Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas
of Community-Based Plans
Bronx Plans: Table of Contents
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MAP
ID
BX01
BX02
BX03
BX04
BX05
BX06
BX07
BX08
BX09
BX10
BX11
BX12
BX13
BX14
BX15
BX16
BX17
BX18
BX19
BX20
BX21
BX22
BX23
Map: Bronx plans by Community District
Map: Bronx plans by Council District
PLAN NAME
The Bronx Center
Decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway
Draft Hunts Point Bronx CB-02 197-a Plan (Draft)
Partnership for the Future Bronx CB-03 197-a Plan
Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan
Claremont Village; Creating a Public Housing Community
West Farm CCRP
Jerome Park Reservior Plan
Discovering the Center: A Vision Plan for the Bronx Hub
South Bronx Waterfront Revitalization Plan
Mid-Bronx Neighborhood CCRP
Mount Hope CCRP
Mt. Hope / Mt. Eden CCRP
Longwood / Hunts Pt. CCRP
Crotona Park East CCRP
Bronx Comunity District 08: A River to Reservoir Preservation Strategy 197-a Plan
Acheiving a Balance: Housing & Open Space in Bronx Community
Protecting Our Hunts Point Neighborhood from Dangerous Truck Traffic
The Old Croton Aqueduct
East 138th Street Revitalization Plan
Bronx River Greenway
Greening Hunts Point
The Oak Point Eco-Industrial Park: A Sustainable Economic Development Proposal for the
South Bronx
Planning for All New Yorkers:
An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York City
Version 5.0 © 2008
BX16
Location of Community-Based Plans
8
Community-Based Planning Affected Areas
123
12
BX08
Community Districts
Major Open Space
BX19
MAP ID
BX01
BX02
BX03
BX04
BX05
BX06
BX07
BX08
BX09
BX10
BX11
BX12
BX13
BX14
BX15
BX16
BX17
BX18
BX19
BX20
BX21
BX22
BX23
PLAN NAME
The Bronx Center
Decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway
Draft Hunts Point Bronx CB-02 197-a Plan (Draft)
Partnership for the Future Bronx CB-03 197-a Plan
Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan
Claremont Village; Creating a Public Housing Community
West Farm CCRP
Jerome Park Reservior Plan
Discovering the Center: A Vision Plan for the Bronx Hub
South Bronx Waterfront Revitalization Plan
Mid-Bronx Neighborhood CCRP
Mount Hope CCRP
Mt. Hope / Mt. Eden CCRP
Longwood / Hunts Pt. CCRP
Crotona Park East CCRP
Bronx Comunity District 08: A River to Reservoir Preservation Strategy 197-a Plan
Acheiving a Balance: Housing & Open Space in Bronx Community
Protecting Our Hunts Point Neighborhood from Dangerous Truck Traffic
The Old Croton Aqueduct
East 138th Street Revitalization Plan
Bronx River Greenway
Greening Hunts Point
The Oak Point Eco-Industrial Park: A Sustainable Economic Development Proposal for the South Bronx
7
BX12
11
BX21
6
5
BX07
BX13
BX04
BX06
BX11
4
BX15
3
BX02
BX17
BX01
BX05
10
BX14
9
BX09
BX18
BX03
BX20
1
2
BX22
BX10
BX23
Sources: NYC Department of City Planning, PLUTO data, 2007/2008; NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications,
BYTES of the BIG APPLE, 2007; Planning For All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York City, Version 5.0, 2008
Bronx Community-Based Plans by Community District
0
0.5
1
2
3
4
Miles
Prepared by The Municipal Art Society Planning Center, 2008
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Planning for All New Yorkers:
An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York City
Version 5.0 © 2008
BX16
Location of Community-Based Plans
Community-Based Planning Affected Areas
123
BX08
Council Districts
Major Open Space
BX19
MAP ID
BX01
BX02
BX03
BX04
BX05
BX06
BX07
BX08
BX09
BX10
BX11
BX12
BX13
BX14
BX15
BX16
BX17
BX18
BX19
BX20
BX21
BX22
BX23
PLAN NAME
The Bronx Center
Decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway
Draft Hunts Point Bronx CB-02 197-a Plan (Draft)
Partnership for the Future Bronx CB-03 197-a Plan
Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan
Claremont Village; Creating a Public Housing Community
West Farm CCRP
Jerome Park Reservior Plan
Discovering the Center: A Vision Plan for the Bronx Hub
South Bronx Waterfront Revitalization Plan
Mid-Bronx Neighborhood CCRP
Mount Hope CCRP
Mt. Hope / Mt. Eden CCRP
Longwood / Hunts Pt. CCRP
Crotona Park East CCRP
Bronx Comunity District 08: A River to Reservoir Preservation Strategy 197-a Plan
Acheiving a Balance: Housing & Open Space in Bronx Community
Protecting Our Hunts Point Neighborhood from Dangerous Truck Traffic
The Old Croton Aqueduct
East 138th Street Revitalization Plan
Bronx River Greenway
Greening Hunts Point
The Oak Point Eco-Industrial Park: A Sustainable Economic Development Proposal for the South Bronx
BX12
BX21
BX07
BX13
BX04
BX06
BX11
BX15
BX02
BX17
BX01
BX05
BX14
BX09
BX18
BX03
BX20
BX10
BX22
BX23
Sources: NYC Department of City Planning, PLUTO data, 2007/2008; NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications,
BYTES of the BIG APPLE, 2007; Planning For All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York City, Version 5.0, 2008
Bronx Community-Based Plans by Council District
0
0.5
1
2
3
4
Miles
Prepared by The Municipal Art Society Planning Center, 2008
¯
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX1
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1, 3, 4
NAME OF PLAN: The Bronx Center
Community Organization: The Bronx Center Steering Committee, The Urban Assembly
Address: 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451
Contact Name: Wilhelm Ronda
Phone Number: 718.590.8087
Website: http://www.unesco.org/most/usa1.htm
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
A 300-block area in the Bronx, roughly bounded by East 147th and 165th Streets, the Harlem
River and St. Ann's Avenue.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
During the 1970s and early 1980s the South Bronx experienced serious disinvestments and
destruction. It stood as an international symbol of urban blight. However, the 1980s and 1990s
brought a time of rebirth for the South Bronx. Community residents and non-profit organizations
began restoring the community from housing to economic development.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Enable area residents to increase their earnings potential and to expand their economic
opportunities.
• Design health and human services to empower people to help them move from poverty and
dependence to financial self-sufficiency.
• Provide learning opportunities for both residents and for others who work in the area.
• Meet the needs of residents of all income levels through new and renovated housing.
• Design transportation to increase personal mobility and make the Bronx Center businesses
and services more accessible.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Economic Development
► Establish programs with direct links to employment in likely growth industries, such as
recycling-based, environmentally sound manufacturing; wholesale food and food
distribution; and biomedical and other health-related services.
► Provide training and technical assistance to local contractors, so they can effectively
compete for contracts for Bronx Center projects.
► Reach agreements between developers and labor unions to ensure that area residents are
hired to work on new projects.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
►
►
►
Complete plans for a comprehensive community-banking program in the Bronx Center.
Set up an action group supporting the Hub/Third Avenue BID and the 149th Street
Merchants Association to find a retailer to replace Alexander's and improve coordination
of Hub merchandising and advertising.
Redevelop the triangle of land along the Harlem River where Yankee Stadium and the
Bronx Terminal Market are located. Develop a new improved public sports facility near
Yankee stadium, perhaps located on top of a new parking garage, additional retail outlets,
and a specialized new public high school offering courses in sports-related fields, new
mass transit facilities, possible development of a sports museum, and the renovation of
the Bronx Terminal Market neighborhood.
Study the potential for future residential and industrial development in Morrisania
Industrial Park.
•
Health and Human Services
► Establish a borough-wide Community Resources Development Bureau to help
community-based non-profit service providers expand and improve their activities.
► Group a broad array of health, social, education, recreation and training services together
in at least three new service clusters in the Bronx Center.
•
Education and Culture
► New public facilities with specialized educational themes and in partnership with existing
institutions must be built.
► Schools must become centers for adult education, for recreation and for other community
activities.
► The new Police Academy and new Court Complex should both include features and offer
programs to ensure broad community access that will effectively incorporate them into
the Bronx Center.
► Study the potential for developing arts-related economic enterprises in underused
buildings.
•
Housing, Open Space, and Urban Design
► The planning for the Melrose Commons urban renewal project must first engage area
residents and businesses, which have not yet been adequately consulted. Melrose should
offer mixed-income housing for area residents regardless of income level and for low and
moderate-income people who may move to the community.
► Proceed with construction of 1,500 units of new infill housing and renovation of about
1,400 existing apartments as a part of Bronx Center neighborhood renewal.
► Explore possibility of building a large platform over the Metro-North tracks at East 149th
Street.
► Study the rezoning of the Walton Avenue/East 149th Street area.
► The new Police Academy should be designed to integrate with the neighborhood.
► The new Court Complex should be revised to meet broader community planning
objectives. The present design calls for a massive structure that would overwhelm its
surroundings.
► Restore vacant lots to community use by "greening" programs.
► Upgrade the design of major streets and corners to create attractive streetscapes.
► Establish a Bronx Planning Center as a meeting place for Bronx residents, potentially in a
renovated portion of the abandoned landmark courthouse as East 161st Street and Brook
Avenue
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Transportation
► One or more existing subway stations should be transformed into state-of-the-art
Gateway Stations.
► Perform neighborhood-level studies of traffic patterns in efforts to relieve congestion.
► Establish a new transit connecter route using distinctive vans or buses connecting major
points.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Work closely with the Bronx Forum, the Borough President's Office, the Mayor's office,
community organizations and Bronx residents to broaden community participation, implement
near-term projects and expedite long-term plans.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The Bronx Center initiative expands on two planning efforts that appeared in 1990. In that year,
"New Directions for the Bronx" concluded with a draft blueprint for development of the Bronx.
The Bronx Center project began in May 1992, when the Borough President appointed a Steering
Committee composed of civic, community and political leaders. A wider Advisory Council was
formed simultaneously to provide broad-based input. A borough-wide kickoff conference in June
of 1992 established the need for broad community dialogue and a comprehensive approach to
redevelopment. The Advisory Council was opened to any members of the community who
expressed interest in participating. Working Groups on economic development, health and human
services, education and culture, housing, open space and urban design, and transportation were
also formed. These volunteer working groups, whose members were Bronx residents, technical
assistance providers, government officials and professionals, met regularly throughout 1992 to
draft recommendations.
Preliminary findings went out in September of 1992 to more than 5,000 persons and community
groups. That October, more than 600 people attended public forums. At the midpoint of 1992,
youth became an important focus. In that fall, forums were held with students and young persons
living in and near the Bronx Center. In the winter of 1992, the Working Groups revised their
proposals based on past forums and presented new proposals to the community.
PARTNERS
The Urban Assembly; The Municipal Art Society; Pratt Institute for Center Community and
Environmental Development (PICCED); Bronx Borough President; New York City Economic
Development Corporation; New York State Urban Development Corporation.
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1991
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
SUBMITTED TO
Bronx Borough President and various city agencies
CITY ACTION?
See below.
DATE SUBMITTED: 1993
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Within the Melrose Commons area both South Bronx Overall Development Corporation
(SoBRO) and Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC) provide services
that link perspective employers with those seeking jobs and training. SoBro offers two programs,
“BOUNTY” and “Workers Education Program.” BOEDC maintains an office on East 149th
Street called Business Solutions Center.
BOEDC is carrying out recommendations to train local contractors, by scheduling of workshops
that provide information to local contractors wishing to bid on Bronx construction projects, and
work toward agreement between developers and labor unions to ensure that area residents are
hired to work on new projects.
New development:
• Construction of a 1 million square foot shopping complex on the Bronx Terminal Market site.
•
Roof top sports and active recreational facilities (running track, soccer field) will be
constructed on the roof of a garage as part of the creation of Heritage Field and the Yankee
Stadium construction project scheduled for completion in 2009.
•
Identification of a site for a new high school dedicated to the study of sports medicine is
pending.
•
Construction of a Metro North Railroad Yankee Stadium station has been funded and will
operate year round. During game days one-seat transportation via all three divisions of Metro
North will be available.
•
The inclusion of a sports museum is part of the new Yankee Stadium complex
New zoning:
• The Morrisania Mixed Use Zoning District was the first mixed use zoning district adopted in
the Bronx. It includes the Third Avenue, Washington Avenue corridors, from East 163rd to
East 169th Streets.
Health and Human Services:
• The Bronx Health Link is in place to offer assistance to medical providers and patients in
need of their services.
Education and Culture:
• The High School for Law, Government and Justice is operating adjacent to the new criminal
court complex known as Bronx Hall of Justice. The Borough President is currently
advocating for construction of a high school for sports medicine as part of the new Yankee
Stadium plan.
•
Hostos Community College located on the Grand Concourse at East 149th Street offers a
range of adult educational services to all Bronx residents. The Department of Education has
also established seven Beacon Schools within the Bronx Center area, offering a
comprehensive series of educational and after-school activities.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
The Police Academy will be constructed on a Queens site. Due to security concerns the new
court facility has been built as a stand-alone facility. The High School for the study of law,
government and justice is located on the same block adjacent to the court complex. Funding
for an off-site daycare center remains untapped.
•
Few underutilized buildings remain available as a result of the build-out of Melrose
Commons. Two notable exceptions however remain, these include the Beaux Art landmark
court house on East 161st Street at Third Avenue which is under private ownership and Public
School 31 on the Grand Concourse at East 144th Street. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the
courthouse may be used for a charter school. The Borough President has convened a task
force to consider how to best utilize the public school building.
Housing, Open Space and Urban Design:
• Melrose Commons represents a collaborative effort between Nos Quedamos/We Stay, private
developers, Community Boards 1 and 3, and the Bronx Borough President working with
residents to advance the development of a mixed income community by constructing owner
occupied, three family homes, co-op apartments and affordable rental units.
•
As of July 2007 a total of 582 units of new housing is complete and occupied, with an
additional 1,101 units of new housing in construction. Two pending projects, Boricua
Village and Courtlandt Corners will result in an additional 1,224 units of housing within
Melrose Commons. Boricua Village will offer 750 units and Courtlandt Corners provides for
474 units. Approximately 35% of Boricua Village are expected to be low-income units and
approximately 65% moderate and middle income units. Courtlandt Corners will be
composed of 25% very low income units, 50% low income units and 25% moderate income
units. An additional 564 units will be part of future development on sites yet to be identified
by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), yielding a grand total
of 1,770 new housing units.
•
In 2006 zoning changes facilitating the construction of the Gateway Center (on the Bronx
Terminal Market site) were approved. City Planning is now contemplating a study of a
mixed-use zone for the Grand Concourse, from East 138th Street to East 149th Street.
•
In 2007 the City of New York identified a site in Queens for the police academy. Currently
under construction on the Bronx site are four schools, which will share a campus. These new
facilities will add 2,000 seats, including three high schools and one charter school.
•
The Bronx Hall of Justice is 99 percent complete. Due to security reasons (post September
11, 2001) plans to include community service functions, such as an on-site daycare center
were removed from the plan. $2 million was allocated for an off-site community daycare
facility, and an additional $2.6 million for streetscape improvements on East 161st Street,
between the Grand Concourse and Park Avenue. An outdoor garden and passive sitting area
fronting on Morris Avenue is also included. The original proposal to include a high school
for the study of law, government and justice within the new court building were also
modified. The new high school is located in a separate building adjacent to the court
complex. This school was completed in 2003 and is fully functional.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
A comprehensive plan facilitating the relocation of community gardens was adopted in 2005.
This plan allows for the development of additional housing and identifies sites for existing
gardens and additional parkland. In cooperation with community gardeners this effort was
coordinated by Nos Quedamos/We Stay, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the
Bronx Borough President.
•
In 2001 funding was provided by then Councilman Jose Serrano for the installation of
decorative streetlights on Elton Avenue. Despite avid community support, the lighting
selected was rejected by the Art Commission, ordering instead the installation of a fixture
which to date has not been manufactured. Consequently, significant streetscape
improvements remain unfulfilled.
•
During the Giuliani administration Nos Quedamos/We Stay secured funding for the creation
of a planning center in the landmark courthouse. Despite community protest however, the
city sold the building, thereby removing it from the city’s portfolio of properties and quashing
the community’s vision for the site. Although rumors about the building’s future persist, it
remains vacant and unused.
Transportation:
•
The 3rd Avenue-149th Street station serving the 2 and 5 trains, and the 161st Street-Yankee
Stadium station serving the D, B and 4 trains have been reconstructed and are ADA
compliant.
•
In 2006 the Department of City Planning working with the Department of Transportation
and the Bronx Borough President secured a grant for the redesigning and improving
Roberto Clemente Plaza, located on East 149th Street in the Hub. This new plaza will
improve pedestrian and traffic circulation. In 2007, the Department of City PlanningTraffic Management Division completed a traffic study on the 161st Street corridor,
between River Avenue to 3rd Avenue. This study considers existing conditions and
recommends ways by which traffic flow and pedestrian circulation can be improved.
•
In 2005 Metro North Railroad reconstructed the Melrose Station and expanded the
availability of train services for Bronx commuters bound for employment centers in
Westchester County (reverse commuters). The Bronx Borough President continues
working with Metro North officials to expand the availability of railroad service for both
inbound and outbound commuters.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX2
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15, 17, 18
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2, 3, 6, 9
NAME OF PLAN: Decommissioning the Sheridan Expressway
Community Organization: The Point CDC, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (now
members of The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance with Sustainable South Bronx)
Address: 1384 Stratford Avenue, Bronx, New York 10474
Contact Name: Tawkiyah Jordan (YMPJ)
Phone Number: 718-328-2234
Website: http://www.southbronxvision.org/complan.html
TYPE OF PLAN
Open Space and Recreation Plan; Transportation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The 1.25-mile length of the Sheridan Expressway from the Hunts Point Peninsula to the West
Farms neighborhood. The proposed park would be flanked by West Farms Road and Whitlock
Avenue on the west and the Bronx River on the east.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Highway departments gutted parks and neighborhoods in the Bronx throughout the 1940s, 1950s,
and 1960s to accommodate traffic flows between Manhattan, Westchester, and Connecticut. As a
result, Bronx Park, Van Cortlandt Park and Pellham Park all have major highways and
interchanges mixed in with trees, zoos, and ball fields. During this period, the increasing
emphasis on cars reduced attention to community and pedestrian activity.
Bruckner Blvd., for instance, originally resembled the Grand Concourse. An elevated highway
placed above it in 1960 eliminated its scenic quality and pedestrian amenities. The Sheridan
Expressway was one of the highways planned to run north-south through the Bronx linking the
New England Thruway, Cross Bronx Expressway, and Bruckner Expressway. However, the
northern segment of the highway was never built and the existing stretch is of limited use to
drivers. Additionally, the Sheridan's interchange with the Bruckner is poorly designed, and as a
result, cars using both the Bruckner and the Sheridan are stuck in perpetual traffic jams; traffic
accidents occur frequently; local streets are misused by trucks and air and noise pollution are
high.
Currently, use of the Sheridan Expressway is extremely low and continues to decrease. The
Sheridan Expressway runs parallel to the Bronx River Parkway, which is currently under
capacity. The New York State Department of Transportation has proposed "upgrading" the
Sheridan Expressway interchanges and increasing its use at a cost of over $400 million. There are
numerous local problems with truck traffic, including documented issues of health and safety.
The Sheridan passes in front of four schools; separates the community from the Bronx River and
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Starlight Park; sends large quantities of truck traffic onto residential streets. Accident rates at the
Sheridan-Bruckner Interchange are twice as high as or higher than the statewide average and
asthma rates in Hunt's Point are among the highest in the city. The South Bronx has twenty acres
of parkland and nearly 40,000 residents. Three out of ten residents have access to cars. The
Sheridan Expressway covers 28-acres, which is almost four times as large as the largest park in
Community Board 2.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Increase the amount of open space available to the residents of the South Bronx.
• Enhance the Bronx River Greenway.
