By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced a new effort to transform vacant, abandoned lots into green space for New Yorkers and put more residents of the five boroughs within walking distance of a park.
As part of the “Vital Parks for All” initiative, Adams announced that an additional $30 million was being allocated to transform vacant, underutilized, and abandoned lots into parkland, playgrounds, and open green space in neighborhoods that do not currently have access to such space. By transferring land from other City agencies and using neighborhood-wide Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) applications, this initiative furthers the Adams administration’s work to ensure that more New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Adams announced the start of this effort with the submission of the first two neighborhood-wide ULURP applications in Queens and Brooklyn earlier this month.
The acquisition plan includes multiple strategies, including pursuing neighborhood-wide ULURP applications in communities that lack access to parkland. In collaboration with the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP), NYC Parks has identified 19 community districts that are underserved by the existing parks network and has begun submitting one ULURP application per community district, encompassing many smaller sites within the district. While not every site included in the applications will be acquired, the successful ULURP applications will allow NYC Parks to purchase the sites, pending a willing private seller.
The City Parks Department recently submitted ULURP applications for 44 sites in the first two communities identified through this initiative: Brooklyn Community District 5, which includes East New York and Cypress Hills, and Queens Community District 3, which includes Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, and Corona. Not all of the sites will be turned into parkland, and additional community districts and sites will be shared in the coming months, Adams noted.
In addition to acquisitions from private property owners, NYC Parks also plans to acquire new parkland through transfers from other city agencies. The majority of new acquisitions by NYC Parks over the past three years have been property transfers from other agencies at no cost. To advance the Adams administration’s priority of building more affordable housing, NYC Parks collaborated with the Department of City Planning and the City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to determine which sites were better suited for housing development or parkland, depending on factors like size, location, and status of adjacent properties.
“As we kick off the ‘We Outside Summer,’ we know New Yorkers across the five boroughs are looking for more places to enjoy the warmer weather with friends and loved ones,” Adams said. “Today, we’re announcing a new effort to turn vacant, abandoned lots into parks — bringing more green spaces to neighborhoods across New York City that don’t currently have access to them. This initiative builds on our administration’s commitment to put a park within walking distance of a park because access to parks is critical, and as summer arrives, we’re working hard to deliver green spaces to the areas most in need across the five boroughs.”
