City-controlled lots on Broad Channels west side will transfer to NYC Parks. Photos by Dan GuarinoFour lots on the west side of Broad Channel’s island have been a source of potential contention between the city and the neighborhood for decades. Now that seems to be at an end.
On Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers announced that vacant lots on West 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th roads will be taken over by the NYC Department of Parks.
As Broad Channel Civic Association President Dan Mundy Jr. explained, “By going to Parks we will ensure these lots are not auctioned off for development or leased for unwanted activities.”
In the late 1990’s, the land, which is held by Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), was put up for auction. The neighborhood and civic association worked hard to get them pulled from auction at the last minute. Then a few years later they were listed again for auction. Once again they were able to keep them from being sold. Sometime later, the community fought again to keep the large space from being leased, most likely to a construction company.
The island community was concerned, as Mundy puts it, with the “development of attached homes, the loss of the open space and beautiful views and that construction material stored across these areas creating eyesores.
“Once these go over to Parks they will remain forever wild.
Parks has agreed to take over the lots. Councilman Eric Ulrich has been a huge help in achieving this,” he says.
Right now, he explains, there are “open wetlands along the shore there. There are some floats that have been left there.”
“It has been that way for years. Since the canals (on Broad Channel’s west side) were dug out in the 1920’s.”
The move by Parks, which has already taken effect, according to the Eco Watchers, will not only remove the danger of these lands being sold or leased but also “secure them for future generations.”
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