NYC Parks asks approval to pursue up to 21 sites for neighborhood parks in Queens Community Board 3

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services asked the Queens Borough President's land-use hearing to approve a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) site-selection application that would allow the city to pursue acquisition of up to 21 properties in Queens Community District 3 for conversion to neighborhood parks, Parks chief Colleen Alderson said.

Alderson told the hearing the application would preauthorize site selection so the city can act more quickly if property owners indicate they are willing to sell. "Local parks are very critical parts of neighborhoods. They're essential urban infrastructure," she said. The application covers five primary (vacant) sites and 16 secondary (improved nonresidential) sites; Parks said it does not expect to acquire all 21 properties and will pursue only willing sellers.

The application is framed to help close the city's "walk-to-a-park" gap. Alderson said the city is at about 84.2% of residents living within walking distance of a park and the municipal goal is 85% by 2030; she said Community District 3 has about 180,000 residents and roughly 50,000 who are unserved, and the district's open-space ratio was about 0.91 (under the…