What's happening
This bill transfers certain Staten Island highway lands to New York City parkland, restricting their future use to public park purposes.
Why it matters
Protects Staten Island open space. By transferring former highway lands to the NYC Parks Department and restricting their use to park purposes, the bill ensures these areas will be preserved as green space rather than being developed for transportation or non-park uses.
Limits future changes without legislative oversight. Any attempt to sell, lease, or repurpose the designated parklands for non-park uses would require explicit approval from the state legislature and a process to replace the land with other parkland of equal value and usefulness, providing a strong safeguard against privatization or development.
Redirects infrastructure investment. The bill requires that funds equivalent to the cost of the abandoned parkway projects be set aside for other transportation improvements on Staten Island, potentially directing resources toward more locally supported and needed road or transit projects, rather than controversial highways.
Allows for targeted infrastructure adjustments. While prioritizing parkland protection, the bill still gives the city flexibility to pursue specific transportation improvements—such as certain road connectors or intersection upgrades—if they comply with legislative and environmental review, balancing parkland preservation with transportation needs.
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Who cares
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The bill would vest the specified Willowbrook and Richmond Parkway properties in the department for public park use and prohibit transportation uses on those parcels.
Staten Island park users and conservation advocates
The bill would require legislative approval and replacement land of equal environmental and fair market value and reasonably equivalent usefulness and location before the parcels could be diverted from public park use.
New York City, transportation agencies, MTA and Port Authority
The bill would set aside money equal to the cost of constructing the de-mapped parkways for Staten Island road, highway or transit projects upon application by the specified entities.
Staten Island drivers and transit riders
The bill would redirect transportation funding toward borough improvements, with potential projects including intersection upgrades at Ocean Terrace and Todt Hill Road and an eastbound Staten Island Expressway service-road extension.
Headline styles
Make Staten Island Land Parks
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.762
- Referred to transportation
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to transportation
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 62–0
- Ordered to third reading cal.1461
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
Show 1 earlier action
- Referred to transportation
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Turn Land Into NYC Parks
In Assembly Committee · Transportation · Sponsor Michael Cusick
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4064
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 2, 2017
Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
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
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 349-f of the highway law, as amended by chapter 558 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
§ 349-f. New York city routes. The following existing or proposed main routes or thoroughfares, are designated herein, as aforesaid, viz.:
New England thruway from the Westchester county line to Bruckner expressway; Bruckner expressway from New England thruway to Robert F. Kennedy bridge approach; Hutchinson river parkway from the Westchester county line to the Bronx-Whitestone bridge approach; Bronx river parkway from the Westchester county line to Bruckner expressway; Henry Hudson parkway from the Westchester county line to Miller highway excepting the Henry Hudson bridge, provided that no portion of this route from West Seventy-second street to the Cross Bronx expressway shall be constructed or reconstructed so as to encroach in any way on or over any land mapped or used for park purposes except for such temporary encroachment of no more than ten feet in width from seventy-third street to seventy-sixth street as may be essential during and for the purpose of reconstruction or repair of the existing roadway following which there shall be full restoration of park land; Major Deegan expressway from the Robert F. Kennedy bridge to Central Park avenue at the Westchester county line together with a connection to Broadway and along Broadway to Manhattan college parkway; Cross Bronx expressway from George Washington bridge approach to Throgs Neck bridge; Throgs Neck expressway from Bruckner expressway to Throgs Neck bridge; Arthur V. Sheridan expressway from
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00376-01-7
S. 4064 2