• Reduce truck traffic on residential streets in Hunts Point.
• Reduce accident rates on the highways.
• Improve level of service on the roadways approaching the interchange and on the local
highway system.
• Provide a safe and direct connection to Hunts Point Food Distribution Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Convert the Sheridan Expressway into a new park. The park would be flanked by West Farms
Road and Whitlock Avenue on the west and the Bronx River on the east. The park would
connect the Bronx River Houses Park and Starlight Park on its east side and Daniel Boone
Playground on the west. At its southern end, the park would link into Bruckner Boulevard,
continuing south over the drawbridge and south to the Soundview neighborhood as well as
Hunts Point.
•
Build new ramps from the Bruckner Expressway to Leggett Avenue.
•
Reroute trucks to Hunt's Point Market on a loop running from the Bruckner Expressway onto
Leggett Avenue and continuing to East Bay Avenue and back to the Bruckner Expressway on
Edgewater Road.
•
Install traffic calming devices such as speed bumps, neck downs, and mini-traffic circles to
prevent trucks from using residential streets. These devices should be placed at the entrance
to each of the streets along the new truck route.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The State DOT will perform an environmental impact study on the two interchange projects.
•
•
The State DOT will choose options to include in its study as the first phase of the
environmental impact statement preparation; it must be ensured that this plan is one of the
options studied.
•
Several elected officials and community organizations have supported inclusion in the EIS of
the proposal to decommission the Sheridan Expressway for a park. Mayoral support is key.
•
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (a federal agency) has agreed to model
the impacts of taking down the Sheridan in a study beginning in September 2001.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
There have been ongoing meetings on the plan with the State DOT in which numerous
community organizations have participated. Design workshops have been held by the Youth
Ministries for Peace and Justice and The Point Community Development Corporation that have
attracted several hundred-community members. Fliers in Spanish and English have been
distributed about the plan and associated workshops in housing near the highways. Youth
Ministries for Peace and Justice conducted a survey of 500 residents' to obtain their own opinion
on the Sheridan Expressway and its future uses in 2001. At a rally held in 2001 regarding the
Greenway and development of the Greenway the future use of the Sheridan Expressway was
discussed. Press outreach has been done aggressively, and all local papers have covered the story
at least half dozen a times, and citywide daily papers have also covered the proposal. The
planners have attended community board meetings and have presented their proposal at three of
the four community boards that house the Sheridan Expressway. Community Board 2 made a
resolution that the Sheridan Park proposal should be included in the State DOT's EIS.
PARTNERS
The elected officials and community organizations that have worked with The Point and Youth
Ministries for Peace and Justice and support the inclusion of the Sheridan Park proposal in the
EIS include: former State Senator Rosado; Assembly Member Diaz, Jr.; Council Member
Carrion; Partnership for Parks; The Bronx River Working Group; Tri-State Transportation
Campaign; We Stay/Nos Quedamos Committee; the New York City Environmental Justice
Alliance; Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, and more than a
dozen community and environmental groups.
OBSTACLES
• The State DOT claimed that they would begin the EIS of the Sheridan proposals in 1998. In
2001, they still had not begun the process. These continual delays have made it more difficult
for the community organizations pushing for the Sheridan Park proposal to keep community
members involved.
• NY State DOT has now agreed to include the Sheridan Park proposal in their EIS. The next
challenge is to ensure that they recommend the proposal for implementation.
• NY State DOT is currently very busy with work on the Cross Bronx Expressway and the
Major Deegan Expressway.
• The recent State Transportation Bond Act did not pass, and so the State DOT does not have
approximately $1.7 billion that they thought they would have.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1998
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
DATE SUBMITTED: 1998
SUBMITTED TO
Community Board and NY State DOT
CITY ACTION?
After much hard work on the part of local community groups and supporters, NYSDOT
announced in August 2003 that it would include the Community Plan as an alternative in the
Environmental Impact Study it is conducting on the Bruckner-Sheridan Interchange. This is very
positive – it means that NYSDOT will compare the environmental impacts of its original proposal
with those of the community plan. The study will use computer simulations to look at how well
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
traffic would move if either plan was built. SBRWA wants to make sure that the study also
compares the impacts of the alternatives on people’s health, on the environment, and on the future
development of the area. In June 2007, the state department of transportation agreed to bring the
community plans to remove the Sheridan into the Draft EIS phase of the study which is where a
more serious consideration of the highway’s removal will studied as a real option by the state’s
consultants.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Mayor could call for an EIS to be done by the City Department of Parks and Recreation or
the Department of Environmental Protection on the proposal to convert the Sheridan Expressway
into a park.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX3
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2
NAME OF PLAN: Draft Hunts Point 197-a Plan
Community Organization: Sustainable South Bronx/The Point CDC
Address: 940 Garrison Avenue, Bronx, NY 10474
Contact Name: Paul Lipson, The Point and Joan Byron, Pratt Center for Community
Development
Phone Number: 718.542.4139 (PL), 718.636.386 ex.6447 (JB)
Website: www.thepoint.org
TYPE OF PLAN
197-a
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Hunts Point peninsula is located in Community District 2. The peninsula is bounded by the
Bruckner Expressway to the west and north, the Bronx River to the northeast, and the East River
on the southeast and south.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Hunts Point is a one square mile peninsula located in the South Bronx. Community District 2, in
which Hunts Point is located, is populated by a majority of people of color. 79% of CD2's
residents are Hispanic and 19% are African-American. The median household income is only
$9900 and more than 65% of all children in the district live in poverty. Over 39,000 people live
in CD2, however fewer than 10,000 people live on the Hunts Point peninsula.
The 1970's and early 1980's were difficult times for Hunts Point residents. Plagued by arson and
absentee landlords, Hunts Point became notorious as a symbol of urban decay. However, the late
1980's and 1990's brought a new era of rebirth.
Unfortunately, outdated zoning regulations have resulted in Hunts Point becoming inundated by
heavy and often noxious industries. Hunts Point is home to nearly 15 transfer stations, a sewage
treatment plant, NYOFCO-a sewage sludge pelletization plant, and dozens of scrap metal and
auto yards. Nearly two-thirds of the city's sludge and over 40% of Manhattan's commercial waste
is processed in the community. Hunts Point is also a center for food-related businesses, including
the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. The Hunts Point Market is the largest food distribution
center in the world, handling 80% of the region's produce and 40% of its meat. All of these
industries generate more than 20,000 diesel truck trips each week. In addition, Hunts Point is
bordered on one side by the Bruckner Expressway, as well as the nearby Cross-Bronx, Major
Deegan, and Sheridan Expressways and has one of the highest asthma rates in the world.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Hunts Point is also a neighborhood with one of the smallest resident to parkland ratios in New
York City. It contains approximately six miles worth of waterfront offering some of New York
City's most extraordinary views of the Manhattan skyline and the Long Island Sound. Yet it has
only 200 feet of legal access to the three bodies of water that surround it. Furthermore,
Community District 2 only has less than half an acre of parkland per 1,000 people, compared to
the National Parks Service recommendation of 6 acres per 1,000 people.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Encourage land use and development strategies that will make Hunts Point a safe and
healthful place to live and work while supporting economic development that is
environmentally sustainable and that offers opportunities for local entrepreneurship and for
living-wage employment to residents and non-residents alike.
• Provide residents, workers and employers with improved air quality and opportunities for
recreation, as well as supporting diversification of the local economy by building on the
area's natural and cultural attractions.
• Inclusion of the South Bronx into the New York City Greenway System.
• Reduce the impacts of noxious environmental uses.
• Encourage the preservation and development of the community's rich cultural, natural, and
historical resources.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Develop and implement Fulton Fish Market Mitigation Plan
► Utilize electric or clean-fuel vehicles for all yard operations.
► Promote conversion of customer fleet by providing loaner/demo vehicles.
► Electrification of bays for all loading/unloading and queued trucks.
► Minimize dependence on car use by market personnel--extend BX 6 bus service and
increase frequency of service, particularly during hours employees would utilize it.
Provide bike lanes at market access points and safe bike parking on site. Reduce the size
of the proposed car parking lot, and eliminate all car parking directly along the water's
edge.
► Aggressively promote replacement of customer and vendor diesel trucks by providing an
onsite showroom and sales location for clean-fuel vehicles and financial assistance for
leasing or purchasing.
► Coordination with truck control efforts now in planning or implementation.
► Conduct aggressive and ongoing education of drivers, buyers, and vendors about
designated truck routes.
► Cooperate with truck enforcement efforts, and coordinate planning with traffic calming
and signage improvements now being planned and implemented.
► Provide signals and protected crossing at greenway sites on Edgewater Road.
•
Renovate the Hunts Point Station and improve public transportation options for
workforce
► Reactivate passenger service on the Hell Gate Line at Hunts Point Station, providing
direct rail service to Westchester, Connecticut, and Queens, including increased service
for "reverse-commute" to open economic opportunities in the suburbs for South Bronx
residents.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Creation of the South Bronx Greenway
► Build a continuous bike/pedestrian greenway around the South Bronx waterfront,
beginning at a vacant site abutting the Bruckner Expressway which is being proposed as a
large scale sculpture park; traveling on-street to the Hunts Point Riverside Park at
Lafayette Avenue; then along the perimeter of Hunts Point and a currently vacant
waterfront property that straddles both Hunts Point and the neighboring community of
Port Morris; and concluding at Randall’s Island.
► Continue the development of the Hunts Point Riverside Park.
► Build a pedestrian bridge to Soundview Park.
► Decommission the Sheridan Expressway (See Sheridan Plan).
► Develop a park, recreation area, and waterfront esplanade at Barretto Point, a vacant 13acre waterfront site and the Tiffany Pier.
•
Create environmentally sustainable economic development along the waterfront,
including:
► River Market - construct and lease space for the operation of a retail food market on
approximately 40,000 square feet of existing unused impound area north and east of the
rail lines in HP Market, adjoining the Hunts Point Riverside Park. The River Market will
afford Hunts Point residents, as well as visitors and residents of surrounding
communities, access to the unparalleled range of fresh food now distributed at the
wholesale markets.
► The Factory Boathouse/Ecology Center - acquire and redevelop 10,000 sq ft. commercial
building on Lafayette Avenue, directly north of the market, for multiple water-related
commercial and community uses. Possible end uses include: Recycle-A-Bike, canoe and
kayak rental, café, gym, crew camp, Save the Sound Bronx office, and space for green
business ventures. Partial funding has already been committed by Congressman Jose
Serrano. (Contact Majora Carter for full proposal)
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
• Continue to build political support for the proposals.
• Secure funding for individual projects and continue to build existing projects.
• Continue to implement programs through community projects and grassroots organizing.
• Finalize 197(a) Plan and submit to City Planning.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Monthly meetings and planning charettes have been held at The Point as well as other locations
since 1998. Attendance at the meetings includes homeowners, tenants, business owners, and other
community stakeholders.
PARTNERS
The Plan has been developed through coalition work with The Point CDC, SEBCO, Congressman
Jose Serrano, Assemblyman Rubin Diaz, Jr., Pratt Center for Community Development
OBSTACLES
The City has numerous plans for the neighborhood that contradict the visions of the community.
The prevalence of waste transfer and other polluting facilities make development of cleaner
industries more difficult. Funding is needed to implement projects. Additionally, the city
currently plans to build a 2,000 jail at the 28-acre Oak Point site, which is inconsistent with other
community and city visioning processes, including Hunts Point Vision Plan and the South Bronx
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Greenway Plan. Lastly, the Department of Environmental Protection is expanding the sewage
treatment facility. The new digesters will create shadows in the newly built park, which
contradicts the communities hope for the park space as being fully functional.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1998
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED:
SUBMITTED TO
CITY ACTION?
Pieces of the plan have been endorsed by the Deputy Mayor Office, the Bronx Borough President
Office, and the Hunts Point Market. They have supported the Greenway-mixed use/open space
component of the plan. A majority of these endorsements started in February 2003. The City and
NYMTEC are studying ferry freight as indicated in the plan that will reduce truck traffic. The
City has also directed a study of a Wholesale Public Marketplace. The city has approved the
South Bronx Greenway plan in December of 2006. The first phases of the plan will be
implemented in spring of 2008. The city is also looking into re-zoning sections of Hunts Point to
conform to the Hunts Point Vision Plan.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Although sections of the plan are in progress, the plan has not yet been finalized or submitted. A
new charter school for the arts is locating in the industrial area, which would indicate the push
towards more mixed uses in the future. New truck routes that do not congest the residential
corridor of Garrison Avenue are going to be implemented by January 2004. The greenway
portion of the plan became integrated into the South Bronx Greenway planning process, which
was approved by the city in December 2006, and certain conflicts that were identified through the
plan were addressed in the Hunts Point Vision Plan and are now being implemented.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX4
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15, 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 3
NAME OF PLAN: Partnership for the Future Plan
Community Organization: Bronx Community Board 3
Address: 1426 Boston Road, Bronx, NY 10456
Contact Name: John Dudley (District Mgr.), Gloria Alston
Phone Number: 718.378.8054
TYPE OF PLAN
197-a
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Bronx Community District 3 is located in the center of the Borough, bordered on the north by the
Cross Bronx Expressway, on the west by Webster and Courtlandt avenues, on the east by the
Sheridan Expressway and Prospect Avenue (south of 169th Street) and on the south by 161st and
159th streets. It includes the neighborhoods of Melrose, Morrisania, Claremont, Crotona Park
East and Woodstock.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Bronx Community District 3 has undergone extensive demographic and physical change since
1950. Population declined from over 150,000 in 1960 to approximately 54,000 in 1980.
Abandonment, arson, and demolition contributed to a decline in the housing stock from over
46,000 dwelling units in 1970 to less then 21,000 in 1980, leaving 1,500 vacant lots, hundreds of
vacant buildings and half the population concentrated in high-rise public housing. The population
increased slightly to 58,000 by 1990, but dwelling units declined by seven percent.
Between 1950 and 1990 the district's racial and ethnic mix changed considerably: whites dropped
from 54 percent to less than one percent of the population, while the proportion of blacks
increased from 36 percent to 54 percent and Hispanics increased four-fold from 10 percent to 43
percent. Income levels declined substantially to less than half the citywide median in 1990 the
area ranked 57th out of 59 community districts in terms of family income. Almost half the
population in the district receives some form of public assistance and more than half of all
families are headed by women with incomes below the poverty line.
GOALS OF PLAN
• To re-establish the district as a dynamic, viable community.
• To increase the population of the district to 100,000, by the year 2000.
• To provide a viable economic base for the community through the provision of job training,
and the creation of labor-intensive opportunities.
• To maintain, develop and expand the supporting infrastructure of the district.
• To maintain the parks and recreation areas throughout the district.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Below is a partial list of recommendations made in the plan:
• Housing
► Encourage mixed-income occupancy in city-owned buildings programmed for
rehabilitation.
► Developing on all vacant land to help the district reach its goal of doubling its population
over the next ten years.
► Preserve structurally sound housing by maintaining the existing housing stock and
upgrading public housing and in-rem properties.
► Develop higher density buildings on sites specified in the plan.
•
Land Use and Zoning
► Undertake a zoning study to examine the feasibility of five changes specified in the plan
in order to provide opportunities for residential and commercial development, to stabilize
existing residential districts and offer opportunities for larger scale housing.
•
Sanitation
► Strengthen programs for the cleaning and fencing of vacant lots, requiring that lots be
enclosed when cleared for development.
► Develop an intensive educational campaign in collaboration with local schools to
promote recycling in the district's high rise-apartments, particularly in public housing.
► Obtain funds to build rat-proof enclosures on Housing Authority grounds to hold
recyclables.
•
Public Safety
The City should assign increased personnel adequate to combat high crime levels in the
42nd Precinct.
►
•
Education
► Development decisions should be planned to maximize student feeder patterns in blocks
surrounding schools.
► School space should be made available for community use from the end of classes until
seven p.m.
► Special partnerships should be reestablished to use nearby park facilities to supplement
school teams and classes.
•
Economic Development
► Revitalize commercial strips along East 174th Street, McKinley Square, Prospect
Avenue, and East 161st Street to provide adequate local retail services.
► Develop job training and placement facilities tied to increased education preparation and
growth sectors of the economy.
► Ensure adequate financing for small businesses to start and grow in the Bronx.
•
Open Space
► Develop open space in tandem with residential redevelopment projects.
► Develop a greenway via linear parks and bikeways along transportation corridors to link
Crotona Park to the borough's major parks, waterfront, and cultural and education
institutions.
► Use Crotona Park as a learning environment supplementary to community schools.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Transportation
► Increase signage for bus service, street marking and crosswalks, traffic lights and
controls, space for off-street parking, and expanding transit opportunities for the elderly
and disabled.
•
Health and Social Services
► Formulate a job training and development strategy to identify career fields that offer
opportunities for advancement.
► Conduct an assessment of health and social service needs.
► Provide a community referral service center to assist in promoting access to available
services and service providers.
► Develop multi-service community centers in the local public schools.
► Expand day care slots and hours of operation.
► Provide access to primary maternity, pediatrics, and comprehensive family care and
planning services, with an emphasis on preventative care.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Bronx Community Board 3's plan was the first 197-a plan to be passed by the City Planning
Commission, Eugenia M. Flatow and Harry DiRienzo, the Project Directors of the plan at the
time, noted that the 197-a plan process was not as much a public process as it is today. However,
The Parodneck Foundation, the consultant hired for the plan, did hold two public meetings
notifying the community about the plan (inviting them to meet with the community board about
the plan) and to outline the draft once it was completed, and conducted extensive community
outreach with local institutions as well as public agencies that served the area in drafting the plan.
PARTNERS
Bronx Community Board 3, The Parodneck Foundation, Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, NYC
Department of City Planning
OBSTACLES
While The Consumer-Farmers Foundation, the consultant for the project, was able to get some
agencies to work with them on carrying through some of the recommendations, others were
unwilling to work with them. Developing the housing recommended in the plan also presented a
problem because of the limited resources available to them at that time. In addition, the
community board had wanted to conduct an analysis of the recommendations and what actually
got implemented and had plans to do so in cooperation with DCP, however their planning liaison
left before they could complete the study.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1989
FORMAL PLAN? YES
SUBMITTED TO
Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
City Council adopted the plan in November 1991.
DATE SUBMITTED: 1991
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
NYC Department of City Planning is now moving forward with the implementation of the M1
area rezoning.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX5
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1, 3
NAME OF PLAN: Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan
Community Organization: Nos Quedamos Committee with NYC Dept of Housing Preservation
and Development and NYC Dept of City Planning
Address: 811 Courtlandt Avenue, Bronx, NY 10451
Contact Name: Yolanda Gonzalez
Phone Number: 718.585.2323
TYPE OF PLAN
Housing Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Melrose Commons is a 30-block Urban Renewal Area located in the South Bronx. It is bounded
by Park Avenue on the west, Brook Avenue on the east, East 163rd Street on the North, and East
156th Street on the south.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Area, a 30-block area in the South Bronx with a large
concentration of city-owned property, was originally conceived of by the City as a place in which
to create a new middle-income, home-ownership-based community. Plans along these lines were
developed by the Departments of City Planning and Housing Preservation and Development in
the late 1980's. In August 1990 the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for those
plans was issued. According to the DEIS, the plan called for the creation of 2,600 units of new,
middle-income housing, 250,000 square feet of commercial space, a centrally-located 4-acre
park, and a realignment of the street system in the northeastern corner of the area to a 90-degree
grid system. It also identified 78 homeowners, 400 tenants, and 80 businesses with 550
employees to be displaced in order to implement the plan.
The Melrose community is home to approximately 6,000 people and has a median family income
of under $12,000 a year. At no time during the City's planning process were the residents
consulted as to how they saw the future of their community. Although no formal presentation
had been made to them, the community was aware of the plan and knew that it would lead to a
certain amount of displacement. Rumors began circulating that the City was going to bulldoze
the existing neighborhood and build new housing that would be unaffordable to the majority of
community residents. It became clear that the residents and businesses that had survived the
devastation of the South Bronx in the 1970s were expendable in the City's program for
redevelopment.
