From the Times Ledger:Warehouse construction has slowed on the St. Saviour’s site in Maspeth as the city is planning yet another round of negotiations to acquire the property and build a park. But community activists say money is not the most pressing issue.
According to a city source, the owner of the property, at 57-40 58th St. in Maspeth, approached the city and is trying to strike a deal, although the two sides previously came up with property values that differed by millions of dollars.
But Christina Wilkinson of the Newtown Historical Society said money negotiations should come later since the legal process for the city to acquire the land could take years.
“They’re doing it backwards, and it’s putting the whole thing in jeopardy,” she said. “They really need to start now ... this process takes a long time.”
The process is called the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and, according to the city Parks Department web site, agreeing on a price is not the first step.
The ULURP process includes many planning stages and plenty of reviews by committees. Only an initial start-up cost is required, a cost that the Parks Department said it had in a letter to the Juniper Park Civic Association late last year.
The letter stated that after donations from Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), the city said it had the money to begin the process.
But it has not set the wheels in motion — a decision that baffled Wilkinson.
“You didn’t have the money, but now you have it. So what’s holding it up?” she said.
Bloomberg?
Here's more from the Forum West.
13 comments:
How about $65 million for the Queens Museum?
There is no reason why this property is not already bought. It now has a disgraceful political legacy a history of destruction.
As a former trustee of the Queens Historical Society, I have observed many inequities over the years when it comes to the sad state of historic preservation in our borough.
The deserving St. Saviour's should have been designated a municipal landmark and saved on site!
Now, the town of Maspeth certainly deserves its park---without any further delay---on this historic promontory, so that the remains of the church (now in storage) can be reassembled there.
I find it very curious how eminent domain proceedings can be put onto the express track when it comes to the Willets Point development project---but the acquisition by NYC of the St. Saviour's site for public parkland winds up running like a creaking local train with delayed service.
Will you help expedite the process of parkland acquisition, Borough President Marshal, or will you wind up being perceived as having followed in the footsteps of Donald Manes by letting this one slip through the cracks?
Bloomberg has turned his back on Queens a long time ago. Worst NYC mayor ever!
i'm keeping my fingers crossed and believe that a park will be there one day. we all know bloomberg and his staff read crapper and this would be the biggest embarrassment for him and the city if they put a park there.. he promotes going green and it will benefit the community and the business surrounding it. plus it's alot less costly then the park in brooklyn..
Is it possible that proximity to the Maspeth Creek means this is tangled up in the NYC Waterfront planning initiative? A lot of industrial ("M" zone) properties are going to be offered wonderful incentives to relocate, in order to create residential waterfront "playgrounds." Seems to me this is one of the places they'd end up... "distressed" socio-economic areas of Queens and Staten Island get the shaft so the hipsters can get new luxury waterfront view coop/condo units, commercial interests get tax incentives, and the hell with everyone else.
As posted previously, Maspeth was completely left out of the city's waterfront initiative.
Bloomberg does bite the one eyed worm, but think more locally.
HOLD YOUR LOCALS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STATE OF OUR BOROUGH!
WTF IS HELEN MARSHALL DOING to move this park along?
Will she grease the wheels or throw sand in the gears?
Is "dizzy Lizzy" Crowley REALLY in strong support of this or is she double dealing as most pols do to keep their present jobs or climb higher up the ladder?
Delay it, delay it, delay it until I'm ready to retire to my London and Bermuda addresses.
Then my developer friends can have their way with the site.
Der Mayor Mike Bloomhitler obviously considers historic Maspeth the bung hole of Queens by deliberately omitting it from NYC's waterfront initiative.
But Mike, we'll include a turtle pond within the park, where hizzoner can swim around in to his delight
LOL...Bloomberg does look like a terrapin.
Where's comptroller Liu?
Is he allowing 65 million dollars to go to that 3rd rate Queens Museum without a peep from him?
Throw some candy money to Maspeth once in awhile!
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