Coney Island ride advocates dreading the specter of a wall of hi−rise hotels one day greeting visitors at the Stillwell Avenue subway station suffered a body blow this week when members of the New York City Council rejected a motion limiting the height of new buildings south of Surf Avenue.
Dismissing Councilman Tony Avella’s “friendly amendment” to the city’s Coney Island rezoning application, the Land Use Committee instead took its cue from Councilman Domenic Recchia, who called on his colleagues to support the plan after spending Tuesday morning hammering out concessions he maintains will benefit the entire community and return the neighborhood to its former prominence.
The full City Council is expected to vote on the Coney Island development and rezoning plan by the end of this month.
As a result of all the last−minute wrangling, Recchia says he was able to secure real commitments to union jobs and more affordable housing opportunities for Coney Island residents.
Longtime Coney Island stakeholders like Gargiulo’s Restaurant and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park also won the modifications they sought, according to the councilman.
But ride advocates hoping for a hard line against the height of hi−rise hotels inside the amusement district were sorely disappointed.
“We just couldn’t make this work,” Recchia conceded.
Dick Zigun, the unofficial “mayor of Coney Island,” has been pressing the city to zone new hotels north of Surf Avenue and add more space for outdoor amusements.
“I think we lost badly on the hotels,” Zigun said. “I think they dropped very clear hints that once they buy Thor’s property, there’s reason to believe that they’ll add more rides. There are some upcoming meetings on landmarking historic buildings. So we lost on the hotels, but I don’t think we’ve got a decision yet about rides or historic buildings.”
At the time of this writing the city and major landowner Thor Equities were still haggling over control of about 10−and−a−half acres of Coney Island real estate in the middle of the amusement district.
But in talking about those ongoing negotiations, Recchia emphasized the importance of the kinds of indoor attractions like movie theaters and bowling alleys that ride advocates have long criticized as being weak draws.
“One thing that we’ve been saying is we want to make this an all year−round destination, not just open amusements,” Recchia said. “That’s the problem with Coney Island. In the wintertime it’s desolate. Nobody wants to go there. We want to bring in movie theaters, bowling alleys, maybe an indoor water park and hotel.”
The city envisions a 27−acre amusement district, but less than half of that would be devoted to big−time outdoor rides.
“If you look at the specs of the plan, they’re actually getting rid of amusements which gets rid of jobs,” said Nicole Holst, a member of Save Coney Island. “They’re putting up four high−rises that aren’t necessary because there’s not going to be an amusement area to draw the people.”
“Nine acres is nothing,” Avella said later. “This plan by the Bloomberg Administration will destroy the character of another New York City neighborhood. They seem determined to erase the history of New York City, just like they did in Harlem on 125th Street.”
Recchia, however, refused to classify this week’s action as a loss for ride advocates.
“I believe at the end of the day by July 29, everybody is going to be happy and the ride advocates are going to be happy,” Recchia said.
Matt Ryan with New York Jobs with Justice said that the Land Use Committee vote was a step in the right direction, but that more needed to be done to guarantee good jobs and affordable housing for Coney Island.
“We hope that the City will continue to improve the plan so that this development will benefit the entire community,” he said.