout Manhattan’s lower west side. Trains stopped running along the High Line in 1980, and nearly twenty years later community activists formed Friends of the High Line in order to preserve the High Line and advocate for the construction of a publicly accessible park on the structure. (read more…)

    Tags : City Planning Commission, CSX Corporation, Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Department of Parks & Recreation, High Line
    Date:06/15/2010
    Category : City Planning Commission
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