A public forum to discuss pending developments in the area, organized by the Bronx Center
Project, took place on November 12, 1992. At this time an announcement was made that the
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Urban Renewal Plan was in the process of being certified. A number of community residentshomeowners, tenants, and businesses used this forum to vent their anger at the plan to displace
them and take their neighborhood, and to express their outrage at being betrayed by their elected
officials and the city agencies. Without input into what was to become of their community, they
were left without the means to plan for their future. They saw their longtime investments in the
community being devalued and rendered worthless, and opportunities for growth, employment,
and an improved neighborhood being denied to them. They demanded that any new development
slated for the area include them.
Home owners, business owners, and tenants united, and began to hold meetings to inform and
organize additional community residents. A turning point occurred as Bronx Center Project
representatives began to actively explore the opposition to the Urban Renewal Plan and question
why a seemingly homogenous community would mobilize to stop the plan. According to
Yolanda Garcia, chair of the We Stay/Nos Quedamos Committee, "when members of our
community realized the potential devastation that awaited our area, homeowners, business
owners, and tenants alike joined forces and proclaimed that this proposed Urban Renewal Plan
would not be certified. It was clear to us that our community would be yanked by its roots and
cast aside. City agencies had once again determined our fate without ever engaging in
conversation with the people who were to be directly affected. The need to clarify that the
community was not opposed to prosperity, that indeed we welcomed development, was our first
issue. We set out to make it perfectly clear to all who criticized our actions that we desired to be
an integral part of the long awaited prosperity by remaining home owners, business owners, and
residents of the Melrose Community.
In the proposed Urban Renewal Plan, our community was to be displaced, thereby removing the
very same people who had weathered the abandonment of all aids and money throughout the past
decades. These were the same community residents who had taken on the awesome
responsibility of protecting their homes, businesses, and ultimately 'THEIR COMMUNITY.' The
Urban Renewal Plan removed us from prosperity and made way for new residents who would
reap the rewards of our sacrifices. The idea that prosperity meant our community residents had to
be sacrificed was inconceivable. We had to be a part of the prosperity. We Stay/Nos Quedamos
is not only the name of our committee, but our mission statement."
GOALS OF PLAN
• To make Melrose Commons self-sustaining.
• Ensure the continued participation of the community.
• Outline procedures and establish standards for quality.
• Outline procedures and establish standards for the environment.
• Outline procedures and establish standards for design.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Build approximately 1700 units of new housing.
• Create 250,000 square feet of commercial space.
• Create 250,000 square feet of community facility space.
• Create 4 acres of open space distributed across 63 development sites.
• Housing will be woven into the fabric of the existing community; varied types of buildings,
allowing different scales to be developed.
• Housing units will include off street parking but not between homes and the public
sidewalks/streets.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Los Jardines, 40 units of new rental housing.
La Puerta De Vitalidad, 60 units with community health facility on ground floor.
HUD 202, La Casa De Felicidad, 85 units, 8-story senior citizens residence.
La Plaza de Los Angeles, 36 new three family houses.
Melrose Arms, proposed mixed-use residential and commercial building, as well as other
mixed-use development.
Nos Quedamos Townhouse and Co-Housing Development.
Town Center-restoration of two abandoned landmark courthouses for new civic, community,
educational, and cultural uses; the former YMCA containing a swimming pool, running track,
and playing surfaces should be returned to community use; close sections of Brook Avenue
and East 162nd Street to vehicular traffic to provide sufficient land mass to create a
pedestrian mall and plaza off which new community, educational, cultural, and entertainment
uses could occur.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The We Stay/Nos Quedamos Committee was organized in February 1993.
The Committee was made up of homeowners, business owners, and tenants from the community.
Nos Quedamos undertook the responsibility for developing the community's proposal for a new
plan. They held working sections in a space in the community donated by a local resident. Biweekly evening meetings were conducted in the basement of a local church to keep residents
informed of the progress and to allow the broadest opportunity for discussion and involvement in
the development of the new plan. Every Tuesday, Nos Quedamos met (and still does) at their
headquarters at 811 Courtlandt Avenue.
PARTNERS
With the help of Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, a collaborative effort between the
community and government agencies commenced to redraft the Urban Renewal Plan for the
Melrose community. Participants in this coalition included the affected community as
represented by Nos Quedamos, the Departments of City Planning, Housing Preservation and
Development, Transportation, and Environmental Protection, the Bronx Borough President's
Office, the Mayor's Office, and the office of Congressman Jose Serrano. Design and technical
support were provided by Magnusson Architecture and Planning, Weintraub and Didomenico,
and Philip Habib and Associates. Planning and organizing support were provided by the Urban
Assembly, the Parodneck Foundation, and Pratt Institute Center for Community and
Environmental Development
OBSTACLES
The City had planned an Urban Renewal Area that would have displaced the existing community.
The residents and business owners in the community had to fight to force the City to include them
in the plan and the planning process.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
SUBMITTED TO
Mayor’s Office, Department of City Planning, City Council
CITY ACTION?
The plan was amended by DCP, and the amended version was then overturned by the City
Council. As a result, the original plan was approved.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
Amended by the Department of City Planning.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX6
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 16
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 3
NAME OF PLAN: Claremont Village: Creating a Public Housing Community
Community Organization: The Residents of Claremont Village
Address: 307 West 38th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018
Contact Name: Mike Goldblum
Phone Number: 212.279.1507
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan; Housing Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Claremont Village, in the Morrisania section of the Bronx.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Claremont Village is made up of thirty buildings in four separate developments: Gouverneur
Morris Houses, Borgia Butler Houses, Daniel Webster Houses, and Morrisania Houses. These
developments are home to 16,000 people though estimates that take into account significant
overcrowding put this number at 25,000 to 35,000 residents in 4,191 apartments.
All four developments suffer from problems typical of public housing: bleak high-rise design
seems to have inhibited neighborly vigilance and invigorating community life. Litter, broken
glass and criminal activity prevent many residents from comfortably using the open green spaces
and playgrounds in the developments.
Morrisania is a beleaguered but recovering area in the South Bronx, a place that had by the 1980s
lost over half of its population to suburban flight and urban decay. New low-rise housing is
reclaiming abandoned buildings and brick-strewn lots. These and older renovated and
unrenovated tenements are interspersed with homeless shelters, car repair garages and industrial
parks. The school district is one of the city's most troubled. Local hospitals are over stressed and
underfunded, and other community services are equally taxed.
GOALS OF PLAN
To foster the growth of a strong, effective community at Claremont Village.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Safety and Quality of Life
► Improve tenant patrols through in-house security guards, training and oversight of tenant
patrollers, varied patrols, and police coordination with patrollers.
► Enhance police presence through bringing special auxiliary troops to Claremont Village
and more proactive community policing and community work by police.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
►
Redesign the lobbies of the buildings to be more functional and cheerful. Redesign
should include: adding built-in tenant patrol desks, improving lighting, providing the
community with bulletin boards, testing new magnetic doors, and a commitment to repair
vandalism within hours—day or night.
Improve streets and traffic in neighborhoods by adding traffic lights at points of
pedestrian crossing, reconfiguring Park Avenue to slow down its long blocks, adding
street lights, and relocating interior parking to diagonal on-street strips.
•
The Urban Environment
► Add low-rise perimeter structures to house retail and community service facilities and
improve safety.
► Redesign recreational spaces to produce a balanced use of existing space. Changes should
include: developing a new indoor recreational facility, rebuilding Morris Pool in-ground,
regarding Morris Baseball Field.
► Improve system for dealing with garbage and litter by centralizing and sealing collection
areas, eliminating dumpsters, educating people about littering, and installing highefficiency compactors.
► Reopen Metro-North Train Stations to link residents with the city and the suburbs.
•
Resident Involvement
► Restore a meaningful income mix, but not at the expense of a net loss in valuable
subsidized units. This can be done by not raising rents onerously and encouraging
residents who succeed to stay in public housing. Those who have options in the open
market should be offered units with amenities and subsidized prices.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
• Work to secure funding for plan from HUD-funded programs like HOPE VI and Moving to
Work.
• NYCHA can implement program-related recommendations quickly if they incorporate
community input throughout the process.
•
Resident Involvement
► Employ ombudsmen/advocates to work with residents to realize their aims, navigate
NYCHA and city bureaucracy, and develop new resources.
► Bring youth into the community by enlisting young people in meaningful community
reconstruction.
► Contact new residents before they arrive, inform them of development rules, and recruit
them to be involved in community programs.
► Support resident initiatives to broaden resident involvement and promote neighborhood
pride. This could be done through a Village Journal, adult education classes, and victory
gardens.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The MAS Fellows began by meeting with the New York Housing City Authority in 1991. They
then met with Bronx Community Board 3 and the Bronx South Tenant Advisory Council and set
up meetings with residents of the Claremont Village. Throughout 1992 the members of the joint
MAS/Claremont Village committee met regularly at Claremont Village to reach out to a variety
of residents and constituencies. Out of these focus groups and public meetings came the
recommendations in their report.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Meetings had varying formats and divergent attendances: some were structured, with maps and
outlined; some were open-ended discussions of problems and solutions. Through the various
meetings, the participants were urged to come up with their own solutions for the problems they
cited, and to debate the efficacy and practicality of these ideas with each other.
Special efforts were made to hear from populations underrepresented in most other meetings:
young people, the elderly, adult men and Latino residents were specifically solicited. Meetings
were held in several different locations in Claremont Village. The committee also met with
representatives from other groups involved in the Morrisania community and in city-wide
housing reform, including tenant organizations, developers, and local business-owners.
PARTNERS
The Residents of Claremont Village; The Municipal Art Society; Bronx Borough President and
several elected officials.
OBSTACLES
Many disparate parties, agencies, and constituencies must be brought together.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1991
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 1992
SUBMITTED TO
The Residents of Claremont Village
CITY ACTION?
Public meetings at which the plan was presented to residents at New York City Housing
Authority.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Pilot Program: redesign and reconstruction of Morrisania Houses Playground. A residentintensive design worked on by NYCHA in-house design department and youth of Morrisania
Houses was built in 1993-94. The full plan was received by both politicians and the community.
It was felt that the community should take the lead on the plan, unfortunately that process never
took place, and the residents did not pick up the leadership of this particular plan.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX7
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 6
NAME OF PLAN: West Farms CCRP
Community Organization: West Farms Task Force, Phipps CDC
Address: 902 Broadway, New York, NY 10010
Contact Name: Stephen Tosh
Phone Number: 212.243.9090
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
West Farms is located almost precisely at the geographic center of the Bronx, in Community
District 6. It is bounded on the north by Bronx Park, on the east by the Bronx River and the
Sheridan Expressway, on the south by the Cross Bronx Expressway, and on the west by Southern
Boulevard.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
West Farms is a well-defined neighborhood of approximately 14,000 residents. The population is
72% Hispanic, 27.5% African-American, and .05% non-Hispanic white. The neighborhood has
gone through enormous changes during the past quarter-century. During the 1970s,
disinvestments occurred on a devastating scale. Numerous apartment buildings were lost to fires
and general neglect; 1,700 housing units were destroyed and the neighborhood's population
dropped by 44%. In sharp contrast, the past decade has been one of considerable reinvestment.
Once vacant apartment buildings have been renovated, and blocks of new row houses have been
built. More than 500 new housing units have been created and occupied.
West Farms still has dozens of vacant lots, which must be converted to housing, parkland, and
other productive uses. The population as a whole has limited job skills and low incomes. There is
a high demand for medical care, childcare, and adult education, and facilities must be created for
these services. The neighborhood is still heavily impacted by crime, and its streets and other
public places must be made safer. The hundreds of new west Farms residents must be integrated
into a functioning community with stores, playgrounds, and other amenities and a strong sense of
identity.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Create additional housing, open space and recreation areas, new community facilities and
programs including health and educational.
• Create new economic and employment opportunities.
• Improve public safety.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Develop mid-rise apartment buildings with ground floor commercial space on traditional
shopping streets.
• Build mostly owner-occupied row houses with backyards.
• Create safe, usable open spaces, throughout the neighborhood serving all age groups.
• All suitable City-owned vacant parcels should be considered for recreational use before they
are conveyed or designated for any other purpose.
• New open spaces should have organizational sponsors-tenant associations, block associations,
or community groups to both maintain and police the space.
• Create two larger City parks: one should be a new central park, with a ball field and other
active recreational facilities, on East 180th Street between Daly and Vyse Avenues; the other
should involve an expansion of the Crotona Parkway malls, created by closing Crotona
Parkway to traffic, that would contain areas programmed for such specific activities as bocce,
checkers, rollerblading, and wading.
• The City should designate certain blocks as "play streets," which are closed to traffic during
set hours.
• Create educational and training programs, daycare, and after-school programs.
• So that single mothers can be free to work, after-school programs should be established at the
public schools, and temporary daycare facilities should be erected on vacant lots until daycare
space can be provided in new apartment buildings.
• Increased educational opportunities such as Head Start programs for preschoolers to
mentoring programs and school-institutional linkages that will enrich children's public school
education to job training, reading skills, and English language programs for adults.
• Strengthen the East Tremont Avenue retail corridor to promote family-run retail businesses;
this strip should be physically and organizationally linked to the far stronger East Tremont
retail strip to the west.
• State Department of Transportation should consider selling a small parking lot at East
Tremont and Devoe Avenues for development as a restaurant with landscaping improvements
and outdoor dining overlooking the adjacent Bronx River.
• Increase police presence by building a satellite precinct or providing a mobile van.
• Improve street and walkway lighting and clearer unobstructed sight lines in public areas and
housing project grounds.
• To make the intersection of Boston Road, East Tremont Avenue, and West Farms Road safer,
traffic lights should be retimed, crosswalk lines should be repainted, a school crossing guard
should be stationed at the intersection, and both West Farms Road south of the intersection
and Boston Road north of it should be made one-way northbound.
• Vacant lots should be cleaned and fenced.
• Streets in need of repair should be resurfaced and receive new sidewalks, and a street tree
planting program should be undertaken.
• Additional community gardens should be created.
• Return West Farms Square to a strong community hub, though physical improvement and the
location of government, health, and cultural facilities.
• Create a more meaningful connection between the neighborhood and the Bronx Zoo for
visitors: renovate the el station, with identifying signage and photograph and murals of
animals; transform the pedestrian approach from the station to the zoo into a festive
"zooway," with street trees, benches, painted animal tracks on sidewalks, and painted animal
silhouettes on adjacent street walls.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Establish easily implemented projects first (immediately) followed by longer-term project.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Neighborhood residents, business people, and service providers undertook the planning effort.
Local schools, community groups, and interested individuals participated in a Task Force that met
from September 1993 through February 1994. Community meetings attended by close to 200
residents informed the Task Force’s work. Task Force members led community workshops,
while professional planners served as technical assistance providers. Over 5,000 flyers were
distributed for the workshops.
PARTNERS
Community residents, Aquinas Housing Corporation, Bathgate Industrial Park LDC, Abeles,
Phillips, Preiss & Shapiro Planners, Beck Memorial Presbyterian Church, Cardinal McCloskey
Day Care Center, Changing Direction, Federation of Hondouran Organizations in NY,
Fordham/Tremont Mental Health Center, 48th Precinct, Montefiore Ambulatory Care Network,
New York Botanical Garden Bronx Green-up Program, New York Public Library/West Farms
Branch, Phipps Community Development Corporation, Phipps Houses, and St. Barnabas
Hospital.
OBSTACLES
The City has several plans for the neighborhood that do not take a comprehensive, sustainable
planning approach to dealing with neighborhood issues.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
As recommended, the large full-service park was created by the Parks Department on 180th Street
between Daly and Vyse Avenues. There are a number of organized recreational programs for
youth and teens and the park is extensively used by local residents and daycare programs.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Additional mid-rise apartment buildings and owner-occupied row houses have been constructed,
providing increased affordable housing in the community.
A number of new afterschool programs, a summer day camp, and two Head Start Centers have
been created.
A ‘storefront’ Community Technology and Career Center that offers adult basic education, ESL,
GED, computer classes and workforce development programs was created in the commercial
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
center on East Tremont and Boston Road. Collaboration with local community groups, the
community board, and the NYPD led to a significant decrease in the crime rate and improvements
in public safety. Planning for the Bronx River Greenway involved significant collaboration
between local community organizations, advocacy groups, and public entities.
To create a more meaningful connection between the neighborhood and the Bronx Zoo for
visitors, the elevated train station was renovated with identifying signage and stained glasses
depictions of animals. In addition, the pedestrian approach from the station to the zoo was turned
into a “zooway," with signage and animal tracks on sidewalks.
Additional community gardens have been created and Phipps’ Drew Gardens along the Bronx
River at East Tremont has been further developed and turned into a state of the art educational
center with two full time horticulturalists. A farmers market was created as a component of Drew
Gardens offering fresh organic produce throughout the growing season.
Overall, there were significant improvements to the community through the ongoing
collaboration of public officials, local community groups and residents, under the leadership of
the community board.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX8
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 11
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 8
NAME OF PLAN: Jerome Park Reservoir Plan
Community Organization: Jerome Park Conservancy
Address: 3965 Sedgwick Ave, 1C, Bronx, NY 10463
Contact Name: Anne Marie Garti
Phone Number: 718.884.7864
TYPE OF PLAN
Open Space and Recreation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Jerome Park Reservoir is bounded on the north and west by Sedgwick Avenue, on the
southwest by Reservoir Avenue, and on the east by Goulden Avenue.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The Jerome Park neighborhood is a thriving residential community with a large, diverse
population, and many culturally and historically significant landmarks. It is located in the
Northwest corner of the Bronx. There are several major schools in the area including DeWitt
Clinton High School, Bronx High School of Science, and Hunter College (now Lehman College),
with 25,000 students attending school around the reservoir. The Kingsbridge Armory, another
historic building, is also located near the reservoir. The Jerome Park area was originally designed
by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. A proposal in the mid-1990s by the
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to construct the Croton Water Treatment Plant on
the Jerome Park Reservoir fueled renewed interest in revitalizing the area. Residents believed that
the plant would have destroyed the environment, scenic value, and historical significance of the
area, as well as jeopardized the health and quality of life of residents and students.
GOALS OF PLAN
The Jerome Park Conservancy was formed to preserve the beauty and heritage of Jerome Park
Reservoir and its surrounding communities by the creation of a 125-acre park comprising the
water and the land around it. The Conservancy advocates the designation of the Jerome Park
Reservoir as a scenic and historic landmark and the use of the reservoir as an educational resource
for the 25,000 students who attend schools by the water's edge.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Remove the outer fence and replace the one by the water with an attractive wrought-iron
safety fence.
• Create walking, jogging, skating and/or bicycling trails around the reservoir.
• Develop the dividing wall as a promenade.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Plant ornamental trees, shrubs, ground covers, and grass. Provide park furnishings such as
benches, lights, and garbage cans.
Remove any features or structures that don't fit into this new park setting, such as the Lehman
parking lot and building and the Department of Environmental Protection's temporary pilot
water treatment plant. Develop plans for alternative parking.
Develop areas for gardens, public gatherings and performance spaces.
Develop ecologically sound methods of avoiding water eutrophication.
Draft the rules and regulations for the operation of this new public space.
Restore the historic features around Jerome Park Reservoir, including the stone walls, the
gate house, the Jerome Park Pumping Station and the geological mounds. Preserve and
enhance the scenic vistas.
Develop new uses for the gate houses, such as a water-side café and an ecology center
Develop plans for using the reservoir as an educational resource for the 25,000 local students
Promote the presence of birds and other wildlife
Develop a maintenance and security plan that addresses the complementary needs of DEP
and the community.
Integrate the reservoir with adjacent parks, the neighborhood and the network of New York
City and Bronx Greenways.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Once the Croton water treatment plants, and associated components, are built at a location other
than Jerome Park, then the City will no longer need the reservoir for delivering water. Like the
Central Park Reservoir, it can be decommissioned, or used as an emergency water supply. The
Conservancy's park plan should be implemented as an integral part of the change in the use of
Croton water that will take place during the next five years.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The plan was developed with the participation of many community residents and groups, local
elementary and high schools as well as Lehman College, Montefiore Medical Center, Community
Boards, and others. The Jerome Park Conservancy is made up of all of the stakeholders. Ideas
for the park came out of community meetings and charettes.
