City reported planning to buy High Line above 30th Street

The Friends of the High Line, the civic organization that recently opened the High Line Elevated Park in West Chelsea announced today that the Department of City Planning will initiate the process to acquire the High Line above 30th Street.

The High Line was an abandoned railroad viaduct whose tracks until recently were largely obscured by greenery that has grown over the years. The viaduct is between 10th and 11th Avenues. It was built between 1929 and 1934 as part of the West Side Improvement, a transportation project that eliminated street-level rail crossings from the northern tip of Manhattan to Spring Street. The southern section of the line was demolished in the 1960s and the last train on its tracks in the 1980s carried frozen turkeys.

A local resident, Peter Obletz, purchased the line from Conrail, which owned it at the time for $10 but the purchase was later challenged and overturned by property owners in the area who wanted it demolished to improve their property values.

In 1999, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, residents in the neighborhood, founded Friends of the High Line to preserve the line and convert it to an elevated park/greenway/promenade. The Guiliani administration favored the line's demolition, but in December 2002 the city changed its policy and two years later was joined by the state and the CSX Corporation, then the owner of the line. Subsequently, property owners withdrew their opposition to the plan to preserve the line with the prospect of $50 million investments in the new park by the city and other city incentives.

In the fall of 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller announced new capital funding commitments for the High Line bringing the total funding commitment to $61.75 million and the project not long thereafter got $3 million in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program funding.

The City Council subcommittee on zoning and franchises held a hearing June 15, 2005 on the city's plan to create a new Special West Chelsea District to permit more residential construction and enhance the preservation and public recreational use of the elevated rail tracks, known as the High Line, that run from Gansevoort Street in the West Village to West 34th Street.

The plan had wide support from planning and design groups such as the Municipal Arts Society, the Regional Plan Association and the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, but many speakers at the hearing argued that it did not provide enough affordable housing.

The City of New York acquired title in November 2005 to the High Line elevated rail aqueduct from CSX Transportation Inc., which donated it.

In June 2006, the West Chelsea neighborhood surrounding the High Line was rezoned to support its reuse as a public space and to provide opportunities for new residential and commercial development and to enhance the neighborhood's thriving art gallery district.

The first section of the High Line from Gansevoort to 20th Streets open last year and a second phase is planned from 20th to 30th Streets in a few months.

The park has generated enormous real estate interests and numerous new projects are in various stages of construction along its borders between 10th and 11th Avenues.

"The City's decision to acquire the High Line is a major step towards achieving our ultimate goals: full preservation of the historic structure north of 30th Street, including the 10th Avenue Spur, and completion of the High Line project all the way to 34th Street," the civic organization said today, adding that "we expect the City's acquisition of the rail yards section to lead ultimately to park construction on the northern end of the High Line."

The organization also thanked The Related Companies "for their recognition of the High Line's value and their work to integrate it into their plans for the site."