City Planning Votes in Favor of City's Coney Plan

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On the heels of EDC head Seth Pinksy's recent editorial in the Daily News, the City Planning Commission yesterday approved by a 12-0 margin the rezoning plan that accompanies the City's plan for redeveloping Coney Island. The special zoning district encompasses 17 blocks located between the Aquarium, the Riegelmann Boardwalk, Mermaid Avenue and West 22nd Street and covers residential development to the west as well as 27 acres of amusements to the east; the mapping and demapping of some parkland and streets are also a part of the package. Needless to say, Joe Sitt, whose Thor Equities owns more than 10 acres of land in the footprint, wasn't cheering the result: “The whole concept of the government taking over the site and building it … and then dealing with the state is mind-boggling,” he told The Brooklyn Paper. Other unhappy campers include Dick Zigun, Lola Staar and the group Save Coney Island, who got together to send out a press release knocking yesterday's decision. “Coney Island equals amusements, and we have to make the amusement area bigger, not smaller,” said Dianna Carlin (aka Lola Staar). Mayor Bloomberg begged to differ: "We cannot allow Coney Island’s decline to continue, and the opportunity to create 6,000 permanent jobs and 25,000 construction jobs in addition to 4,500 new housing units – 900 of them affordable to low and middle income families – cannot be passed up." Next and final stop for the rezoning: City Council.
Planning Commission Approves Unloved Coney Plan [Village Voice via Curbed]
Planning Commission Votes for Coney Plan [Brooklyn Eagle]
Joe Says Bloomy’s Coney Rezoney is Baloney [Brooklyn Paper]
The Fight for the Future of Coney Island [Brownstoner]
City Looks to Compromise on Coney [Brownstoner]

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