PARTNERS
Amalgamated Housing, Bronx High School of Science, Bronx Landmarks Task Force,
Community Board No. 7, Community Board No. 8, DeWitt Clinton High School, Friends of Van
Cortlandt Park, Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood
Improvement Association, Lehman College, CUNY, Montefiore Medical Center, Mutual
Housing, New York Audubon Society, The New York Botanical Garden, Our Lady of Angels,
P.S. 86, New Yorkers for Parks, Scott Towers, Superintendent, Bronx High Schools, Tracey
Towers Tenants Association.
Wildlife Conservation Society, The New York Times Foundation, New York City Environmental
Fund, Adolfo Carrion, Jr., Bronx Borough President, Oliver Koppell, City Council, Jeffrey
Dinowitz State Assemblyman 81, Eric Schneiderman State Senator, Jeffrey Klein, State Senator,
Eliot L. Engel, Congressman.
OBSTACLES
The Department of Environmental Protection apparently does not want to relinquish control of
the property to the Parks Department, nor open the site to the public.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1993
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 1997
SUBMITTED TO
Bronx Community Board 7 and 8.
CITY ACTION
The Plan is tied into the DEP plans for the Croton Water Treatment Plant, which is being
constructed in the Mosholu Golf Course, located in Van Cortlandt Park. As part of the $243
million mitigation package, a $5 million “recreational pathway” will be constructed around the
reservoir. It is currently under design. City Department of Environmental Protection has
awarded a $3-4 million contract to demolish a building that was built in the late 1980s on
parkland on the eastern edge of the reservoir.
The Conservancy remains committed to opening the reservoir to the public once the Croton
Water Treatment Plant is completed. At that time hazardous chemicals will no longer be used or
stored at the reservoir, and water in the reservoir will be filtered before flowing into faucets.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Conservancy President approached the Parks Council for help in 1993. The Jerome Park
Reservoir and surrounding land, all 130 acres of it, is now on the State and National Registers of
Historic Places. From Norwood News: “The DEP has supported one part of the Jerome Park plan,
though. Led by the principal of Bronx High School of Science, the JPC education committee
secured approval to create an Outdoor Urban Ecology Lab. The lab will be open to over a dozen
schools, and will be situated along Goulden Avenue.
In coordination with the Parks Department, the DEP will build the lab on a one-acre site on the
east side of the reservoir across from Harris Park, where the DEP used to operate a demonstration
water treatment plant. The lab is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2001.”
The Jerome Park Reservoir Plan was incorporated into CB8’s 197-a plan.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX9
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1
NAME OF PLAN: Discovering the Center: A Vision Plan for the Bronx Hub
Community Organization: Bronx Borough President’s Office
Address: 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451
Contact Name: Wilhelm Ronda
Phone Number: 718-590-8087
TYPE OF PLAN
Economic/Commercial Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Hub is a neighborhood defined by the five streets (149th Street, Third, Melrose, Willis, and
Westchester Avenues) that radiate from its center at Roberto Clemente Plaza.
NEIGHBORHOOD BACKGROUND
The Hub is the anchor commercial neighborhood for the Melrose community, which is part of the
300 square-block area known as Bronx Center. Located between 146th and 161st Streets west of
Brook Avenue, the area encompasses such important borough institutions as Yankee Stadium,
Hostos College, Lincoln Medical Center, the new municipal government district, and residential
neighborhoods like Melrose Commons.
GOALS OF PLAN
To redevelop The Hub as the “main street” for this part of the borough.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The plan contains numerous recommendations. Below is a selection of these:
•
Transportation
► Designate Third Avenue between 146th and 156th Streets and 149th Street and
Westchester Avenue between Morris and Brook Avenues as the new surface-transit zone.
This would ease traffic congestion and improve the safety of pedestrians along primary
retail corridors.
► Exclude all vehicles within the new zone except for buses and trucks making deliveries.
Two streets included in the zone, Westchester Avenue and 149th Street will continue to
accommodate through traffic of all types.
► Limit truck deliveries in the new zone to late-night or early-morning hours.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
►
►
Create a new traffic flow pattern on streets leading to The Hub that directs through-traffic
on truck-routes around the zone. This will allow private vehicles to access parking
facilities efficiently, and facilitates re-routing of buses.
Close portions of key east/west streets crossing Third Avenue to all traffic except
emergency vehicles, and develop them as open space.
Construct planted traffic medians along the center line of 149th Street and Westchester
Avenue to diminish the impact of traffic and to make street crossing safer.
•
Bus Routes
► Changing routing, passenger access points, and scheduling to encourage use of public
transportation throughout The Hub.
► Create a new subway entrance on the traffic island in Roberto Clemente Plaza. Redesign
the plaza to be a passenger-friendly inter-modal transfer point.
•
Commercial
► Renovate upper-story space close to the subway to attract start-up businesses or small
high tech companies.
► Developing mixed-use buildings with larger, modern, floor plans attractive to regional
chain stores that can anchor the retail mix on vacant land along Third Avenue south of
156th Street and along Bergen north of Westchester Avenue.
► Lease upper-story office space in larger buildings for back office needs, city agency
functions, or to not-for-profits or the local service industry.
► Encourage adaptive re-use of the front portion of the former Bronx Opera House as a
performing arts center, providing venues for music and dance, to anchor an entertainment
corridor on 149th Street.
► Widen and redesign the sidewalks along major streets that converge at the intersection of
Third Avenue and 149th Street, the center of The Hub, to accommodate pedestrians and
amenities and to create a special street character for each.
► Redesign 149th Street and Westchester Avenue to better serve pedestrians and facilitate
use of the bus system.
► Develop an open-air seasonal market at Westchester Avenue between Brook and St.
Ann’s Avenues.
•
Streets and Pedestrian Amenities
► Improve pedestrian safety by constructing traffic medians on 149th Street and
Westchester Avenues and by adding strategically located crosswalks and neck-downs
mid-block where pedestrians cross streets to catch buses.
► Develop a small tree-covered plaza at the intersection of Elton, Third Avenue, and 154th
Street to welcome pedestrians coming to the commercial corridor from neighborhoods to
the west while inviting shoppers and office workers to relax during a break from
shopping or during lunch hour.
► Construct a sinuous media billboard on the rooftops of buildings surrounding Roberto
Clemente Plaza. This construction marks and encloses the space—the plaza becomes a
gathering space for a variety of public activities, including waiting for the bus or
transferring from bus to subway.
•
Historic Preservation
► Adopt façade improvement guidelines to preserve the special quality of the architecture
and improve the general appearance of the business district.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
►
►
►
New buildings should reinforce the existing context at the core of the district, extending
its urban character east to Brook Avenue.
Develop design guidelines to ensure that new buildings or parking lots do not create
discontinuity in the street wall or present stretches of blank façade to pedestrian
pathways.
The presence of a significant amount of vacant land in The Hub provides an opportunity
to develop a stock of modern large-format spaces that would be attractive to chain-retail
stores. In addition to street-level retail, new buildings can also accommodate office space
that might be used by city agencies or corporate back offices.
A zoning change to permit more appropriate higher density should be considered for
blocks currently zoned M1-1. These large blocks between Bergen Avenue, Brook
Avenue, north and south of Westchester Avenue, now vacant, could support density and
bulk greater than C4-4 will allow.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Create an implementation partnership of Bronx Borough President’s Office, Department of City
Planning, Bronx Office. Bronx Community Board 1, the HUB committee, BOEDC, EDC, DOT,
Parks Dept, and Landmarks. South Bronx Overall Development Corporation (SOBRO).
PARTNERS
Office of the Bronx Borough President; Department of City Planning, Bronx Office; Bronx
Community Board 1; City College Architectural Center Studio; Bronx Overall Economic
Development Agency (BOEDC); Hub Committee; South Bronx Overall Development
Corporation (SOBRO)
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
In the summer of 2000, the Office of the Bronx Borough President approached the School of
Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at City College for assistance with
planning and design ideas for the commercial and transportation “hub” at East 149th Street and
Third Avenue. The City College Architectural Center (CCAC), a community design center or
“clinic” affiliated with the School, began work on the study in September, documenting the area
through maps and inventorying features like buildings, transit routes, and vacant lots. Borough
President Fernando Ferrer and his staff under Planning and Development Director Bernd
Zimmermann facilitated a series of meetings with community and government stakeholders with
interests in the area of The Hub.
The three initial meetings took place as separate forums with different constituencies: first, with
City agencies, not-for-profit developers, and a commercial developer with projects pending for
The Hub; second, with owners of businesses and commercial properties in the area; and third,
with residents of surrounding neighborhoods, including representatives from Bronx Community
Board 1. These meetings took place between mid-September and mid-October, 2000. The
CCAC team met again with community representatives and residents in public forums in
November and January to present the progress of its research and test assumptions. The feedback
gained from these meetings proved helpful toward the development of strategies for diverse
issues—public transportation, traffic, streetscaping, land-use—into a district-wide approach.
OBSTACLES
There was general concern about what will happen in the wake of the September 11 events in
terms of potential impacts on interest in commercial revitalization efforts in the Bronx, i.e., shifts
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
in availability of public funds; determination of priority economic development projects; and
locally, potential changes in employment and purchasing power.
Private sector enthusiasm for the plan has not matched community and government enthusiasm.
For example, some businesses have been reluctant to recommended transportation restrictions,
such as limitations on deliveries. The Hub’s strategic regional location in terms of proximity to
multiple transportation lines makes it more attractive for housing development,
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 2000
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
DATE SUBMITTED: 2001
SUBMITTED TO
DCP, EDC, Schumer’s Group, Deputy Mayors Harding and Lhota
CITY ACTION?
The Bronx Office of City Planning, and the Bronx Borough President’s Office matched funds to
redesign Roberto Clemente Plaza. This will create an urban space similar to Herald Square. The
project has been funded but the designs are not yet ready. Among other uses, a farmers market is
being considered for the New Roberto Clemente Plaza, instead of Westchester AV, as originally
discussed.
As an interesting mechanism to encourage revitalization, the Department of Finance leased a new
retail space, to locate a series of chain stores.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This planning effort was introduced to the work of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer’s Group of 35.
The group’s report, “Preparing for the Future: A Commercial Development Strategy for New
York City,” there upon identified The Hub as an ancillary business district.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX10
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 8, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1
NAME OF PLAN: South Bronx Waterfront Revitalization Plan: Mott Haven and Port Morris
Communities
Community Organization: Friends of Brook Park
Address: PO BOX 801, Bronx, New York 10454
Contact Name: Harry J. Bubbins, Executive Director
Phone Number: 646.206.5288
Website: www.friendsofbrookpark.org
TYPE OF PLAN
Waterfront Revitalization and Access Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Downtown and South Bronx, including the Mott Haven and Port Morris neighborhoods, and
some of Melrose. The area bounded to the north by 149th Street, to the east by the East River, to
the south by the Bronx Kill waterway and to the west by the Harlem River, including access to
Randall’s and Ward’s Islands.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The communities of the South Bronx, while surrounded by the East and Harlem Rivers, have
virtually no public assess to the water. Access in these communities is blocked by a number of
industrial non-water dependent uses, power plants, waste-transfer facilities, brownfields and
highways. Environmental justice issues are a major concern in our community. The New York
State Power Authority recently constructed four power generators along the waterfront, waste
transfer facilities permitted by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the
Harlem River Rail Yards occupy prime coastal real estate. Because of the history of
industrialization along the South Bronx waterfront, and the negative impacts of multiple
highways and bridges, the need for environmental restoration, reconnection to the waterfront, and
development of usable open space is critical.
GOALS OF PLAN
To promote the existence of the waterfront as a community resource to be recovered, gain further
public input, carry out design work, and identify all permits and approvals necessary to develop
facilities to allow public access to the East River, Bronx Kill, Harlem River, Hudson River
Estuary and Long Island Sound. To develop creative partnerships, forward implementation of the
community-driven pier, waterfront park, marina and ferry projects, increase access to open space,
facilitate tourism and economic development opportunities and transform the waterfront from a
backyard into our front yard.
Non-water dependent uses, such as brownfields, railway tracks and highways prohibit waterfront
access to the public. This project seeks to overcome these problems by exploring the use of land
already owned by the City of New York at the end of 132nd and 134th Streets. Fences at the end
of these streets present a barrier to fishing or other waterfront activities. This project seeks to
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
open up public access and to develop facilities to allow both passive and active recreation at the
site.
In addition, the project will explore the feasibility of adaptive reuse of a former ferry terminal and
Police marina at 134th Street as an environmental education center with extensive programming
and to provide visual access to North and South Brother Islands.
Long term goals of this project include: linking the waterfront with other tree planting and park
and garden projects that we are currently managing.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Revitalize existing bulkhead and rehabilitate the formerly existing pier at 132nd Street.
• Open the 134th Street terminus at the East River.
• Develop a marina site and a ferry terminal at 135th Street and Locust Avenue.
• Create an ecological education center at above location.
• Open waterfront access to Park Avenue and Harlem River.
• Negotiate a waterfront park and access in the Harlem River Rail Yards.
• Implement a bridge to Randall's Island under the Amtrak Viaduct.
• Vigorously pursue green and open space opportunities along all coastal areas in the
catchment area.
• Protect all wetlands and ensure contiguous shore access in South Bronx and Randall’s Island
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
• Promote and publicize the existence of our coasts and natural resources and myriad benefits.
• Develop community and local partnerships.
• Engage support in community and with appropriate government agencies.
• Bring people to their waterfront.
• Identify potential funding sources.
• Use waterfront and secure site control.
• Obtain funding.
• Implement designs and plans.
• Expand canoe, kayak and bike programming
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Our South Bronx Waterfront Development Plan has emerged from almost a decade of
conversations, site visits, vision sessions and actual use of the sites identified and proposed for
development. We have convened a South Bronx Waterfront Working Group and hosted design
input sessions with community members that have led to substantial enhancements to our scope
and vision and actual designs. Our priorities and focal points of the plan are directly related to the
community's actual patterns of use and interest and historical continuity and future needs. We
have partnered with the City College of New York and Professor Lee Weintraub during the
Spring Semester on the development of various visions for our Waterfront that were exhibited in
our Adverse Possessions Gallery from June 23 through August 2001. The community will be able
to view, comment on and provide valuable input on the eventual adoption of our grassroots driven
plan
Expertise from experienced waterfront design, funding administrative and programmatic
professionals has been solicited and Waterfront Tours have been hosted with participants from
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
the Department of State, Randall's Island Sports Foundation, State Office of Parks and Historic
Preservation, City Island Civic Association, Van Allen Institute and the Department of
Agriculture.
PARTNERS
Among the many individuals, local and city-wide organizations we have support from;
New Yorkers for Parks, New York Restoration Project, Bronx Council on Environmental Quality,
Mott Haven Public Library, Bronx Community Board 1, Patterson Volunteer Committee, St.
Benedict the Moor, Freedom Center, Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, Council Member
Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Neighborhood Open Space Coalition, NYC League of Conservation
Voters, Green Map System, Time's Up!, and numerous schools and other entities.
OBSTACLES
• Lack of financial resources.
• Lack of coordination between community plan and other plans.
• Inappropriate land-uses.
• Area marginalized and written off as dumping ground.
• Land warehoused in anticipation of real estate speculation.
• Disproportionate siting of waste and pollution related industries along the coast.
• Waterfront access continues to be blocked by a number of industrial non-water dependent
uses, brownfields, railway tracks, and highways.
• Recent rezoning that did not guarantee affordable housing or recreational space.
INITIAL IDEA: 1990
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 2000
SUBMITTED TO
Several state, city, and Federal agencies, including NYC Parks and Recreation; NYC Department
of Transportation
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
We have been building momentum and the monies we receive will carry our vision forward,
allow us to develop priorities and look at feasibility options for the critical next step. We were
selected from a city-wide competition to be part of the Community Design Assistance project of
New Yorkers for Parks. Professor Lee Weintraub of City College has led a semester long
treatment of the area with his graduate class. Our team has organized exhibitions at three
locations including a local community gallery, the Hostos College Gallery, and Mott Haven
Library. Recently, we consulted with the first year students of East Side Settlement’s Mott
Haven Prep School to draw, design and create models for our waterfront. In addition, our team
accepted the Waterfront Center’s Clearwater Award for Citizens’ Efforts.
Community response and public exposure has been overwhelmingly positive and the residents
and business owners strongly affirm the need for this project to move forward. In addition,
walking and bike tours, in partnership with Times Up! and others, have drawn hundreds of people
to various sites on the coasts. Our Harlem River access target at the street end of Park Avenue
emerged as one of the top three priorities of the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality Harlem
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
River conference with over 100 waterfront activists. The NY League of Conservation voters
features our local efforts at as does the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. Recent successes
include an Environmental Protection Fund award.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX11
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15, 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 4
NAME OF PLAN: Mid-Bronx Neighborhood CCRP
Community Organization: Mid-Bronx Seniors Citizens Council, Inc. & Comprehensive
Comm. Revitalization
Address: 900 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10541
Contact Name: Jeannette Puryear
Phone Number: 718.588.8200
Fax Number: 718.681.3824
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Mid-Bronx neighborhood spans the Grand Concourse and is bounded on the west by Jerome
Avenue, on the north by 170th Street, on the east by Webster and Park Avenues, and on the south
by 161st Street.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The Mid-Bronx has a population of 57,000 people. The population is predominantly Hispanic
and African American. The neighborhood is home to the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the
Family/Criminal Courthouse, and the Housing Court. The area was rapidly developed during the
1920s and 1930s and then went through a prolonged period of decline from the late 1960s
through the early 1980s.
The area is now home to a low-income population, with considerable need for educational,
medical, and other community services. Many of the retail areas have significant vacancies.
Nevertheless, most of the area escaped the large-scale abandonment that characterized much of
the South Bronx.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Improve existing housing stock.
• Provide facilities and services for young people.
• Provide a stable and diverse place for residents to shop and find needed community services.
• Ensure that the large-scale projects proposed for the Bronx Civic Center serve as a truly
positive force for comprehensive neighborhood revitalization.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Housing
► Construct affordable family housing on Grant and Morris Avenues between 167th and
170th Streets.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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Construct senior citizen housing on a city-owned vacant lot on 170th Street between
Grant and Morris Avenues.
Responsible home ownership should be encouraged.
Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) should designate the eastern half of the MidBronx neighborhood as a target area.
•
Historic Preservation
► Residents should support historic district and individual landmark designations; potential
districts include the Grand Concourse and row houses on the east side of Walton Avenue
between 165th and 166th Street.
► Amend the Special Grand Concourse Preservation District map to provide commercial
extension areas on 167th Street to the west of the Concourse.
•
Open Space
► Create new playgrounds in Joyce Kilmer and John Mullaly Parks. Playgrounds should be
built at the northwest corner of Kilmer Park and the northeast corner of Mullaly Park.
► Expand PS 53's play spaces.
► Involve residents in creating safe play streets. The City should designate "play streets"
which are closed to traffic during set hours. Suggested streets are Grandview Place
between 167th and 168th Streets, Elliot Place between Walton Avenue and the Grand
Concourse, Clay Avenue between 167th and 168th Streets, Findlay Avenue between
165th and 166th Streets, and Carroll Place between 166th and McClellan Streets.
► Promote the Bronx Greenway.
► Construct new playgrounds for the northwest part of the neighborhood.
► Construct a new playground for the northeast part of the neighborhood. The park should
be conceived as a linear string of active recreation and park facilities.
► Create new parks at Bonner Place and 163rd Street.
► Utilize a Yankee Stadium parking lot on River Avenue between 164th and 165th Streets
as a part-time informal play area.
► Use the neighborhood's many small, vacant lots as private open space.
► Ensure that public open spaces remain safe and well maintained (strategies for each park
are included in the full plan).
► Retain Macombs Dam Park and provide the necessary parking at another location.