Cross-Bronx expressway to Bruckner expressway; Mosholu parkway from Henry Hudson parkway to Bronx river parkway; Bronx and Pelham parkway from Bronx river parkway to New England thruway; Boston road from Bronx and Pelham parkway to New England thruway; Miller highway from Henry Hudson parkway to the Hugh L. Carey tunnel; and from Hugh L. Carey tunnel to Brooklyn-Queens expressway; Franklin D. Roosevelt drive from the Hugh L. Carey tunnel to Robert F. Kennedy bridge approach; Harlem river drive from Robert F. Kennedy bridge approach to George Washington bridge approach; Belt parkway including Gowanus parkway to Third avenue and Sixtieth street, Leif Erikson drive to Knapp street, Shore parkway, Belt parkway, Southern parkway and Cross Island parkway from Hugh L. Carey tunnel to Bronx-Whitestone bridge approach; Nassau expressway from Southern parkway to the Nassau county line; Brooklyn-Queens expressway from Gowanus expressway to Grand Central parkway; Prospect expressway from Gowanus expressway to Ocean parkway; Ocean parkway from Prospect expressway to Shore parkway; Interborough parkway from Grand Central Parkway to Belt parkway; Gowanus expressway from the Verrazano-Narrows bridge to Third avenue at Gowanus parkway; Third Avenue from Gowanus expressway to Hamilton avenue; Hamilton Avenue from Third Avenue to Hugh L. Carey tunnel; Queens boulevard from Queensborough bridge approach to Van Wyck expressway; Van Wyck expressway from Whitestone expressway, including a connection to Grand Central parkway, to John F. Kennedy international airport; Woodhaven boulevard from Queens boulevard to Cross Bay parkway bridge northerly approach; Cross Bay parkway from Cross Bay bridge southerly approach to Short Front parkway; Shore Front parkway from Cross Bay parkway generally along the shore line of the Atlantic ocean to the Nassau expressway at the Nassau county line; Queens-Midtown expressway from Queens-Midtown tunnel approach to Queens Boulevard; Horace Harding expressway from Queens Boulevard to the Nassau county line; a connection between Brooklyn-Queens expressway and Northern boulevard in the vicinity of Grand Central parkway; Grand Central parkway from Robert F. Kennedy bridge approach to Nassau county line; Whitestone expressway from Bronx-Whitestone bridge approach to Van Wyck expressway and continuing to Grand Central parkway; Clearview expressway from Throgs Neck bridge to Nassau expressway; Richmond parkway from [Staten Island expressway to] the Outerbridge crossing approach to La Tourrette Park at Richmond Avenue; Staten Island expressway from Goethals bridge to the Verrazano-Narrows bridge with a connection to Bayonne bridge; [Willowbrook parkway from Staten Island expressway to Great Kills park;] West Shore expressway from Staten Island expressway to Outerbridge crossing; Shore Front drive northerly from the terminus of West Shore expressway at Staten Island expressway, thence generally along the shore lines of Kill Van Kull, the Narrows, Lower New York bay and Raritan bay to the approach to Outerbridge crossing.
§ 2. All right, title and interest in property as defined in the highway law as the Willowbrook Parkway from Victory Boulevard to Great Kills Park at Hylan Boulevard, shall be vested in the department of parks and recreation of the city of New York.
§ 3. All right, title and interest in property as defined in the highway law as the Richmond Parkway from a point 60 feet south of the Staten Island expressway to Manor Road, shall be vested in the department of parks and recreation of the city of New York.
§ 4. All right, title and interest in property as defined in the highway law as the Richmond Parkway from Manor Road to Richmond Avenue, shall be vested in the department of parks and recreation of the city of New York.
S. 4064 3
§ 5. The parcels defined in sections two, three and four of this act shall be used for park purposes, shall not be used for transportation purposes and shall not be sold, leased, exchanged, donated, or otherwise disposed of or used for other than public park purposes without the express authority of an act of the legislature, which shall provide for the substitution of other lands of equal environmental value and fair market value and reasonably equivalent usefulness and location to those to be discontinued, sold or disposed of, and such other requirements as shall be approved by the commissioner of parks and recreation of the city of New York and the commissioner of environmental conservation.
§ 6. There shall be set aside a sum of money equal to the cost of constructing the parkways that are de-mapped pursuant to this act, to be used for highway and road improvement or transit purposes in the borough of Staten Island, on application of the city of New York, the department of transportation, the metropolitan transportation authority or the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as the case may be. The projects may include, but shall not be limited to: the construction of turning lanes and intersection improvements at the intersection of Ocean Terrace and Todt Hill Road; the extension of the eastbound service road of the Staten Island Expressway from Manor Road to Renwick Avenue; or the construction of a connector from the Korean War Veterans Parkway to Richmond Avenue.
§ 7. Nothing in this act shall prevent the city of New York from making application to the legislature for approval of an exchange of adjacent property owned by the city of New York of equivalent size and value on Rockland Avenue between Brielle Avenue and Richmond Road, for such improvement of Rockland Avenue as the city of New York may authorize consistent with any and all land use review and applicable state law.
§ 8. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the highway law, in relation to trans- ferring certain land to the city of New York department of parks and recreation and the department of environmental conservation and desig- nating 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 Conserva- tion, 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 road- ways. 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
2017: S.4064 - Passed Senate / A.4605 - Referred to Transportation 2016: S.4287-Referred to Transportation/ A.5984-Referred to Transporta- tion 2015: S.4287-Referred to Transportation/ A.5984-Referred to Transporta- tion 2014: S.4274 - Died in Transportation; A.6261 - Died in Transportation; 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.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.