The New York City Planning Department and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have unveiled a proposed comprehensive zoning plan for Coney Island that could require developer Thor Equities to scale back its plans for building a massive hotel and entertainment complex in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The new framework also might spare the Astroland amusement park, which faced possible demolition, and provide for the construction of affordable housing.
The proposed zoning covers three areas—dubbed Coney East, West, and North—encompassing approximately 19 blocks running from the New York Aquarium to West 24th Street, and from Mermaid Avenue to the famed beachfront Riegelmann boardwalk. In a move to preserve the amusement district in Coney East, a 15-acre area that is home to institutions such as the 1962-vintage Astroland and the landmarked 1939 New York World’s Fair Parachute Jump, the area will be designated as parkland in perpetuity. The plan would allow for improvements to the existing amusements, and the construction of new ones on previously abandoned sites, but it would set height limits to preserve views to Coney Island’s iconic structures. New buildings may not exceed the 250-foot-tall Parachute Jump.
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