► The ground floor of the Court Complex should consist of public spaces.
•
Community Facilities
► Construct an Adult/Assisted Living Facility on another portion of the aforementioned
170th Street property.
► Expand local school capacity; build a new elementary school; one proposal is to build a
new bilingual school in the Morrisania Hospital complex.
► Plan for the construction of additional high schools: one should be centered on the theme
of law and criminal justice and located in or next to the proposed court complex; the
other should be centered on the theme of sports and sports medicine, and be located in the
vicinity of Yankee Stadium.
► Establish a State "community" or City "Beacon" School at a local school.
► Provide more daycare, convenient to all neighborhood residents (several specific
recommendations are included in the full plan).
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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Enrich educational experience with institutional linkages (possible programs could
involve the Bronx Museum of the Arts and Bronx Community College).
Develop a network of Neighborhood Centers in the Mid-Bronx neighborhood so that
youth have the opportunity to socialize with other youth and adults in a safe, caring, and
constructive environment (one should be build on Bonner Place).
A new public bilingual library should be part of the Court House project.
An educational center should be incorporated into the Court House project.
A community court should be part of the project.
•
Economic Development
► Promote "magnet" retail uses. One possibility is a supermarket at the NYNEX building.
► Promote "magnet" uses other than retailing. WHEDCO proposes a business incubator,
job training, social services, a family health center, a new public school, and park space
in a redeveloped Morrisania Hospital complex.
► Improve parking for shoppers; create more off-street parking on 167th Street.
► Pursue commercial revitalization.
► A full-service bank and other commercial uses should be located in the Concourse Plaza
building.
► The ground floor of the new office buildings along 161st street should have retail space.
► Office uses should be permitted along Grand Concourse.
► The Andrew Freedman Facility should be reused for professional office, as well as
neighborhood services, including job training, day care, and MBSCC's offices.
► Revitalize the Yankee Village shopping district.
► The Court House project's retail space should complement and enrich the retail mix on
161st Street.
► Provide off-site parking for the court complex.
► Create a Business Improvement District (BID).
•
Transportation
► Make the subway stops safer and more attractive.
► Nearby mass transit improvements should be undertaken to reduce the need for stadium
parking.
► Redesign the Yankee Stadium/161st Street subway station.
► Provide a shuttle bus between the Yankee Stadium subway station and the Third
Avenue/149th Street (Hub) subway station.
► Renovate Metro North's Melrose Station.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Persuade City and State agencies to provide needed funding and publicly owned land.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council (MBSCC) initiated the plan. The plan was created with
the Mid-Bronx Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC), a group that included local residents,
merchants, service providers, City agencies and borough-wide and institutional representatives.
MBSCC conducted 485 interviews at nine locations around the neighborhood, followed by
discussions with tenant associations, focus groups, and community forums.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
PARTNERS
CCRP; MBSCC; Abeles, Phillips, Preiss and Shapiro Planners; NAC; local schools,
organizations, religious institutions, residents, and government institutions and agencies.
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? YES
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, NYC Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX12
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 14
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 5
NAME OF PLAN: Mount Hope CCRP
Community Organization: Mount Hope Housing Company
Address: 2003-05 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY 10453
Contact Name: Shaun M. Belle
Phone Number: 718.583-7017
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Mount Hope is located in Community District 5 in the South Bronx. It is bounded by the Cross
Bronx Expressway on the south, Webster Avenue on the east, Burnside Avenue on the north, and
Jerome Avenue on the west.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Mount Hope is a community of approximately 35,000 residents. The community is 63%
Hispanic and 30% African American. During the 1970s many families moved out of Mount
Hope, and many buildings fell into disrepair or were abandoned. There were massive public and
private disinvestments. The formerly middle class community became home to a low-income
population, with considerable need for educational, medical, and other community services.
Crime became a serious problem.
Despite those bad times, Mount Hope, like many other neighborhoods, has seen significant
revitalization in the 1990s. Still, much more work is needed. The age of the housing stock calls
for continued renovation efforts. The large number of children, the majority of whom are in
poverty, highlights the need for playgrounds and daycare facilities. The high crime rate indicates
a need for better street lighting and increased surveillance. The ongoing need to ensure that
landlords maintain their buildings properly, keep new playgrounds safe and clean, and campaign
against crime requires neighborhood organizing. The limited numbers of vacant lots call for
immediate action to reserve sites for badly needed community facilities.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Ensure that decent, safe, and affordable housing is available to all people who live in Mount
Hope.
• Create more parks and ensure better park maintenance.
• Reduce crime in the neighborhood.
• Encourage economic development
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Housing
► Continue to organize and work with homeowner and tenant associations.
► Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) should designate Mount Hope as a target area.
► The City should acquire privately owned, vacant buildings, with a view toward
renovation.
► Construct affordable condominiums on Morris Avenue.
► Construct affordable family housing on Walton and Townsend Avenues and 175th Street.
► Develop City-owned sites with a mixture of housing and recreational space.
► Wire all Mount Hope Housing Company buildings for high speed Internet services.
► Incorporate sustainable and green building design into housing.
•
Open Space
► Construct a new playground in the eastern part of the neighborhood. A possible site is
the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Anthony Avenue and 176th Street.
► Create playgrounds for young children in the western part of the neighborhood. Use two
city-owned vacant lots: one on the western side of Crotona Avenue, just below Burnside
Avenue and the other at the southwest corner of Walton Avenue and 175th Street.
► Designate JHS 117 as a Beacon School.
► Develop a green roof that provides for outdoor recreational and green space.
► Designate selected streets as summertime "play streets" to be closed to traffic during set
hours. Suggested streets are 179th Street between Walton and Morris Avenues and
Henwood Place.
► Create a landscaped sitting area on the Grand Concourse; one possibility could be the
vacant lot on the southwest corner at 176th Street.
► Develop organized activities in neighborhood and nearby parks.
► The community and the Parks Department should continue to work together on the new
park at 177th Street and Walton Avenue.
► Organize neighborhood park patrols.
► Reclaim Julius J Richman (Echo) Park from darkness, disrepair, and drugs. Initial efforts
should be aimed at the playground and basketball courts.
•
Community Services
► Develop and manage senior housing on Burnside and Harrison Avenues in conjunction
with Morris Heights Health Center.
► Increase Police Department foot patrols to reduce crime in the neighborhood, especially
at critical crime locations.
► Community residents and the NYPD should work together to increase community
policing.
► Reuse a row of vacant storefronts on 175th Street for community services.
► Construct a multiservice center at the corner of Burnside and Creston Avenues.
th
► Complete construction of 36,000 sq. ft. Community Center on Townsend and 175
Street.
► Ensure that all Mount Hope residents have access to Broadband Internet Service.
► Organize neighborhood youth groups.
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Transportation
► Increase the amount and intensity of street lighting on dangerous blocks: along Echo
Place, along 179th Street between Creston and Jerome Avenues, along Morris Avenue
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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between the Cross Bronx Expressway and 176th Street, and on the steps at the eastern
end of Clifford Place.
Increase street trees and landscaping of public streets.
Improve lighting at the 174th-175th Street subway station exit beneath the Grand
Concourse.
Designate the curbside area under and near the Morris Avenue arch beneath the Grand
Concourse as a taxi stand, and move the Excellent Car Service stand from the Morris
Avenue Bridge across the Cross Bronx Expressway to the northwest corner of Morris
Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Install stop signs at dangerous intersections such as Morris Avenue and 179th Street and
Townsend Avenue and Clifford Place.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Persuade City and State agencies to provide needed funding and publicly owned land.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The effort was led by the Mount Hope Housing Company, a community-based organization that
owns, manages, or has sponsored 42 buildings with 1,272 housing units (approximately 10% of
the neighborhood's total housing stock) and has helped organize residents to confront a variety of
issues. A core group of some 30 Mount Hope residents developed the plan over a two-year
period, in consultation with a team of professional planners. Over 150 residents participated in
the planning process, including a core group. Community members identified key issues and
planning objectives at a series of local meetings and an all-day community workshop.
PARTNERS
Mount Hope Housing Company; Abeles, Phillips, Preiss and Shapiro Planners; and numerous
local organizations and residents.
OBSTACLES
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? YES
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, NYC Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since completed in 1994, several recommendations from the plan have been implemented,
including the construction of new playgrounds and transitional housing. Recently, Mount Hope
Housing Company has directed most of its attention to the planning and construction of a new
70,500 square foot community center located at East 175th Street and Townsend Avenue. The
Center will house a gymnasium, auditorium space, childcare facilities, comprehensive youth
center, not-for-profit service space and outdoor space. Creating 80 full-time jobs, the Center is a
direct response to the critical needs identified in this plan. Mount Hope Housing Company is in
various stages of construction of 170 units of affordable rental, senior and condominium housing.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX13
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 14, 16
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 4, 5
NAME OF PLAN: Mt. Hope/Mt. Eden CCRP
Community Organization: PROMESA
Address: 1776 Clay Avenue, Bronx, NY 10457
Contact Name: Director of Community Development
Phone Number: 718.583.1300
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The plan focuses on two adjacent neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Mount Hope and Mount
Eden. The total area is bounded by East Burnside Avenue on the north, Webster Avenue on the
east, East 170th Street on the south, and Grand Concourse on the west. The neighborhoods are
located in Community Districts 4 and 5.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Mount Eden/Mount Hope is home to 29,000 people. The population is mostly African American
and Hispanic. Two major facilities are located in the neighborhood: Taft High School which has
about 2,900 students and Bronx-Lebanon Hospital which has about 2,000 employees.
During the 1970s and 1980s many families moved out of the neighborhood and many buildings
fell into disrepair. This formerly middle class area became home to a low-income population,
with considerable need for educational, medical, and other community services. Crime became a
serious problem. Nevertheless, the area escaped the large-scale devastation that characterized
much of the South Bronx, remaining physically intact.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Reduce crime and improve community safety.
• Restore the aging housing stock.
• Improve and create youth services, parks and recreation.
• Create additional retail areas, and improve existing retail areas.
• Improve the physical appearance of the area.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Public Safety:
► Reclaim inherently unsafe locations with additional lighting and surveillance.
► The worst crime spot, the 174th-175th Street subway station, must be addressed by
improving the lighting at the subway exit beneath Grand Concourse; installing
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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surveillance cameras at the station; and designating the curbside area under and near the
arch as a taxi stand.
Introduce legitimate retail uses at intersections that are now devoted to drug trafficking;
two possible locations are 175th Street and Monroe Avenue and 173rd Street and Clay
and Anthony Avenues.
Drive drug activity from East 175th Street by rerouting traffic: East 175th Street, Clay
Avenue, and Prospect Place should be made into one-way streets.
Organize residents along Topping Place to report and deter crime there.
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Housing:
► Neighborhood Housing Services should make the community a target area.
► New subsidized housing should be build on vacant, city-owned land; community gardens
should be constructed on these lots in the interim.
► Bronx-Lebanon Hospital should build staff housing in the area: potential sites include the
two vacant lots on opposite corners of 173rd Street and Weeks Avenue; the ground floors
of the buildings should be used for daycare and other services for the entire community.
► Plant street trees along the better traveled residential streets.
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Youth and Education:
► Create a catalog of childcare, educational, and recreational facilities. Distributed about
the neighborhood and available to all residents.
► Construct daycare facilities: the city should commit funds for a facility planned by
PROMESA at the northwest corner of Anthony Avenue and Prospect Place; another
facility should be constructed at 1760 Anthony Avenue, a city-owned building; additional
facilities should be built on the ground floors of new apartment buildings south of the
Cross Bronx Expressway.
► Construct a large early childhood center devoted to "educare"; an appropriate site would
be the parking lot on Mt. Eden Avenue between Weeks and Monroe Avenues.
► Make CES 70 into a community resource by creating a Beacon or Community school.
► Construct a community cultural and recreation center across from CES 28.
► Involve residents in creating safe play streets; the City should designate certain streets as
"play streets" including 172nd Street between Grand Concourse and Sheridan Avenue;
Topping Avenue between 173rd and 174th Streets, and Eastburn Avenue between 174th
and 175th Streets.
► Construct basketball courts on Taft High School property.
► Create new playground space for CES 70.
► The Grand Concourse library branch should use volunteer workers to remain open longer
hours; the library should also expand its offerings.
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Parks and Recreation:
► Create a football or baseball field in the northeast corner of Claremont Park.
► Construct new parks in the underserved Mount Hope portion of the planning area; an
active recreation area is recommended for Topping Avenue just north of the Cross Bronx
Expressway.
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Economic Development:
► Create additional retail nodes. Potential sites include the intersections of Monroe Avenue
and 175th Street and 173rd Street and Clay and Anthony Avenues.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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Create a one-day-a-week outdoor market on 174th Street between the Grand Concourse
and Monroe Avenue.
Establish a food co-op in one of the burned out storefronts at 170th Street and College
Avenue.
Install an automated teller machine (ATM) in the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital lobby.
Explore the feasibility of establishing a restaurant on one of the parkway malls on Mt.
Eden Avenue.
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Health and Human Services:
► Bronx-Lebanon Hospital should provide ambulatory, outpatient care at two satellite
locations; the locations are the former Mt. Eden Synagogue and the old Mt. Eden
Hospital.
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Land Use and Zoning:
► Designate a Grand Concourse Historic District.
► Enforce restrictions against retail uses and signage along the Grand Concourse.
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Transportation:
► Increase the frequency of service on the Bx32 bus line.
► Provide street parking for Bronx Lebanon hospital employees on Mt. Eden Avenue
between the Grand Concourse and Weeks Avenue.
► Provide parking for Taft High School teachers and students at an existing parking lot at
171st Street and College Avenue.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
PROMESA, a local organization sponsored the plan, working with an Advisory Council made up
of residents, local schools and police precincts, medical and social service providers, and utilities.
PARTNERS
CCRP; Mount Eden/Mount Hope Neighborhood Advisory Council; PROMESA; Abeles Phillips
Preiss & Shapiro
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? YES
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, NYC Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
PROMESA is no longer active with this plan.
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX14
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1, 2
NAME OF PLAN: Longwood/Hunts Pt. CCRP
Community Organization: Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association
Address: 863 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, NY 10459
Contact Name: Louis Vega
Phone Number: 718.328.1064
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Longwood/Hunts Point plan includes four sub-neighborhoods: Longwood/Hunts Point
located between Bruckner Boulevard and Westchester Avenue), Westchester/Intervale, the
Prospect corridor, and a portion of the Hunts Point Peninsula. The entire planning area is
bounded by Tinton Avenue on the west, East 156th Street, Leggett Avenue, Truxton Street, and
Spofford Avenue on the south, Hunts Point Avenue, Barretto Street, Fox Street, and Southern
Boulevard on the east, and East 167th Street and Home Street on the north. Most of the area is
located in Community District 2 with small portions in Community Districts 1 and 3.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The devastation that afflicted much of the South Bronx during the 1970s struck this area
particularly hard. The area lost more than half of its housing during the 1970s, through fires,
abandonment, and demolition. Entire block fronts were reduced to garbage-strewn vacant lots.
Yet even during the worst years of the late 1970s, groups of local residents were organizing to
reclaim abandoned buildings and vacant lots and to prevent further destruction.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Improve and create retail areas.
• Improve the physical appearance of the area.
• Create open space, recreation, and community facilities.
• Address transportation and safety issues.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Longwood/Hunts Point:
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Capitol loans should be made available to landlords of multifamily buildings.
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Neighborhood Housing Services should designate the area as a target area.
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Parks need to be redesigned to improve their usage, particularly Bill Rainey Memorial
Park.
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Redesign the park at Fox and 156th Streets.
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Transfer the playground and vacant lot that are adjacent to PS 60 to the school.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
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Free up more play space by providing teacher parking for IS 116 at the Housing
Authority parking lot across the street.
The City should move forward with construction of the Police Athletic League (PAL)
youth center on Longwood Avenue between Fox and Beck Streets.
The Task Force supports the construction of a family learning center at 838 Fox Street.
Restore the former PS 39 school building for use as a school, or convert it to other uses
that will serve the community.
An ATM should be installed at the corner of Longwood Avenue and Southern Boulevard.
Reduce the amount of commercial overlay zoning.
Provide assistance to area storeowners.
Form a merchants association.
Rezone blocks that include the Longwood Historic District.
Plant street trees throughout the neighborhood.
Westchester/Intervale:
► Organize an urban design project for Hall Place and the adjacent Albert Dorey Park.
► Paint murals on the exposed side of walls of apartment buildings at the ends of rows of
new two-family houses.
► Plant a double row of street trees along Intervale Avenue.
► Construct a daycare facility; an appropriate site would be the vacant lot at Kelly and
165th Streets.
► Provide off-site teacher parking for Bronx Regional High School; one possibly is a
vacant lot owned by the adjacent church directly across Rev. James A. Polite Avenue.
► Whenever possible, encourage retail frontage along Prospect Avenue; all new
construction should have retail uses on the ground floor.
► Build a primary health care center on a vacant lot between Westchester Avenue and
162nd Street, with a large, full-service pharmacy as a ground floor tenant.
► Create a retail and pedestrian plaza at the corner of Prospect, Longwood, and Westchester
Avenues; the plaza could serve as an open-air community performance space as well as a
"marqueta" for shopping and socializing.
► Redesign the Prospect-Westchester-Longwood Avenue intersection; transform the
diagonal crosswalks across Westchester Avenue into shorter, safer perpendicular
crossings; re-time traffic lights.
► Make streetscape more attractive to pedestrians with new awnings and façade
improvements to stores, additional street trees and additional sidewalk lighting.
► Upgrade and beautify the Prospect Avenue el station
rd
► Improve the way that the Housing Authority's open space at Prospect Avenue and 163
Street relates to Prospect Avenue.
► Redesign and celebrate John Steltz Square; a statue could be erected at the site.
► The City should provide a site and financing for a new primary health care facility on
Prospect Avenue.
► Expand the Jane Addams Vocational High School property to the north and south; the
additional property could be used as outdoor recreational space.
► Expand the PS 168 property to include adjacent vacant lots.
► The parochial school at 166th Street and Prospect Avenue should acquire the adjacent
vacant lots on Prospect Avenue for outdoor recreational space.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Hunts Point Peninsula:
► Introduce a new bus route; the bus would enter and leave the peninsula via Longwood
Avenue and would stop at the Prospect Avenue station. The City should conduct or
commission an environmental study of the Hunts Point Peninsula.
► The City should plant a double row of street trees along all blocks that serve as edges
between the peninsula's industrial and residential neighborhoods.
► The City should take appropriate action to keep truck traffic off residential streets.
► The City and neighborhood groups should join to stop illegal dumping. The City should
enforce rules, the Department of Sanitation should clean up vacant lots, and local block
watches should back up the City's efforts.
► The recommendations from the Department of City Planning's 1989 study, The Hunts
Point Peninsula, should be implemented.
► NHS should designate the community as a target area.
► Add new recreational facilities at the Manida Street Ballfield; build a playground and
install night lighting.
► Construct a daycare center at 740 Manida Street-Provide a mobile health care van to
serve the Hunts Point Peninsula.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The plan was initiated by Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association and developed by
an Advisory Committee of local organizations and residents. Banana Kelly surveyed 87
households on several blocks to identify major issues of concern. In addition, two town meetings
were held; they were attended by nearly 100 residents, businesspeople, representatives of local
organizations, and police officers.
PARTNERS
Abeles Phillips Preiss and Shapiro; Charlene Tompkins; Bronx Borough President's
Office; Bronx Community Board 2; 41st Police Precinct; Seneca Center; South Bronx Children's
Health Center; Thessalonia Baptist Church; and community residents
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992 FORMAL PLAN? Yes DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, NYC Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
None
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX15
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15, 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 3
NAME OF PLAN: Crotona Park East CCRP
Community Organization: Mid-Bronx Desperados Community Housing Corp.
