The City Club has helped shape the future of Manhattan's West side waterfront for the past half century. We successfully opposed the Westway project and strongly supported the creation of the Hudson River Park as an alternative redevelopment plan for the waterfront. The Club was recently elected to the Hudson River Park Advisory Council’s executive committee and continues to object to increased commercial development in the park and advocate for greater resiliency, comprehensive planning and developing a sustainable funding stream that will protect this magnificent park that has been transformative in the life of our city.
July 28, 2024
This week has not only brought us fantastic weather, but it has seen major movement in the effort to complete the last unfinished segment of the Hudson River Park between 29th and 44th Streets in Midtown.
Governor Hochul signed a new amendment to the Hudson River Park Act to allow commercial development, up to 18 stories high, on half of the 5.5-acre Pier 76 to generate the funding to save the other half as public open space. In addition, the Trust announced the design team chosen for the final segment and the beginning of the community design process.
The final park segment is in Manhattan Community Board 4, which has one of the lowest rates of parks per capita in the City. A heliport and overnight bus parking will need to be relocated to complete the park. New commercial development is now planned for Pier 76. Across the street, the second phase of Hudson Yards is facing continued headwinds.
Is it time to negotiate and plan more holistically to finish the park for the maximum public benefit?
Clearing the way for a park on (part of) Pier 76; trying to clear out park helipad
THE VILLAGE SUN
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
July 26, 2024
"...However, longtime Hudson River Park activist Tom Fox was not impressed by the news — more like livid. Fox was the president of the Hudson River Park Conservancy, the Hudson River Park Trust’s predecessor agency, which completed the final plan for the now 26-year-old park. He recently published a book recounting the history of the waterfront park’s creation.
In short, Fox feels Pier 76, formerly home to a New York Police Department tow pound, should be 100 percent recreational without any commercial development. Instead of requiring the park to be self-funding via designated commercial “nodes” on certain piers, like Pier 76, Fox would like to see the properties in the 'inboard' area — the blocks to the east of the West Side Highway — help fund the park. To that effect, he has long advocated for a so-called Park Improvement District that would raise funds for the park from adjacent properties by means of an annual contribution to a special assessment district, as is done for Bryant Park and Union Square Park.
'We have 26 million square feet of prime development going on across the street — Hudson Yards,' he stressed. 'Hudson Yards puts nothing into the park — and they’re literally right across the street...' ”
Hudson River Park Proposes $65M to Develop Stretch from Intrepid to Heliport
THE SPIRIT
JULY 26, 2024
“...'This is penny wise and pound foolish,' a longtime critic of the Hudson River Park Trust, Tom Fox, said of its announcement. 'Let’s not deal with chump change. Let’s really design the section of the park as it should be designed and stop kicking the can down the road.He said that a comprehensive plan for this 'missing piece' of the Hudson River Park should include a pedestrian bridge across route 9A (the West Side Highway, to most New Yorkers) at the Convention Center, robust flood resiliency against rising tides in the river and the removal of bus parking in that stretch of the park and of the heliport, long a bane to users of the park.
'This should be an opportunity to step back and think about this unfinished segment of the park more comprehensively,' said Fox, author of a history of the Hudson River Park. He noted that beyond the $65 million in local funds, there are substantial federal infrastructure funds available for both climate resiliency and construction related to the highway.
'I don’t think we have the luxury of doing piecemeal planning and should be looking at this whole issue. Much more comprehensively,' Fox said..."
Photo Credit (top) : Tom Fox