Save Coney Island

Save Coney Island has joined forces with Coney Island USA, The Coney Island History Project, Citylore, the Coney Island Hysterical Society, The Church of Stop Shopping and many other Coney Island Community Groups to form a coalition to oppose the city's new zoning compromise.  The City's new plan almost completely abolishes the amusement industry for the sake of residential condos, hotels and retail.

The Under the new proposal, Coney Island will be overwhelmed by new residential, hotel and retail uses and amusements will be squeezed out!

Coney Island is currently zoned for 61 acres of amusements; the city's new proposal reduces the amount of amusements from to 12 acres to 9 acres, supplemented by retail.  This reduction of proposed space for amusements will reduce critical mass for the amusement area, defeating the goal of creating a world class amusement and tourist destination.  Further concessions in density and usage have been allowed in this area. These concessions will allow developers to build up to 30 stories high. They would also allow hotels and retail within the Amusement District.

In October of 2007 the City released their Zoning Framework. They proposed that the Amusement District would be declared Parkland. This would protect the district and ensure that it would remain an Amusement Park for centuries to come.

This area of the Amusement District was reduced from what was initially proposed in the 2005 Strategic Plan. This concession was made in exchange for protecting a large portion of the Amusement District in perpetuity.  The City's proposal required the public acquisition of property from the current land owners, which include Thor Equities and the Vourderis Family. Since the announcement of the Zoning Framework, the City has been in negotiations with them and compromised its commitment to the public.  After two years of trying to fool the public into thinking they were going to build an amusement park, Thor Equities finally revealed what everyone had begun to suspect. That their real plan was to build luxury, high-rise Condos in the heart of the Amusement District. Thor publicly admitted that Amusements are not profitable. That the only way they could proceed with their project was for the city to grant them the rezoning needed to build high-rise condos on the boardwalk. But the CIDC valiantly stood behind their plan and refused to do so.

Thor Equities Silences the Business Community

Thor Equities forced almost all of the businesses in Coney Island to sign a Confidentiality Clause. This Clause prohibits all public comments about the redevelopment of Coney Island, not only for the term of the lease, but for three years after its termination. Violation of this Clause results in immediate eviction and a $10,000 fine for each instance of a violation. By demanding that all of the Coney Island businesses sign this Agreement, they are attempting to silence the entire business community in Coney Island. This Clause will prevents all of the businesses from participating in the public hearings that ultimately will determine its rezoning and it's future.

And so Thor Equities began to demolish Coney Island. Everyday their bulldozers demolish more of Coney Isalnd. The batting cages, the miniature golf course, the go carts, the bumper boats have all been demolished. It looks like a wasteland. A war zone.

The Community's Reaction To Their Plan

Most of the community in Coney Island had a cautiously positive reaction to their plan. The community's main concern was for Coney Island to remain an Amusement Park. One controversial aspect of the CIDC plan was that it did introduce residential housing on the north side of Surf Avenue. This area is currently zoned for amusements. One positive aspect of their plan was that it did propose to preserve and improve the Amusement Area (Keyspan to West 10th Street, Surf Ave to Boardwalk).

More Info

http://www.myspace.com/saveconeyisland

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