Address: 1762 Boston Road, Bronx, NY 10017
Contact Name: Demitrios Carolina, Executive Director
Phone Number: 718.842.0256 and 718.893.1631
TYPE OF PLAN
Comprehensive Community Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The neighborhood of Crotona Park East is bounded by Crotona Park and Prospect Avenue to the
west, the Cross Bronx Expressway to the north, the Sheridan Expressway to the east, and 167th
and 169th Streets to the south.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Crotona Park East is a South Bronx neighborhood with 17,000 residents. For more than a decade,
the neighborhood stood as an international symbol of urban decay, publicized by the visits of
President Jimmy Carter and presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. Today, Crotona Park East is
known more for the single-family homes of Charlotte Gardens that have replaced the rubblestrewn vacant lots, and for the renovated apartment buildings elsewhere in the neighborhood.
During the 1970s disinvestments and decline occurred on a devastating scale. Roughly 15,000
housing units were lost to fires and neglect, and the neighborhood's population dropped by 75%.
In sharp contrast, the past decade has been one of significant reinvestment. A local community
organization, the MBD Community Housing Corporation has sponsored the construction or
rehabilitation of over 2,000 housing units including the 89 single-family ranch houses of
Charlotte Gardens.
However, Crotona Park East still has large concentrations of vacant land, constituting about 15%
of the neighborhood's land area. Thousands of residents suffer from inadequate facilities for
shopping, medical care, recreation, and daycare. The neighborhood is still highly impacted by
crime.
GOALS OF PLAN
The primary goals of the plan are to address the issues of health care, economic development,
physical environment and open space (including housing and parks and recreation), youth
development, crime prevention, and community outreach.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Housing
► Construct homeownership housing on both sides of Longfellow Avenue between 172nd
and 173rd Streets.
► Construct homeownership housing on the northern side of Freeman Street between Vyse
and Hoe Avenues.
► Construct medium density, homeownership housing on a site bounded by Stebbins
Avenue, 170th Street and Bristow Street.
► Develop low density, homeownership housing on the northwestern side of Stebbins
Avenue between 170th Street and Boston Road.
► Develop infill row houses on small vacant sites along Stebbins Avenue, Bristow Street,
and other nearby streets.
► In newly built or renovated apartment buildings, set aside ground floor space for
community facilities.
► Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) should designate Crotona Park east as a target
area.
•
Economic Development
► Move expeditiously to develop the new shopping center.
► Orient a portion of the new shopping center's retail space outward onto 174th Street
rather than inward towards the parking lot.
► Expand the new farmers' market at 1710 Southern Blvd.
► Redevelop two abandoned Transit Authority properties flanking 175th Street between
Boston Road and Southern Blvd. with additional retail or community uses.
•
Community Services, Health Care, Child Care
► Include a primary health care center within the new shopping center.
► Construct a combination daycare facility and community center.
► Build a new home for Bethel Church.
•
Open Space, Schools and Park Space
► Create a rock garden on the vacant site on the western side of Longfellow Avenue
between 173rd Street and 174th Streets.
► Create two vestpocket parks at the intersections of Southern Blvd. and Boston Road and
of Southern Blvd. and Louis Nine Blvd.
► Construct a playground on the triangular lot bounded by Chisholm Street, Freeman Street
and Rev. James A. Polite Avenue.
► Transfer the vacant, City-owned lot next to PS 134 to the school.
► Upgrade the PS 66 play yard.
► Create a children's playground in the central portion of our neighborhood.
► Redesign the Housing Authority parking lots and open space on the western side of Hoe
Avenue between 172nd and 173rd Streets.
► Acquire and relocate a nonconforming auto repair business next to CES 50.
► Redesign and reconstruct the CES 50 schoolyard.
► Place the vest pocket park on the eastern side of Southern Blvd. under the sponsorship of
a nearby daycare center.
► Upgrade the park space at 174th Street and Longfellow Avenue to include a playground.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Streetscape
► The most important recommendation is for a joint community-police offensive against
crime.
► Renovate the Freeman Street and 174th Street el stations.
► Light Herman Ridder Junior High School to highlight its soaring entranceway and other
architectural details.
► Paint and light the elevated tracks along Southern Blvd.
► Make the intersection of Boston Road, Southern Blvd. and 174th Street safer and more
attractive.
► Clean, secure and redevelop vacant lots.
► Improve the street lighting around the el stops and along frequently walked routes.
► Remove the graffiti from public housing projects and enhance their surroundings.
► Plant street trees throughout the neighborhood.
► Organize a community-based security force.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The plan is tied to a 5-year action
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The planning effort was led by the MBD Community Housing Corporation with a Task Force of
local schools, community groups, and residents. The Task Force met from September 1993 to
June 1994. The Task Force's work was informed by two open community meetings, each
attended by well over 150 people.
PARTNERS
Local community residents; Bronx Borough Presidents Office; Bronx Community Board 3; C.E.S
50; 42nd Police Precinct; Hoe Avenue Boys and Girls Club; Hunts Point Multi Services; Little
Mount Bethel Baptist Church; MBD Community Housing Corporation; 174th Street Merchants
Association; Property Resource Corp.; Abeles, Phillips, Preiss & Shapiro.
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1992
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
SUBMITTED TO
State of New York, Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATE SUBMITTED: 1994
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX16
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 10, 11, 14
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 8
NAME OF PLAN: Bronx CD8 2000: A River to Reservoir Preservation Strategy
Community Organization: Bronx Community Board 8
Address: 5676 Riverdale Ave., Bronx, NY 10471
Contact Name: Bronx Community Board 8
Phone Number: 718.884.3959
TYPE OF PLAN
197-a
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Bronx Community District 8 extends from the Hudson River to the Jerome Park Reservoir and
from the East River at Marble Hill to the northern boundary of Van Cortlandt Park.
NEIGHBORHOOD BACKGROUND
The community district’s unique mix of neighborhoods includes older mid-rise apartment
districts and lower density neighborhoods built in the early party of this century as development
spread northward along the IRT subway line. As the gateway to the Hudson Valley from the
south, it is also an area of spectacular natural beauty.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Preserve the scale and character of area neighborhoods.
• Strengthen protections for sensitive natural features including steep slope areas, mature trees,
water features, and the surrounding contexts of these features.
• Improve the appearance and economic vitality of local commercial districts.
• Foster economic opportunities and improve access for all segments of the population to
cultural and educational facilities.
• Create additional recreational resources, enhance existing parks, and promote the greening of
major corridors.
• Preserve, and educate the public about, historical resources.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The plan includes a large number of recommendations. Below is a selection of these:
• Zoning:
► Thirteen areas are identified by the plan for rezoning actions. These areas include midrise contextual zones to preserve the historic pattern of development of areas of
Kingsbridge and Riverdale, and lower density contextual zoning districts intended to
preserve a particular housing configuration, such as rows of detached housing.
► Modify the general Community Facility provisions of the Zoning Resolution to address
the inconsistency between existing neighborhood character and the altered neighborhood
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
►
character potentially resulting from the build-out of the area’s community facility
properties.
Measures to protect scenic views from public places are proposed for locations that
benefit views of the Palisades, the Hudson River, the Harlem River, and the Jerome Park
Reservoir. Special Scenic View District designation would protect outstanding public
views in an area where there is considerable development potential and pressure. Further
study is needed to identify specific view planes at various points in the community, above
which no obstruction will be permitted unless authorized by the City Planning
Commission.
Other than historic landmark designations and listings of historic structures, New York
City Scenic Landmark designation is recommended for the Jerome Park Reservoir, a
scenic body of water that also has strong historic importance.
•
Housing:
► A small property owners’ advocacy unit should be created to focus on the southern
portions of the district where housing conditions vary the most.
•
Parks and Recreation:
► Increased cooperative efforts linking the schools with parks enhancement and gardening
activities should be pursued by local groups, schools, and the New York City Parks
Department.
► An enhanced system of linear open spaces is recommended for Community District 8
using both existing facilities and the designation of additional parkland resources. This
interconnected network of on-street and off-street pathways will provide an additional
recreational amenity as well as an alternative means of commuting.
•
Economic Development and Commercial Districts:
► A comprehensive streetscape improvement program is proposed for further study along
Broadway and other corridors that play a major role in shaping the community’s identity.
•
Education:
► Establish smaller satellite schools to replace the oversized Kennedy High School.
► Increase use of public schools for meeting space, recreation, and community activity for
all ages.
► Siting and constructing a new Kingsbridge Branch Library to meet the needs of the area.
► Increasing support for programs at after school centers, through schools, local housing
groups, and community organizations.
•
Health and Social Services:
► Find additional opportunities for group homes and apartments for mentally retarded,
developmentally disabled, and psychiatrically disabled individuals
► Ensure the availability of adequate housing for the elderly as part of a general housing
strategy for Community District #8, including assisted living housing, ancillary social
and health services, and assistance for the frail elderly, homebound, and disabled.
•
Transportation:
► Provide public and special transportation for seniors for visits to physicians, hospitals,
medical services, community centers, and other facilities, as well as for essential
shopping trips and recreational/social activities. Consideration should also be given to
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
the transportation needs not only of area seniors, but also of the health aides on whom
they depend.
Add additional east-west bus routes, and increase the service frequency on existing
routes, to address the problem of limited east-west access within Community District #8.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTNERS
Bronx CB 8; Riverdale Nature Preservancy
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Many public meetings were held over the course of the plan’s development. A questionnaire was
distributed among community groups throughout the district and interviews were held with
agencies throughout the district.
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1999
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
SUBMITTED TO
Department of City Planning
CITY ACTION?
Plan was approved and implemented in 2004.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATE SUBMITTED: July 2001
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX17
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 15, 16, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 3
NAME OF PLAN: Achieving a Balance: Housing and Open Space in Bronx Community
District 3
Community Organization: Design Trust for Public Space, Bronx Community Board 3, Trust for
Public Land
Address: 338 West 39th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10018
Contact Name: Karen Hock
Phone Number: 212.695.2432
TYPE OF PLAN
Housing Revitalization Plan; Open Space and Recreation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Bronx CD 3
NEIGBORHOOD BACKGROUND
Community District 3 in the south central Bronx has been the proving ground of many of the
intense changes and conflicts that have marked urban America in the late 20th century.
Widespread disinvestments and abandonment of real property coupled with massive
suburbanization decimated its population base by 75% from 1950 to 1980. Since the mid-1980s,
however, it has experienced significant reinvestment, primarily under the Ten Year Housing Plan
initiated by Mayor Edward I. Koch, which capitalized on the city’s vast supply of vacant lots and
residential buildings acquired through property tax foreclosures. Up to 2,822 subsidized housing
units have been constructed in the district since 1985, largely under the New York City Housing
Partnership’s homeownership programs, and an estimated 3,600 rehabilitated apartments have
been returned to active use. While homeownership development has helped to stabilize the
district, the focus on low-density housing has compromised other forms of development such as
neighborhood open space. Rather than characterizing a sustainable urban infrastructure, the
study's findings present a picture of contradictions, opposing forces and competing interests.
GOALS OF PLAN
• Mapping and analyzing the overall relationship between housing and open space.
• Demonstrating how to preserve or create open space while absorbing most or all of the
housing that can be reasonably built.
• Developing planning and design recommendations for “building neighborhoods” by
optimally integrating housing and open space.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Achieving a Balance proposes a number of development strategies for Community District 3 that
address continued housing need, promote sustainable community development, capitalize on
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
existing public open space, and maximize opportunities for open space development. The
following recommendations form the basis for ongoing dialogue at the community level between
the community board, city agencies and local stakeholders.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Develop additional affordable housing through a variety of city, state and federal programs.
Develop remaining housing sites at densities that are consistent with the 197-a plan and
existing R6 and R7 zoning.
Consider alternate housing typologies and financing programs.
Expand opportunities for housing development by rezoning the Morrisania M1-1 district to
MX.
Adopt a comprehensive policy with regard to the disposition of vacant city-owned land,
taking into account the recreational and quality of life needs of communities in addition to
housing and economic revitalization.
Identify and set aside a number of vacant city-owned lots in Community District 3 for
development as neighborhood open space.
Develop an open space plan for the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Area that will serve
as a model for integrated housing and open space development.
Explore the possibility of converting the Franklin Armory into a community recreation and
cultural center.
Allocate public and private funds for the development or reconstruction of existing unutilized
parkland in Community District 3 and increase the Parks Department’s operating budget to
enable it to effectively manage and maintain the city’s open space resources.
The Parks Department, Partnership for Parks, and Friends of Crotona Park should work to
increase staffing, security and public presence in Crotona Park.
The city should recognize the value of community gardens as existing open space and
community resources and not merely vacant land when assembling sites for housing
development or sale.
Community Board 3 should convene a meeting with the Department of Housing Preservation
and Development, the New York City Housing Partnership, affected gardeners and
community development corporations to discuss the prospects of community gardens
included in housing development sites.
Link community gardens to local community organizations or institutions and transfer
ownership of the land to the Parks Department. Alternatively, donate the land to
organizations such as the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to be placed in a borough-wide land
trust.
Capitalize on vacant city-owned lots that are not suitable for housing (or commercial or
industrial uses) and develop them as playgrounds, vest-pocket parks and other neighborhood
open spaces.
Incorporate public open space in all new housing developments.
Incorporate public open space in commercial and industrial or mixed-use developments.
Initiate a district-wide street tree-planting program.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
No schedule for implementation. The goal of the project was to influence citywide policy as well
as make specific recommendations to be taken up by the Community Board.
PARTNERS
Bronx Community Board 3; Design Trust for Public Space; The Trust for Public Land
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The project was initiated in June 1999 and was grounded from the outset in community
participation and dialogue. It was led by a broadly representative Steering Committee, chaired by
John Dudley, District Manager of Community Board 3. The project team identified the salient
issues and development needs of the area through data gathering and analysis, development of a
geographic information systems (GIS) database, roundtable discussions, and interviews with
community gardeners, local housing developers and relevant government and non-profit agencies.
Key community stakeholders participated in a day-long planning and design workshop, or
charrette, to explore specific development strategies for housing, open space and other services in
targeted sites throughout the district.
OBSTACLES
With a critical shortage of affordable housing in New York City, the Giuliani administration was
committed to developing vacant city-owned land for housing and was not sympathetic to garden
preservation efforts. Several of the gardeners in Community District 3 were ordered to vacate
their gardens during the study period to make way for housing construction, threatening the
dialogue that had been established between community housing developers and open space
advocates. Ongoing litigation against the administration by the New York State Attorney General
has held up the development of these and other gardens throughout the city. Garden preservation
legislation is still pending at the City Council; however, there is an uncertainty about the new city
government administration.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA
Initial discussions between the Design Trust and the Trust for Public Land took place in late
1997. The actual project began in June 1999.
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
DATE SUBMITTED: 2000
SUBMITTED TO
Bronx Community Board 3. Distributed to Department of City Planning, Department of Housing
Preservation and Development and other city agencies, City Council members, and Attorney
General’s office
CITY ACTION
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX18
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2
NAME OF PLAN: Protecting Our Hunts Point Neighborhood from Dangerous Truck Traffic: A
Community Led Initiative to Create Safe Streets, A Study of Truck Traffic in Hunts Point, The
Bronx With Proposals to Minimize Traffic Impact
Community Organization: Mothers on the Move
Address: 928 Interval Ave., Bronx, NY 10459
Contact Name: James Mumm
Phone Number: 718.842.2224
TYPE OF PLAN
Transportation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Hunts Point Peninsula, Bronx
NEIGHBORHOOD BACKGROUND
The Hunts Point area in the Bronx is home to more than 8,000 people and hundreds of large and
small businesses. It is also home to one of the world’s largest produce markets and to New
York’s meat cooperative market, dozens of waste transfer stations, and a number of large
warehouses. The consequence of all this activity is that Hunts Point attracts at least 65,000
vehicle trips each weekday, including 11,000 truck trips entering or leaving the peninsula. Many
of these trucks drive through or near residential areas on their way to destinations within Hunts
Point.
GOALS OF PLAN
To move truck routes away from the residential community of Hunts Point to protect residents
from the dangers of truck traffic.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Remove Tiffany St. (from Bruckner Blvd. To Oak Point) as a truck route and divert trucks
currently using Tiffany to Leggett Ave.
• Keep Longwood Ave. off the truck route and divert trucks to Oak Point as an alternative
truck route.
• Remove Garrison Ave. (from Longwood to Whittier St.) as a truck route.
• Remove Hunts Point Ave. (from Oak Point Ave. to Halleck St.) as a truck route.
• Add Barry St., Dupont Ave., and Truxton St. as truck routes to give trucks grater access to
Oak Point Ave.
• The city should explore the idea of reconstructing the 156th bridge, which would provide an
ideal alternative for truck traffic, which would keep them away from residential areas on the
peninsula.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
PARTNERS
Community residents, Mothers on the Move and Community Consulting Services, Inc.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Prompted by the death of a local child who was hit by a truck, Mothers on the Move (MOM), a
community-based organization representing residents of Hunts Point and surrounding areas,
developed proposals to move truck traffic away from residential streets. This project began in the
fall of 1999 and was designed to collect and analyze the data needed to support or dismiss
MOM’s recommended actions. It entailed detailed vehicle counts by members of MOM, along
with machine counts of most entrances and exits servicing Hunts Point. It also involved counts at
the entrances and exits of the produce and meat markets. Another very significant resource was
data that was already collected by the local community development corporation, The Point, in
cooperation with City College Institute for Transportation Systems, for a related, but independent
project regarding air quality. All data were reduced, analyzed and combined to describe travel
throughout the area. In addition, New York State DOT accident data for 1998 (the latest data
available at the time) were arrayed for Bronx Community Board 2 and compared to traffic
volumes and Hunts Point truck activities.
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1998
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
DATE SUBMITTED: April 19, 2001
SUBMITTED TO
NYC Dept. of Transportation (DOT), Office of the Mayor
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX19
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 11, 14, 16
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 4, 5, 7, 8, 26
NAME OF PLAN: The Old Croton Aqueduct
Community Organization: The Parks Council (now New Yorkers for Parks)
Address: 355 Lexington Avenue, 14th Floor New York, NY 10017
Contact Name: Pamela Governale
Phone Number: 212-838-9410
TYPE OF PLAN
Open Space and Recreation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, where it passes through the Bronx from its northern extreme in Van
Cortlandt Park to High Bridge at its southern end.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The Aqueduct path in the Bronx is six to seven miles long and forms part of a 32-mile regional
trail way that starts at Croton Lake in Westchester County. In the Bronx, the Aqueduct passes
through four community board districts, three council districts and links about half a dozen
neighborhoods. It lies on top of a masonry tunnel –the Old Croton Aqueduct – that in 1842 first
brought pure water to the city and is now a National Historic Landmark. This green corridor,
which is included in the Bronx Greenway Plan (C5), is special even among National Historic
Landmarks for its multi-layers of social, cultural and technological history. Has great potential to
be a major historical, recreational and educational resource for the neighborhoods through which
it passes and the broader Bronx community.
Since the aqueduct began service to the city, the right-of-way of the Aqueduct has also become a
regional trail way connecting the communities along it path. In Westchester, the trail is widely
recognized and utilized, whereas in the Bronx, individual components of the Aqueduct system are
known only within their neighborhoods. This plan involves the development of a unified linear
park from the existing Aqueduct elements in the Bronx. Such an effort would combine
preservation, adaptive reuse, landscape design and community organizing. It is felt that the
regional quality of the Aqueduct could serve to unite the diverse communities along its path,
while the individual character of each community enriches the whole
This Parks Council study is the first step in building a coalition of Bronx residents and institution
that can join forces as a friends group. The Westchester Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct has
set a useful model for organizing volunteer efforts, and has already collaborated with the forester
of Van Cortlandt Park and the Bronx Landmarks Task Force to share common trail symbols and
guide format.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
GOALS OF PLAN
It is hoped that the Aqueduct can provide a new type of public space that will link parkland,
neighborhoods and people, as well as create recreational and educational opportunities for Bronx
residents. The guidelines proposed in this report attempt to establish cohesive strategies to
reinvigorate the Bronx portions of the Aqueduct. Through community involvement and careful
planning the Old Croton Aqueduct will become an invaluable open space resource for the Bronx.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To avoid confusion and better coordinate maintenance and development, all segments of the
Aqueduct trail should be given a single name and administered as a single park. In order to
facilitate the study of such a large area, the study area was divided into the following four
segments: Van Cortland/Kingsbridge, Fordham, University Ave. and High Bridge. The following
design guidelines were proposed to present a coherent design strategy, while allowing the
Aqueduct trail way to be shaped by its local context.
