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Old Posted Jun 18, 2009, 1:24 AM
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Planning Commission Votes 12-0 for Coney Island Plan With Modifications

by Linda Collins
6-17-2009


CONEY ISLAND — Despite a rather loud disruption from protesters at yesterday’s Planning Commission meeting, Chair Amanda Burden led what was a unanimous vote for the Coney Island Redevelopment Plan. (One newly-appointed commissioner abstained.)

Calling it “a major milestone” in the Bloomberg Administration’s goals for Coney Island and the result of hundreds of meetings with local residents, businesses, property owners, elected officials and amusement industry professionals, Burden said the plan will “revitalize and help Coney Island reclaim its mantle as the world’s greatest open, affordable and accessible, urban amusement park.”

With some modifications, the plan includes a a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district, with a 12-acre urban amusement park at its center, and a mapping of the core amusement area as parkland, “to forever ensure that Coney Island’s amusements are protected,” Burden said.

It also includes the possibility of 4,500 new units of housing, including affordable housing, space for much needed neighborhood retail and service providers, and it will result in 6,000 permanent and 20,000 construction jobs.

Most of the commissioners, as they declared their vote, praised the plan for bringing new jobs and new housing to Coney Island, as well as its affordable and accessible permanent entertainment area. Many applauded Burden for her hard work.


As one commissioner commented, ”Affordable housing is a key here and the jobs generated from it are significant.”

Another said, “Coney Island coming back is very pleasing to me and I’m happy to vote for it.”

The demonstrators, however, who were loudly chanting “Coney Needs Good Jobs, Affordable Housing” over and over, holding signs saying as much, and disrupting the meeting for a good five minutes, said the plan doesn’t go far enough.

It doesn’t go far enough in providing affordable housing or offering guarantees of job protections, they said. Currently, the city is only committing to its voluntary 20 percent inclusionary zoning to create affordable housing, according to Carmen Gonzalez, one of the protesters and an ACORN member.

“Redeveloping Coney Island without including a significant amount of affordable housing would leave low- to middle-income New Yorkers with fewer housing choices and put current residents at risk of losing their homes,” she said. “As residents of Coney Island, we want our children to be able to afford to live here in the future. Any redevelopment must include a significant portion of affordable housing.”

As for the jobs issue, Coney Island resident and SEIU 32BJ member George Diaz commented that the plan does not guaranteed prevailing and living wage benefits nor any guarantee to help local residents secure these positions.

“We need the city’s plan to create real opportunity in the neighborhood,” he said. Having people lining up down the street for minimum wage jobs is not a solid plan, but that’s what could happen if we don’t have job standards attached to the city’s plan.”

Modifications

Since the City Planning Commission’s public hearing in May, the department has recommended additional modifications. These include increasing the amusement requirements in Coney East, adding floodplain mitigation measures to enhance the streetscape, refining the text to encourage extraordinary design and integrating Coney’s historic icons in the future development.

Previously approved in April, were “A text” revisions meant to strengthen the ground-floor requirements for traditional amusement uses — such as arcades, games of chance and rides — to maintain Coney’s one-of-a-kind amusement character; and others to ensure direct visibility to the amusement park and boardwalk upon arrival in Coney Island — such as reduced height limits for building streetwalls along Surf Avenue.

“With the modifications I have described, I am especially proud to vote yes,” Burden said.

The next and final step in the approval process for the Coney Island Plan is a hearing before the City Council. No date has been set for that hearing.
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