The City Is Ignoring The Public Outcry

After rallies at the steps of City Hall, visiting the planning commission office, outcries over the internet, recommendations by Community Board 13 and Borough Pres. Marty Markowitz, warnings by the NY Times and claims and requests by the Municipal Arts Society and ‘Save Coney Island’, the city’s planning commission along with the CIDC have completely ignored the pleas.

The City’s Planning Commission was urged to vote yesterday to approve the Mayor’s plan which calls for high-rises and chain retail within the 60 acres of Coney’s current amusement zone. Those 60 acres of amusements have already shrunken since Coney’s hey-day. The city’s early plan, which consisted of about 27 open-air amusements, was later revised without consensus from its board, resulting in Coney Island USA creative director, Dick Zigun to part with them. The revised plan diminished the amusement area to an insulting mere 9 acres.

Now the plan has moved from the community, through the Borough President office, and on to the City Planning Commission, which apparently voted yes on it without any consideration whatsoever to advocates for a vital Coney Island.

In a press release yesterday by ‘Save Coney Island’:

“This plan spells disaster for Coney Island. In refusing to make urgently needed revisions to its Coney Island rezoning plan, the City threatens the very future of a world-renowned amusement destination,” said Juan Rivero, spokesman for Save Coney Island. “The City continues to defy calls from the community and amusement experts to fix its plan.”

Pro-amusement advocates who want a thriving and vital Coney Island is strongly urging the city to take notice and fix its plan.

'Save Coney Island recommends:

If it fixes its current rezoning plan, the City can revitalize Coney Island’s historic amusement district — and preserve it as a beloved New York playground, a world-class tourist destination, and an economic engine for the neighborhood and the city as a whole.

To create that win-win situation, Save Coney Island recommends the following:
- Expand the acreage for outdoor rides and amusements. Twelve acres, as proposed by the City’s plan, is not enough. At a minimum, the land between the Boardwalk and the Bowery should be reserved for open-air amusements.

- Keep high-rises out of the heart of the amusement district. Move the proposed hotel towers north of Surf or west of Keyspan Park.

- The rezoning should include a greater mix of maximum footprints to encourage a more diverse and desirable mix of businesses, and to protect local entrepreneurs.

The public would hugely approve the city’s plan if it only changed this part of it. They cannot undermine the need for a thriving amusement space. Don’t talk about hotels anywhere in Coney Island if you give tourists and the public a miniature amusement area. There will be no need to stay more than a couple of hours to see everything. You don’t see a hotel next to Kings Plaza. The plan has to reverse the change to diminish the open-air amusements and expand the most vital ingredient in Coney’s revitalization process: the amusements. We hope the city will be responsible enough to answer to this most appropriate needed change in the Mayor's plan.

According to the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) process, the plan will next move to the City Counsel for review and hearing. Afterwards it probably make its way to the state where it may not be handled with kiddie gloves.