•
Van Cortland/Kingsbridge – Stabilize exposed section of the aqueduct tunnel, refurbish
waste weir in Van Cortland Park, clearly define trail.
•
Fordham – Improve lighting, build linear planters, build a mini basketball court, install water
sprinklers, create active and passive pathways, develop community and educational gardens,
and rebuild a pedestrian bridge at Burnside Ave.
•
University Ave. – Extend the mall in the middle of University Ave., Reprogram
underutilized space, emphasize tree canopy, clearly define trail.
•
High Bridge – Refurbish and reopen the High Bridge, refurbish the Monumental Stair in
high bridge park.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
There are several recommendations for catalyzing a community planning process that would
segue into the formation of a Bronx Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct Group. Such a group
would coordinate improvements made to the Aqueduct.
• Solicit cooperation from local school officials to develop trail way as an educational resource.
• Arrange informative events that focus on the Aqueduct to raise public awareness.
• Organize annual Aqueduct clean-up day in concert with citywide programs.
• Publish a map and guide to the trail.
• Involve local groups in maintenance plan and Adopt-a-Segment plans.
• Establish connection with City Parks Foundation and Partnership for Parks initiative.
• Develop trail signage in collaboration with Westchester Friends group.
• Establish mailing list of individuals, groups and businesses interested in improving and
maintaining Aqueduct.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The design study was carried out by Trevor Bullen, an architecture student at Harvard’s Graduate
School of Design, working at the Parks Council as a Harvard Community Design Fellow. It was
initiated at the suggestion of the Bronx Landmarks Task Force of the Bronx Borough Presidents
Office. During the development of the proposal, input and information was sought from
Community Boards, local parks and environmental organizations, the Department of
Environmental Protection and partner organizations. Tours were also done through parts of the
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Aqueduct with senior staff of Friends of Van Cordlandt Park, the Friends Planning Committee,
Van Cordlandt and Pelham Bay Parks Administration.
PARTNERS
Bronx Landmarks Task Force, Bronx Borough President’s Office, Friends of Van Cordlandt
Park, Arnold H. Vollmer Design Internship, Lucius N. Littauer Foundation
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: Sept 1996
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
SUBMITTED TO
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATE SUBMITTED: April 1997
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
MAP ID: BX20
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 8, 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 1
NAME OF PLAN: East 138th Street Revitalization Plan
Community Organization: South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO)
& 138th Street Merchants and Professionals Association.
Address: 555 Bergen Avenue, Bronx, NY 10455
Contact Name: Phillip Morrow
Phone Number: 718.292.3113
Fax Number: 718.292.3115
Website: www.sobro.org
TYPE OF PLAN
Economic/Commercial Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The 138th Street plan represents the Bronx southernmost neighborhoods of Mott Haven and Port
Morris and the retail area ob 138th Street that stretches from the Major Deegan Expressway to the
Bruckner Expressway.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
During the late 1980s and 90s, reinvestment and rehabilitation of the neighborhood began as local
residents began to mend the damage left by the previous decades. A variety of government
entities and partnerships with non-for profit organizations came together to create partnerships
that helped to transform vacant lots into moderate income housing, increasing homeownership.
Local initiatives have also assisted in creating Economic Development Zones with the appropriate
government involvement. In the last two decades, a strong alliance has formed with church
coalitions, community organizations, community development corporations, business leaders, and
government agencies who have supported the efforts to revitalize 138th Street and the surrounding
neighborhoods. The concepts of the East 138th Street Revitalization Plan will hopefully continue
to bring about positive change for the street, and the neighborhoods it connects.
At the community meetings these areas were further examined for possible improvements. These
meetings critiqued several areas within these zones that were considered undesirable. The main
areas of concern were the Portal and Gateway Zones and many of the intersections of cross streets
and 138th Street. Community residents recognized the importance of these areas as main entry
points into the 138th Street Corridor. These meetings provided the Concept Design Principles that
will be the main focus for the 138th Street Streetscape Revitalization Plan.
GOALS OF PLAN
The Goals of the 138th Streetscape Revitalization Plan revolve around four main principles:
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Make Connections - Reconnect 138th Street to the surrounding neighborhoods, to the
transportation infrastructure, and to the natural resources.
•
Create Continuity - Along the length of 138th Street, create a visually appealing and
experientially rich environment that encourages pedestrian activity at all hours.
•
Support Healthy Neighborhoods - Protect the safety and health of residents with designs
and regulations based on environmental justice.
•
Provide a Meaningful Mix - Develop a mix of businesses, services and spaces that embrace
community needs.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following overall strategies are recommended to achieve the goals mentioned above:
• Throughout Study Area:
► Enhance linkages to neighborhood cross streets, greenways, bikeways & waterfront.
► Improve traffic circulations and pedestrian safety and comfort.
► Infill strategies: observe existing street wall and building heights.
► Pedestrian/commuter amenities.
► Preserve existing community character-historic districts and intact commercial blocks are
assets.
► Cleaner Air Strategies: Make 138th Street a “no through trucks” street. Decrease idling
with improved traffic circulation; enforce truck idling rules and controls on delivery
times.
► Promote non-polluting transportation (walking, biking) with safer streetscapes.
► Recruit “clean air infrastructure” as job/economic development.
► Streetscape for safety; Install better lighting for enhanced security, improve crosswalks
and signaling and new crosswalks/signals.
► Protect and redevelop historic and cultural resources: Business recruitment and infill that
improves diversity and provides appropriate anchors (need detailed market study).
► Anti-Displacement strategies to assist existing businesses and residents to remain;
organize community ownership and caretaking.
•
At Green Edge:
► Add landscaping and street trees
► More and better green space for active and passive recreation.
► Outdoor marketplace to support activity in retail core and encourage micro-enterprises.
•
In Gateway Zone:
► Create commuter hub at Major Deegan/Grand Concourse, landscaped plaza, and active
uses for open lots.
•
In Portal Zone:
Repair gaps near Portal Zone to create sense of arrival and study expansion of mixed-use
zoning and improve pedestrian safety.
►
•
Industrial Auto Zone:
► Add trees and streetscaping and study infill strategies and survey buildings and
businesses in Old Industrial Area.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
Crossroads Zone:
► Improve edges and linkages to Third/Morris/Lincoln and landscape public spaces and
improve traffic circulation.
•
At Commercial Core:
► Encourage high quality visual merchandising, storefront improvements and appropriate
infill development
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The plan identifies many steps towards implementation. The steps below are some of the
highlights of these implementation measures:
• Work with relevant NYCDOT divisions to address circulation issues, such as (crosswalks and
crossing lights) and begin planning for longer-range infrastructure projects
• Seek capital funds for one or more major streetscape projects, e.g. Crossroads, Gateway, etc
• Work with citizens’ groups and agencies involved in open space projects and waterfront
access, including South Bronx Greenway Corridor, a bridge to Randall’s Island, Harlem
River sites, and miscellaneous vacant and underutilized parcels.
• Through Community Board 1, request overall traffic, transportation, and air quality study.
• Present Truck Route recommendations to NYCDOT truck study.
• Consider instituting a BID for 138th Street
• Work with the Department of Business Services to conduct a thorough market analysis and
shopper survey.
• Continue to build capacity of existing local businesses and organizations.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The participatory process was engaged and led by the City College Architectural Center. The
facilitation involved four meetings to solicit comments and suggestions from community
residents, leaders, business owners and representatives of several city agencies that are involved
in the community. The SoBRO Corporation and the 138th Street Merchants and Professionals
Association sponsored these meetings. Participants in these 4 meetings included the following:
Neighborhood residents, President of the Millbrook Houses Tenants Association, officers from
the 40th Police Precinct, Bronx Borough Presidents Office, the Bronx Overall Economic
Development Corporation, New York City Transit, the Bronx Office of the Department of City
Planning, the banking community and the New York City Department of Sanitation.
PARTNERS
SoBRO, 138th Street Merchants and Professional Association and the City College Architectural
Center.
OBSTACLES
Need to seek funding from city agencies in order to implement improvements.
TIMELINE
Ongoing, SoBRO will continue development work with Small Business Services funding. Each
component will have a termination date.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
INITIAL IDEA: 2002
FORMAL PLAN? Yes
DATE SUBMITTED: May 2003
SUBMITTED TO
NYC DOT; MTA; Bronx Borough Presidents Office; B.O.E.D.C, CB1; Council Jose Serrano Jr.;
138th Street Merchants Association
CITY ACTION?
Bronx DOT will install new lighting and re-paint crosswalks at 138th Street and Bruckner Blvd.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Currently working on the development of a year-round market.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18
MAP ID: BX21
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2, 9, 6, 11, 12
NAME OF PLAN: Bronx River Greenway Plan
Community Organization: Bronx River Alliance
Address: One Bronx River Parkway, Bronx NY 10462
Contact Name: Maggie Greenfield
Phone Number: 718-430-4635
Email: Maggie.greenfield@parks.nyc.gov
Website: www.bronxriver.org
TYPE OF PLAN
Waterfront Revitalization and Access Plan; Open Space and Recreation Plan; Transportation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
The Greenway’s route in the Bronx will run from the Bronx River’s mouth at the East River to
the border with Westchester County. The Greenway will run for the entire 23 miles of the Bronx
River, and eight of those miles are located within the Bronx. The Greenway has been divided
into four sections – from the East River to Bruckner Blvd., from Bruckner Blvd. to E. Tremont
Ave., from E. Tremont Ave. to Pelham Pkwy., and from Pelham Pkwy. to E. 211th St.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The construction of the Bronx River Parkway in the 1920s established the Bronx River
Reservation as a decorative landscaped border for the enjoyment of pleasure drivers in
Westchester County. The creation of Bronx Park in 1888, as well as the establishment of the New
York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo, ensured some protection for the river, though the Zoo
and the Garden now restrict most access to paying visitors. South of the Garden and the Zoo, the
river was polluted and abused, and its banks were bulkheaded and largely barricaded by industrial
uses. The channel itself was repeatedly altered, most recently in the mid-1960s when Robert
Moses shifted the river to make way for the Sheridan Expressway. Reconstruction of the Bronx
River Parkway during the same period left sections of the river, such as Muskrat Cove near the
border with Westchester County, inaccessible and abandoned. The construction of the highway
system—including the Sheridan, Cross-Bronx, Bruckner, and Major Deegan Expressways—
physically fragmented the Bronx and helped to usher in the decades of abandonment and
disinvestment that made the South Bronx an icon of urban decline in the 1970s and 80s.
Residents who stayed behind, however, were determined to rebuild their neighborhoods—and to
reclaim the Bronx River.
In 1997, environmental justice organizations joined with Partnerships for Parks, the National Park
Service Rivers and Trails Program, and the Appalachian Mountain Club to form a working group,
which drafted the Bronx River Action Plan in 1999, including the idea for the Greenway. The
Bronx River Working Group grew to include over 60 community organizations, government
agencies, businesses, and institutions. As the greenway gathered momentum, the Working Group
recognized the need to formalize and staff its work. The dozens of individual capital projects that
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
will realize the greenway are being implemented by different agencies—principally NYC Parks
and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT)—and require the cooperation
of many others. The Working Group incorporated as the Bronx River Alliance in 2001, with a
mission “to serve as a coordinated voice for the river and work in harmonious partnership to
protect, improve and restore the Bronx River corridor and greenway so that they can be healthy
ecological, recreational, educational and economic resources for the communities through which
the river flows.”
GOALS OF PLAN
• Manage the overall creation of the Greenway
► Identify greenway projects which are already completed, are in design or construction, or
have funding commitments in place and monitor the responsible agencies and current
status for these projects.
► Identify gaps which remain in the proposed greenway route and the issues that need to be
resolved in order to fill them.
► Identify on-street routes that connect the greenway to surrounding neighborhoods and
important destinations. These routes can serve as interim cycling and walking routes
while the greenway is being completed and will provide alternative travel routes for the
safety and convenience of users once the greenway is complete.
•
Establish a framework for the implementation of greenway projects that ensures
consistency along the trail and contributes to the ecological revitalization of the river
► Establish design standards and guidelines for greenway elements that will enable the
greenway to reflect a unified design vision that responds to the river’s varied contexts.
► Define Guidelines for Ecological Performance for greenway design, construction, and
maintenance to ensure consistency with the Alliance’s Ecological Restoration and
Management Plan.
•
Frame a strategy that will enable the greenway to be maintained over time, emphasizing
the mindful protection of the river
► Identify essential maintenance tasks and the resources required to carry them out,
highlighting issues of special concern for river and greenway users.
► Consider what organizational structure will best enable the maintenance of the greenway
to be coordinated with the work of existing NYC Parks district, borough, and citywide
maintenance and operations staff, as well as with the ongoing ecological restoration work
of the Bronx River Conservation Crew and NYC Parks’ Natural Resources Group.
► Anticipate maintenance and operational issues that are likely to arise as new segments of
the greenway come into use and identify strategies to address them.
► Consider ways that the Alliance can help to ensure that the greenway’s maintenance is
adequately funded into the future.
•
Identify opportunities for new programming that will broaden the base of greenway
users and create economic opportunity for local residents and businesses
► Explore the potential for concessions to contribute economically and programmatically to
the greenway.
► Identify actions the Alliance can take to encourage concessions that will enhance the
greenway and benefit users and residents.
► Identify ways that the Alliance can encourage development along and near the river that
will enhance the greenway and support the revitalization of the surrounding communities.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
►
Reaffirm the Alliance’s commitment to catalyzing development that will benefit rather
than displace the low- and moderate-income people who live within the watershed, and
identify actions the Alliance can take toward that end.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Greenway Creation/Construction
The Bronx River Greenway Plan includes a thorough overview of all the projects that will
come together to create the Greenway. These projects will largely be undertaken by city
agencies, particularly the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of
Transportation. These include: restoration and creation of connections between multiple
parks, including Concrete Plant Park, Starlight Park, Hunts Point Riverside Park, Muskrat
Cove, River Park, Ranaqua, and the Bronx River Forest Floodplain; as well as connections
between other greenways and on-street routes, including: the planned South Bronx
Greenway, the planned Bronx River Viaduct Greenway, and the Mosholu-Pelham Greenway.
It also includes many new public access points to the River.
•
Guidelines for Ecological Performance
► Landscape
1. Reduce site disturbance during construction.
2. Increase ecological connectivity and habitat diversity.
3. Increase public amenities and quality of life.
4. Eliminate or control invasive plant species.
►
Stormwater Management
1. Address water management early in the site planning process.
2. Increase the biological diversity and productivity of the Bronx River Corridor
3. Reduce and slow surface run-off to improve infiltration, control bank erosion,
and improve water quality.
►
Hardscape
1. Increase smart access to the river by avoiding or minimizing encroachment on
sensitive natural areas such as edges, buffer zones, and habitat connections.
2. Replace informal circulation networks with safe, well-designed bike and
pedestrian connections between parks and along the river, allowing adjacent
habitats to regenerate.
Streetscape
3. Maximize energy performance and longevity of products.
4. Improve safety and connections between parks and along the river.
Maintenance
1. Develop sites to create environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable
landscapes.
2. Plan for maintenance as an integral part of the greenway development process to
ensure safety and design integrity over time.
►
►
•
General Maintenance
Daily greenway maintenance tasks will be carried out by district-based staff. This
arrangement would deploy small crews to travel the length of the pathway each day in gatortype vehicles with trash cans, brooms, etc. A crew of four workers and a working supervisor
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
could cover up to eight miles of path by starting at the north and south ends, and meeting
mid-way.
•
Safety
Like other NYC parks, the greenway will be “closed” from dusk to dawn to activities other
than travel along the pathways. This provides a basis for the New York City Police
Department and Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) to challenge people who loiter or
congregate in parks, and gives them the power to arrest people who refuse to leave. However,
the discretion this policy requires of officers is open to misunderstanding and, at times, to
abuse. Several of the Alliance’s member organizations testify that police have unfairly
targeted young people and adults of color for activities—sitting on a bench, smoking a
cigarette, walking in a group—that arguably would not provoke a similar response in white
and affluent communities. The Alliance will promote communication between greenway
users and NYPD and PEP and support efforts by community organizations to fight
discrimination and profiling, while encouraging enforcement practices that make the Bronx
River Greenway a welcoming and safe environment for all.
There are some portions of the greenway that will be relatively isolated from residential or
other night-time uses that provide natural observation. Security cameras may be helpful in
some locations and circumstances, but there are significant limitations on their application.
•
Concessions
Encourage entrepreneurs to develop greenway-related concessions by:
► Working through local networks to publicize the opportunities the greenway offers for
food and recreation concessions.
► Identifying potential sites for various kinds of concessions (while being responsive to the
savvy of the entrepreneurs themselves in selecting desirable sites)
► Providing potential concessionaires with information about Parks concession protocols
and requirements, including the 30-day trial license.
► Commissioning a market study that would enable potential concessionaires and
freestanding businesses to assess the economic potential for new enterprises (this could
be undertaken in partnership with established economic development agencies, such as
the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation).
► Most importantly, by continuing and expanding programming—and encouraging
additional programming—to expand the base of greenway and blueway users.
•
Alliance Programming to Support Greenway/Blueway Use
► The Alliance can help to encourage greenway-related activity by supporting: organized
walks / walking clubs, running groups / clubs / teams, bicycling and in-line skating,
recreational canoeing / kayaking, and other events and activities, including children’s
concerts, film series, festivals, etc.
► The Alliance can encourage these activities by: Developing informational materials, such
as walking, biking, and canoeing maps and guides; directly sponsoring guided walks,
bike rides, running events, skating events, and canoe trips (including and in addition to
those on the current calendar); and assisting other organizations who wish to sponsor
events by providing information, calendar listings, and technical assistance.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
•
The Greenway as a Catalyst for Economic Development
There is no doubt that the greenway has the potential to stimulate economic development in
the neighborhoods alongside the Bronx River. Demand for many goods and services will
grow as people discover the river and the greenway. The Alliance can take steps to help
locally-owned businesses take advantage of this new demand, to the benefit of greenway
users and local entrepreneurs alike. The Alliance will need to articulate a relationship
between its own values and the ways in which it responds to development initiated by others
in the watershed. While there is a very broad range of enterprises that the Alliance would
welcome, there may be some which we would not support or which it might even oppose.
•
The Greenway and Revitalization of Watershed Communities
The opening of the greenway will sooner or later affect land values in the watershed’s
neighborhoods. This generally benefits local property owners, but it will also lead to
increases in both residential and commercial rents. Most watershed residents, and most
owners of small businesses, are tenants rather than property owners. The Alliance’s status as
a public-private partnership means that it can have unique opportunities to influence decision
making on land use. In this way, the Alliance can help to ensure that the people who have
worked to reclaim the river and build the greenway can enjoy the fruits of their efforts, rather
than being displaced as a result of them. Appropriate roles for the Alliance include:
► Weigh in where there is public review or subsidy of private development projects.
Support projects that are consistent with its values, and oppose those that are not.
► Where appropriate, be a partner, co-applicant, or supporter when community-based
organizations seek site control and/or funding for brownfield planning, cleanup, and
development in the watershed.
► Use its influence to bring public agency landowners to the table, especially when they
own vacant or underutilized land that could be put to a community use.
► Work with nonprofit or for-profit developers on projects that will create public access as
a component of affordable housing development projects (such as the Loral site in
Soundview).
► Consider ways that the greenway can be augmented by a network of green spaces in
upland neighborhoods. Work with watershed communities to plan and implement
projects that will connect these neighborhoods to the river, reduce paved area, and
manage stormwater.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The greenway represents a new kind of park, in which harmonizing ecological, recreational, and
social values will require new approaches to design, maintenance, and management. The Alliance
has developed statements of principles addressing: Soil and stormwater management; Use of
chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, paints and coatings, cleaning chemicals, ice melters, etc.);
Landscaping – practices within and outside of identified natural areas; Minimizing energy
consumption, fossil fuel use, solid waste, and air pollution; Community ownership and
stewardship; and Maximizing opportunities for local residents.
