Aerial view of the site via FIRM a.d.
The scarcity of recreational space has haunted Manhattan since its Dutch founding, and with no provisions made in the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, the chronic absence of parks explains why light and air are as good as gold when it comes to Manhattan real estate. Since 2010, a grass-roots movement led by Matt Weiss and Sally Greenspan’s Friends of 20th Street Park, has pushed for the transformation of a city-owned Chelsea lot into parkland. Now work has begun on the 10,000-square-foot lot, that by early 2019 will bring a quarter-acre of play and shaded seating areas to the neighborhood.
Up until recently, the site located at 140 West 20th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues held a parking lot and building for the Department of Sanitation. According to the Parks Department, the area has the lowest proportion of green space relative to developed land in Manhattan and ranks 58th out of 59 city community districts for the prevalence of parks. Chelsea Green Park will further a Bloomberg-era initiative to have 85 percent of city residents live within walking distance of a park by 2030. The site was previously slated for affordable housing, but the de Blasio administration compromised with the community by planning to build 220 units of affordable housing at 495 Eleventh Avenue in Hudson Yards.
Buble diagram via NYC Parks Department
According to Chelsea Now, the persistent locals raised $500,000 in private funding and received $1 million through Participatory Budgeting process. Mayor de Blasio later kicked in an additional $4.3 million allowing the $5.8 million project to become a reality. Early diagrams from the Parks Department show there will two play structures for kids between 2 and 12 years old, a shaded seating area, a plaza gathering space, a ground spray water feature for children and a central synthetic turf area.
Site plan as of December 2016 (NYC Parks)
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