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 application's threshold of 1.3 open-space units per 1,000 residents). City staff told the hearing they used metrics including density of unserved residents, open-space ratio, and a poverty-rate threshold (17.9%) to identify districts for this pilot.

Parks staff described how sites were screened. Primary sites were identified through land-use codes denoting vacant lots and a minimum size of about 5,000 square feet; secondary sites are built properties (commercial, industrial, parking) of at least 5,000 square feet whose existing development is 50% or less of what zoning allows and that lie within the identified unserved "pink" areas on Parks' maps. Examples cited in the presentation included vacant lots in East Elmhurst and parcels along Junction Boulevard and a commercial strip on 80th Street. One site noted in the presentation is nearly two acres.

Alderson explained the acquisition process if a willing seller emerges: Parks will notify owners, DCAS will appraise, Parks will conduct environmental site investigation, the Parks commissioner must request budget approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before acquisition funding is committed, DCAS would make and negotiate the offer, the Law Department would close the deal, and Parks' capital design team would proceed with community input and project design if a property is acquired. Alderson said Parks currently has some capital funds but not enough to acquire and develop all 21 sites and that final costs will depend on appraisals and market conditions; she gave acquisition examples ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to "a million or $2,000,000," depending on site and location.

The department asked the borough president's office to transmit its recommendation to the City Planning Commission. Alderson said the ULURP authorization would include a 10-year sunset clause: if approved, Parks' site-selection authority for the listed sites would expire after ten years. She also described required owner notifications: property owners on the list have already received two letters and will get another before the City Planning Commission hearing; Parks staff said they plan periodic outreach, will monitor Department of Buildings permits and owner activity, and will follow up once or twice a year to "take a temperature" on interest.

Questions from the chair clarified that primary sites are currently vacant and secondary sites are improved properties; Alderson said owners who contact Parks have sometimes provided additional contact details and plans, and Parks is prepared to continue outreach. Community Board 3's prior review was noted: the board gave conditional approval for a subset of the sites and included a condition that Parks meet with Community Board 3 within 90 days after acquiring any property. Alderson agreed Parks could meet within 90 days of acquiring a site and said community input meetings are part of Parks' capital design process.

There was no public testimony at the land-use hearing; the chair closed the item and the hearing. Next steps described by Parks staff are review by the City Planning Commission followed by the City Council's review period; any acquisition would require DCAS appraisal and OMB budget approval before a purchase offer is made.

The hearing presentation and staff responses focus on the ULURP site-selection authorization, the screening criteria used to identify candidate sites, the 10-year sunset on acquisition authority, outreach to property owners, and the multi-step acquisition process that would be required should a willing seller be identified. The initiative is presented as a tool to streamline the city's ability to acquire land for neighborhood parks in areas with demonstrated open-space deficits.