Beach bill pulled

From the Brooklyn Daily:

Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz claimed on Thursday that he will pull back a controversial bill he quietly introduced this month that would remove an important check on the city’s power to develop — or overdevelop — its public beaches.

Right now, for the city to build anything on beaches in places such as Coney Island and Manhattan Beach, it needs to first check with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, which would make sure what goes up doesn’t interfere with the public’s ability to freely enjoy the waterfront.

But the bill Cymbrowitz (D–Brighton Beach) introduced would give the city the right to do whatever it wants on the land that the parks department would control — which could allow the city to build whatever it wants there.

That, along with the fear that an underfunded Parks Department would let the beaches fall apart, scared some beach advocates worried about its repercussions on the beaches in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.