Transfers certain lands to city of New York to be used as parklands

1 Co-sponsor

• Diane J. Savino

BILL NUMBER:S4274

Title of bill

An act to amend the highway law, in relation to transferring certain land to the city of New York department of parks and recreation and the department of environmental conservation and designating such lands as parklands

Purpose or general idea of bill

To de-map certain sections of highway on Staten Island that have never been built, and turn over the rights of way for these roads to the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, for use as parkland.

Summary of specific provisions

Designates existing highway rights of way in Staten Island as the Willowbrook Parkway and Richmond Parkway. Vests all right, title and interest in these tracts in the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, for use as public parkland; prevents these tracts from being used for transportation purposes without express authority of an act of the Legislature which shall provide for the substitution of other lands of equal environmental and fair market value.

Justification

This legislation would consolidate un-built highway rights of way into the Staten Island Greenbelt, a unique natural preserve comprised of the central hills, wetlands and woodlands of Richmond County. It will protect from development nearly 500 acres of land reserved for highway construction that has been deemed unnecessary by three major surface transportation studies in the last twenty years. The existing rights of way are fifty year old remnants of a different era in urban development and planning and currently there is no responsible party advocating construction of these environmentally and economically nonviable roadways. Therefore, they should be removed from the City Map and the land added to the adjacent protected Greenbelt, which is one of the nation's largest urban parkland preserves.

Prior legislative history

2012: S.5282 - Passed Senate/ A.6475 - Died in Ways and Means; 2010: S.497 - Died in Transportation/ A.2653 - Died in Transportation; 2008: S.3682 - Passed Senate/A.10313 - Died in Ways & Means; 2007: S.3682 - Passed Senate

Fiscal implications

Undetermined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.