As the greenway comes into being, the Alliance will need to work closely with NYC Parks to
operationalize those principles, recognizing that achieving consistency in practice involves more
than simply writing and then following a set of rules. There are situations in which design for
maximum recreational use may need to be reconciled with design for stormwater capture (e.g.,
should open areas be graded flat to allow play, or contoured to detain stormwater?). There can
even be conflict among priorities within the framework of our ecological principles; the question
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
of using herbicides to control invasive plants is an example. Decisions about the structure and
supervision of maintenance and operations also bear on the Alliance’s emphasis on inclusion and
maximizing opportunity. These decisions will continue to be important to the Alliance in
providing living-wage jobs and professional development opportunities for Bronxites. For
example, the ways that the Bronx River Conservation Crew works with NYC Parks district and
borough level staff can open points of entry for local residents into a range of NYC Parks and
conservation career opportunities.
From the Alliance’s emphasis on inclusion, collaboration, environmental justice, responsiveness,
communication, ecological restoration, it follows that: Greenway maintenance and operations
decision making is accountable to the Bronx River Administrator; The Alliance learns from and
builds on its experience over time; and Design, construction, and maintenance planning are
integrated, allowing for integration with Alliance goals and objectives.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
This plan was reviewed through a series of community meetings and discussions, hosted by
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, the Bronx River Art Center, and Bronx Community
Board 12.
PARTNERS
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, Pratt Center for Community Development, a full list
of supporters and funders can be found at: http://www.bronxriver.org/WhoWeArePartners.cfm
OBSTACLES
The public-private partnership between the Bronx River Alliance and the Parks Department
resulted in required reviews of the plan by the Parks Department Capital Division and the Parks
Commissioner, creating another layer of work for planners. Yet at the same time, this made the
plan more operable.
TIMELINE
INITIAL IDEA: 1970s (original idea), 1990s (action plan)
SUBMITTED: 2005
FORMAL PLAN? yes DATE
SUBMITTED TO:
City Planning Commission, NY State Dept. of Transportation, NYC Dept. of Transportation,
Bronx Council Members and Community Boards, Art Commission (design guidelines only)
CITY ACTION?
The Art Commission approved the design guidelines. The Parks Dept. formally approved the
plan, and now manages its implementation, with help from the Bronx River Alliance.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
Slight revisions were made to the design guidelines about a year and a half after the plan was
released, based on feedback from designers and users.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From 2006-2007, more design guidelines for signage were approved by the Parks Dept. and the
Art Commission.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH:
Bronx
MAP ID: BX 22
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2
NAME OF PLAN: Greening Hunts Point Community Forestry Management Plan
Community Organization: Greening for Breathing (GFB), NY Tree Trust, NYC Department of
Parks and Recreation
Address: c/o Sustainable South Bronx
Contact Name: Miquela Craytor
Phone Number: 889 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx, NY 10474
Email: mcraytor@ssbx.org
Website: http://www.ssbx.org/
TYPE OF PLAN – Open Space and Recreation Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
Hunt’s Point is located in the southwest Bronx. It is bounded by the Bruckner Expressway to the
north and west, the Bronx River to the east, and the East River to the south.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
Hunts Point is a community with one of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the country.
Burdened by heavy truck traffic and commercial pollution, residents of Hunts Points have
expressed concern over their local environmental problems for a number of years. During the
mid-1990’s residents of Hunts Point became increasingly concerned about the rising asthma rates
among children in their community. Identifying pollution as a source of this problem, these
residents formed the group Greening for Breathing to create a vision for greening Hunts Point and
in turn reducing asthma rates in the community.
GOALS OF PLAN
• To increase the number of trees planted.
• To increase the health of the urban forest.
• To help all trees reach maturity.
• To involve the community in all aspects of the Greening Plan.
RECOMMENDATIONS
After conducting a survey of the neighborhood and identifying existing and potential tree sites
GFB created a Priority Management zone in which to focus tree planting and tree protection
activities. This area is primarily confined to commercial and residential streets and excludes the
industrial areas of the neighborhood. It is recommended that the industries in the industrial are be
encouraged to plant and protect trees; however they are not eligible for priority public funding to
do so.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The greening strategy is identified in three key areas: Tree Planting; Stewardship and Protection
and Outreach. The objective and action plan for each of these three key areas is as follows:
•
Tree Planting
► Objective 1 - Reach an 80% stocking level in the designated priority management zone
over five years.
► Submit 90 tree planting requests each year.
► Plant 76 trees in the Priority Management Zone.
► Plant trees in locations to maximize air quality.
► Plant species to maximize air quality.
► Increase species diversity.
► Utilize the highest tree planting standards & newest technologies.
•
Stewardship and Protection
► Objective 2: Improve the survival rate and health of young trees.
► Recruit and train 30 new stewards over a five year period and supply
them with tools.
► Stimulate two new Green Blocks.
► Certify 15 local citizen pruners.
► Buy and install 500 tree protection devices.
► Rescue trees threatened by unhealthy growing conditions.
► Maintain a routine seven year pruning cycle.
► Prevent insect and disease problems.
►
Remove dead trees promptly.
•
Outreach
► Objective 3: Increase community members’ awareness of the relationship between trees
and air quality.
► Designate and promote 20 large trees.
► Install 100 signs that remind and educate community members of trees’ needs.
► Build membership and volunteer base.
► Sponsor five special events annually.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreations worked with GFB to develop a vision
for the greening Hunts Point. The city worked with to community surveying existing trees,
identifying new planting locations, establishing goals and setting priorities. A key component of
the implementation of the plan is performing community outreach to ensure sustainability and
sensitivity to community needs.
PARTNERS
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; The New York Tree Trust; New York State
Department of Environmental Conservation
OBSTACLES
TIMELINE
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
INITIAL IDEA mid 1990s
FORMAL PLAN? Yes DATE SUBMITTED December 2003
SUBMITTED TO - NYC Department of Parks and Recreation
CITY ACTION?
The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (Parks) is charged with managing the
city’s urban forest within much of the public right-of way (both street and park trees). Parks,
together with its non-profit partner, the New York Tree Trust, seeks innovative ways to provide
the best services possible. This pilot project establishes a model plan for communities, working in
partnership with Parks, to take an active role in managing their urban forest.
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
BOROUGH: Bronx
COUNCIL DISTRICT: 17
MAP ID: BX 23
COMMUNITY DISTRICT: 2
NAME OF PLAN: The Oak Point Eco-Industrial Park: A Sustainable Economic Development
Proposal for the South Bronx
Community Organization: Sustainable South Bronx and Green Worker Cooperatives
Address: 890 Garrison Avenue, 4th Floor, The Bronx, NY 10474
Contact Name: Majora Carter
Phone Number: 718. 617. 4668
Email: ssbinfo@gmail.com
Website: http://www.ssbx.org
TYPE OF PLAN
Economic/Commercial Revitalization Plan
GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF PLAN
This study indicates the feasibility of developing a $36 million dollar eco-industrial park on an
approximately 28-acre, waterfront brownfield site in Hunts Point, in the South Bronx. The site is
located in the western corner of the Oak Point rail yard next to Bruckner Boulevard, across the
river from Rikers Island.
NEIGHBORHOOD/PLAN BACKGROUND
The South Bronx has historically borne a much larger burden of noxious environmental and other
undesirable uses than most of the rest of New York City. With 15 waste transfer stations,
processing about 25 percent of the city's waste, and a sewage plant handling more than half the
city's sludge, more than 11,000 diesel trucks per day drive through the South Bronx. The
neighborhood is also downwind from four large power plants that dot the East River shoreline.
Unsurprisingly, the area has the second-highest asthma rate in the country.
This property has historically been used as an illegal landfill. Now, the City is hoping to take the
property by eminent domain in order to relocate two City jails, one currently located near Yankee
Stadium, and another floating barge jail that is currently parked on the waterfront in another part
of the Bronx. In addition to housing 2,040 inmates, the proposed complex would have 600
parking spaces and a kitchen where meals for all of the city’s jails would be prepared.
The site is one of the largest undeveloped parcels of land in all of New York City. Bronx
Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr., supports the idea of moving the jails because it would
allow for the development of a park with riverfront access where the barge is currently parked. It
is anticipated that the City will be able to utilize monies from the New York State Environmental
Restoration Fund (i.e., 90% contribution from the State) for brownfield remediation on the site.
Neighborhood advocates oppose the jail relocation, and have created this alternative site plan
based on principles of sustainability and retention of manufacturing jobs.
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
GOALS OF PLAN
An eco-industrial park is a community of manufacturing and service businesses seeking enhanced
environmental and economic performance through collaboration in the management of waste,
energy, water, and raw materials. The goal of an EIP is to improve the economic performance of
the participating companies while minimizing their environmental impact. Components of this
approach include pollution prevention and energy/water efficiency.
Compared to a traditional industrial park, the emphasis of an EIP on material, energy, and water
efficiency reduces both pollution and demands for natural resources typically used as raw
materials. In short, the waste of one business becomes the resource of another. The proposed Oak
Point Eco-Industrial Park (Eco Park) is based on the EIP model.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The site can accommodate development of 495,000 square feet (11.4 acres) of leasable space in
six parcels. On each, a well-insulated, “Butler-style” building would be constructed with recycled
steel, landscaping, water management and energy systems that may qualify the building for
federal and state “green building” tax credits. Buildings would have access to rail and water for
receiving and shipping via an elevated, computer-operated conveyor system.
•
Facilities at the eco-industrial park would include:
► a construction and demolition (C&D) debris recycling facility, which would operate
in a fully-enclosed 160,000 square foot building, provide existing C&D transfer stations
with financial incentives to close down 2,000 tons-per-day of outdoor operations, replace
some 36,500 outgoing truck trips from the Bronx annually (145 daily) with shipments by
barge and rail, and create 80 jobs.
►
a plastics product manufacturer, which would produce railroad ties using mixed plastic
waste materials from post-industrial and post-consumer sources, provide the city’s
recycling processors with a convenient market for the 31.5 million pounds of mixed
plastics in the city’s current recycling stream, enable the recycling program to expand
into some of the 245 million more pounds of unrecycled plastics in the city’s refuse
stream, and create 155 jobs.
►
a paper converting operation, which would convert one-ton “parent rolls” of 100%
recycled-content paper into individually-wrapped, consumer-sized rolls and packages of
tissues and towel products for sale under its supply contracts with the federal government
and major commercial and institutional buyers, and which would create 50 jobs,
including 15 for the blind and visually-impaired.
►
a wood salvage and re-milling operation, which would sort heavy and antique timber,
beams, joists, shoring lumber and plywood salvaged from demolished buildings and
construction sites by dimensions and species, would wholesale about half to lumber mills
and timber framing companies, would retail about one quarter to highway construction,
bridge refurbishing, and other contractors, would re-mill the rest into dimensional lumber
and blanks for architectural and fine carpentry applications, and would create 20 jobs.
►
a glass powder manufacturing facility, which would process the 77,870 tons of mixed
glass cullet and container glass from the city’s recycling program into a valuable “green”
building material, namely a clean, dry “glass powder” that can replace up to 40% of the
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Portland cement used in making concrete masonry blocks and ready-mix concrete, and
which would create 30 jobs.
►
a small non-profit facility with educational exhibition space about recycling, re-use, and
re-manufacturing and incubator space for craftspeople designing artworks or products
made from recycled materials, a small cafe and the possible inclusion of a child-care
facility for children of the employees.
Together, the five operating facilities would generate upwards of $90 million in annual revenues,
including some $70 million in sales of products made from recycled waste materials that most
recyclers and processors consider to have low-end use and value. The eco-industrial park would
be in an M-3 industrial zone. Each of the prospective users is allowed as of right.
•
Job creation:
The facilities at the eco-industrial park would create some 335 living- wage jobs.
Construction work at the eco-industrial park would also provide significant business and
employment opportunities for local women-owned and minority-owned businesses and the
local workforce. The construction manager would compile lists of local women-owned and
minority-owned general contractors and trade subcontractors, would assist the architects in
sizing bid packages to elicit responses from small firms, and would identify contractors with
good reputations and track records in recruiting local and minority workers.
To maximize local hiring after construction, the park’s management would educate occupant
companies about the employee tax credits available to them by hiring residents of the Bronx
Empowerment Zone. It would also introduce them to community-based organizations, local
development corporations, and local employment and training programs as sources for
referrals of local residents. And, the occupancy agreement’s terms and conditions would
require that companies recruit locally through such organizations and complete an annual
census of employees listing their zip code of residence.
•
Logistics and Transportation:
The facilities of the eco-industrial park would achieve a net reduction of some 20,100 truck
trips annually (84 daily) by shipping and receiving on 4,300 barges and railcars a year (17 a
day). The 696,000 annual tons (2,784 daily) of incoming materials would necessitate
deliveries by an estimated 181 barges annually (0.7 daily), 831 rail cars annually (3.3 daily),
and 71,034 trucks annually (284 daily). Because the estimated 62,000 trucks delivering
annually to the C&D recycling facility (248 daily) would be diverted from the borough’s
existing C&D transfer stations, there would be no net increase in truck deliveries as a result
of the new facility. The 696,000 annual tons (2,784 daily) of outgoing products and residual
waste shipment would necessitate deliveries by an estimated 388 barges annually (1.6 daily),
2,908 rail cars annually (11.6 daily), and 7,457 trucks annually (29.8 daily).
Because the estimated 500,000 annual tons (2,000 daily) of C&D products and residual waste
would be shipped out almost entirely on 388 barges annually and 875 rail cars annually (3.5
daily), the new C&D facility would eliminate the estimated 37,500 annual truck shipments
(150 daily) that would otherwise be coming out of the borough’s existing C&D transfer
stations. Hence, the new C& D recycling facility would significantly advance the Solid Waste
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Management Plan’s goal of transitioning the commercial waste handling sector from road to
rail and barge.
The eco-industrial park will provide up to 200 parking spaces for an anticipated 335
employees over three shifts plus visitors. Parking will be sufficient. Most of the workforce
will be local and can be expected to arrive on foot via bus and subway. The park is located
approximately 10 minutes’ walk from the number 6 subway stations at East 149th Street and
Longwood Avenue as well as from the numbers 6, 17, and 19 bus lines. Passenger vehicles
and freight vehicles will enter and leave the park through a two-lane access road that is
reached from the western end of Oakpoint Avenue. The entry-exit point will be gated. Access
will be gained by intercom to tenants, and tokens will be used to operate the gate for egress.
IDENTIFIED STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Financially, development of the $36 million eco-industrial park would be feasible in a structure
like the following:
• a long-term (eg., 99-years’) ground lease from the City of New York
• $27 million in tax-exempt bond financing from the Bronx Empowerment Zone and/or the
New York City Industrial Development Agency
• $9 million in developer’s equity and/or credit-enhancing loans
• ground lease payments to the City equivalent to net operating income after the payment
of debt service, operating costs, lenders’ reserves, and distributions to investors
• leases to occupants of the park at an average minimum triple-net building rent of between
$8 to $10 per square foot
Facilities would be responsible for securing all applicable city, state, and federal permits. Except
for the C&D recycling facility, all of the facilities would likely be exempt from both city and state
solid waste regulations and state recyclable handling and recovery regulations because they are
“manufacturing facilities.” For this reason too, they would be exempt from state regulations
prohibiting solid waste management facilities in regulated wetlands.
The new C&D facility would qualify for a solid waste transfer permit from the city’s Department
of Sanitation. It would comply with the enhanced protections effective in Bronx Community
District 2 under City requirements, including the responsibility to secure a corresponding
reduction (offset) in the lawful daily permitted throughput capacity at construction and demolition
debris or putrescible transfer stations within the community district. The new C&D facility would
also qualify for a Part 360 permit from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. It
would seek a variance from state regulations prohibiting solid waste management facilities in
regulated wetlands based on its unique situation in the park, its positive economic, public health,
safety, and environmental benefits for the community, and the absence of any significant adverse
impacts on public health or the environment.
The park would be a use consistent with the Significant Maritime and Industrial Area site
restrictions under the city’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) as mandated by
federal and state Coastal Zone Management Acts.
Considering other possible uses for the site, the study recommends that the City prepare a Generic
Environmental Impact Statement including the eco-industrial park, that the City Environmental
Quality Review Process be sufficient to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review
Act and the National Policy Review Act, and that the State Department of Environmental
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
Conservation, the Army Corps of Engineers, the State Department of State, the State Historic
Preservation Office, the City Landmarks Preservation Commission and other appropriate
agencies be included in the process so that, if necessary, mitigating measures may be designed
and additional permitting processes may be expedited.
The environmental review process would analyze any impacts on the waterfront, tidal wetlands
and the Brother Islands from the perspectives of Special Natural Waterfront Areas under the
LWRP, state-designated significant coastal fish and wildlife habitats, and permitting requirements
for dredging (if any should be required) and uses in tidal wetlands. The park would be carefully
designed with the intent of mitigating any such impacts as well as enhancing the community’s
access to the waterfront through the South Bronx Greenway for which the master plan was
released by the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) in the fall of 2006. Leases at
the park would require that occupants provide certification from barge operators to operate in a
manner compatible with proximity to the island’s wildlife preserves. It appears that dredging may
be unnecessary as the depth at mean lower low water adjacent to the park’s bulkhead was fifteen
feet in December, 2005 surveys.
Finally, the study recommends that NYC EDC issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the
development and management of the eco-industrial park that seeks qualified developers with
experience in commercial and industrial development – preferably, including “green” buildings in
economically distressed urban areas – done in collaboration with non-profit environmental or
community-based development organizations. Limited partnerships and joint ventures between
for-profit developers and non-profit environmental or community-based development
organizations should receive preference. And, the RFP should specify that it is the intent of the
RFP to achieve the objectives and findings of this study and to engage the study’s sponsors and
other representatives of the local community in the development and management of the park.
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
A series of community workshop meetings helped to inform the design and components of this
feasibility analysis. Sustainable South Bronx and Green Worker Cooperatives conducted over
seven community workshops reaching over 60 participants, some of which took place with
members of The Point CDC, St. Luke’s Church, and Community Board 2. These workshops
collected input and feedback from the community to listen to their concerns and desires for an
eco-industrial park. This information was then tabulated and used to inform the authors of this
study to ensure that the community’s needs were integrated into the park’s structure and design.
Sustainable South Bronx and Green Worker Cooperatives are conducting more workshops in
order to share the results of this study, the findings of the first workshops and to collect additional
feedback.
PARTNERS
David M. Muchnick, J.D., Ph.D., Sustainable Enterprise (Business Plan and Feasibility Analysis);
Joan Byron, RA, Pratt Center for Community Development (Concept Drawings, Zoning Analysis
& Construction Cost Estimates); Stephen A. Hammer, Ph.D., Mesa Cosa LLC (Alternative
Energy Analysis); E. Gail Suchman, Esq. (Regulatory Analysis)
OBSTACLES
The site’s future remains uncertain (See Additional Information).
This information is provided from Planning for All New Yorkers: An Atlas of Community-Based Plans in New York
City, a project of the Community-Based Planning Task Force and the Municipal Art Society Planning Center.
TIMELINE:
INITIAL IDEA: 1997 FORMAL PLAN? yes
DATE SUBMITTED: n/a
SUBMITTED TO:
CITY ACTION?
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO PLAN
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In late February 2008, EDC said it was abandoning plans to construct a jail on the site, leaving
the site’s future up in the air. SSB had sued to stop the jail project, and SSB’s lawyers learned of
the reversal while waiting for city attorneys to comply with a Jan. 15, 2008 court order requiring
them to supply SSB with a list of documents on the land deal. However, as of press time, SSB
remains dedicated to opposing the jail, as Jack Yoskowitz, a lawyer representing SSB told the
Daily News on March 3, 2008, “We still don't know what exactly is going on. [The city] could
say they won't proceed, but they could change their mind next week or when a new
administration comes in."