Redevelopment of Fresh Kills Landfill Advances

The 1,000-acre landfill on Staten Island, one of largest dump sites in the world, will become New York City's second-largest park. Also, a plan to redevelop Navy Homeport on the island moves ahead.

Fresh Kills Plans Unveiled

Municipal leaders are planning to transform Staten Island's notorious Fresh Kills Landfill, one of the world's largest dump sites, into New York City's second-largest park after the 2,700-acre Pelham Bay Park.

The New York City Department of City Planning this spring released a draft master plan by Field Operations, a New York-based landscape architect, which won a 2002 competition to design the Fresh Kills park.

Stretched over a 25-year period, the plans call for remediation of the 1,000-acre landfill and creation of 2,200-acre park, approximately 2.5 times larger than Manhattan's Central Park. The site will have open vistas, woodlands, creeks, and wetlands. Its topography will take advantage of the landfill mounds.

The park will also sport kayaking waterways, an Olympic-level mountain biking trail, more than 40 mi. of paths and hiking trails, and more than 1,700 acres of parkland. Construction of the first phase is scheduled for early 2008, with some recreational facilities and a park drive set for completion by 2009.

For decades, Fresh Kills had taken in most of the city's waste, but in 2001, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani fulfilled a promise to close the facility. It reopened briefly later that year for debris from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The total cost for closing the landfill, as well as "post-closing" steps and other corrective measures, will top $1.4 billion over 30 years, according to testimony that John Doherty, commissioner of the city's Department of Sanitation, gave to the City Council in May.

Review for S.I. Redevelopment Plan

Redevelopment plans for Staten Island's Stapleton Waterfront and the former Navy Homeport are advancing. New York City officials had unveiled initial plans for the site last summer.

In mid-spring, the Department of City Planning began the public review process for the plan, which would create the Special Stapleton Waterfront District and incorporate zoning changes, new street system mapping, and liquidation of city-owned property. The area will have housing, retail, and a sports complex, all linked by a $66 million, mile-long waterfront esplanade that the city plans to build.

The zoning and map changes would create 12 acres of open space, add new infrastructure, create capacity for 350 housing units, limit the height of buildings to preserve harbor views for upland Staten Island, and provide space for recreational venues, according to the city's Economic Development Corp.

Weidlinger Associates, a New York-based engineer, and Philadelphia-based Wallace, Roberts & Todd, a landscape architecture firm, are designing the public improvements.

The EDC will oversee sitework, such as razing the Navy buildings. Esplanade construction is set to begin this month, and the EDC will issue RFPs later this year for some surrounding developments.

New N.J. Affordable Housing

A nonprofit organization has acquired a multifamily apartment complex in South Brunswick, N.J., and plans to convert the property into affordable housing.

Volunteers of America, a national faith-based organization established in 1896 to aid the disadvantaged, has acquired the Deans Apartments complex through a combination of New Jersey state tax credits, a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development mortgage, a $1.25 million grant from the South Brunswick Township Affordable Housing Trust, and a grant from PSE&G.

The group plans to renovate the 40-unit complex at a cost of $50,000 per unit. It aims to offer them to low-income individuals and small- to medium-size families.

In New Jersey, Volunteers of America owns and operates three other affordable housing communities. Nationally, the organization helps 2 million people in more than 400 communities, focusing on at-risk youth, the elderly, people returning from prison, recovering addicts, and people with disabilities.