Updated 01/23/2009 10:26 PM
More Details Emerge About Plans For Coney Island Amusement District
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
With its lease expiring at the end of the month, Coney Island's Astroland is being packed up. But the owners of the amusement park say they hope to be back, as part of a new amusement district being planned by the city. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report on the proposal. It's one of the last remaining rides at Astroland, but now Dante's Inferno is coming down, its pieces being stored in containers. When the new property owner did not renew its lease, the amusement park was forced to shut down in September after 46 years.
"It's very sad. We all loved Astroland and we've grown up with it," said Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal.
Reichenthal will play a part in deciding what happens next. The city wants to rezone the Coney Island area to make it a year-round destination with both indoor and outdoor entertainment. The public review process on the proposal started this week.
"The plan sets a framework for what can happen here," said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "It requires in this 27-acre year-round amusement district that there be only amusement uses, which include restaurants and different kinds of rides, or whether it be a roller rink or a batting cage or all these really fun uses. That would be required."
Zoning changes would allow sit-down restaurants south of Surf Avenue and hotels on Surf Avenue. The city also wants to take control of 12 acres of land along the boardwalk strictly for amusements.
The historic B&B Carousel would be resurrected there, as well as Astroland's iconic rocket ship. The area would be mapped as parkland so the city can preserve it as an amusement district.
"Coney Island is the most famous urban amusement park in the world," said Burden. "It has to be protected in perpetuity for generations."
The city's plan also includes 4,500 new units of mixed-income housing north and west of the amusement district. A new streetscape is planned to break up long sidewalks and create easier access to the boardwalk and beach.
The community board will soon schedule the first public hearing on the plan.
"I think we're going in the right direction," said Reichenthal. "We look out now and we see lots and buildings that cannot be used, people who can't sign leases."
The city predicts that over 30 years its plan will not only create thousands of construction and permanent jobs, but also generate more than $14 billion in economic activity.