By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
The community board with jurisdiction over the 100-acre Aqueduct Racetrack site up for redevelopment wants a seat at the table as the state crafts a master plan that could entirely reshape a corner of Southern Queens. <\/p>\n
Members of Queens Community Board 10 told the state on Thursday that they have \u201csome serious concerns\u201d about the future of the racetrack site, and want a key role in shaping whatever development is bound to come there. <\/p>\n
The state announced last week that it would soon kick off the process of redeveloping the racetrack, which is slated to close over the summer, with a round of public hearings. The area will soon be one of the largest empty plots of state-owned land in New York. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny Aqueduct community master plan that results from this process, in our view, must be guided by the people in our Community Board 10 neighborhoods that surround that property,\u201d said longtime board Chair Betty Braton. \u201cIt is the people here in our community board district who are in Aqueduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Eagle last week, Governor Kathy Hochul said the site \u201crepresents a significant opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will ensure its future reflects the priorities of Queens residents while expanding housing, economic opportunity, and public amenities,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The state, through Empire State Development, said it intends to let the community shape what the project looks like starting next week with a series of public workshops.<\/p>\n
Little is known about the state\u2019s framework for the redevelopment, other than that it will likely include housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say that it’s a clean slate, because we want to hear everything you have to say,\u201d said Bob Tuttle, the vice president of the real estate division at ESD. \u201cBut I do want you to know that the framework we are coming into this under a directive that housing has to be part of that conversation, and certainly the complementary uses of retail, public spaces, open space, that should all be part of the conversation as well. Hopefully that helps give you kind of a sense of at least our starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday night in Howard Beach, ESD implored CB10 to show up for the workshops, and to encourage its neighbors to attend. <\/p>\n
CB10’s leaders stressed that they want to make sure the board itself has a real role in creating the master plan to redevelop the site that goes further than the workshops. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly believe in meaningful involvement,\u201d said the board\u2019s second vice chair, Frank Gulluscio. \u201cIt should include a formal role in shaping the development of the framework. Ongoing input, not just not one-stop shopping with regard to land use zoning and community benefits.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s defining the future of this community board and everyone who lives around us for decades to come,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The board gave little indication about what it may want from the site, but encouraged its members to be part of the process. <\/p>\n
Braton said that the board would be in favor of housing, and floated that a new police precinct should also be up for consideration as part of the plan. <\/p>\n
Members also asked that Resorts World New York City, which runs the casino adjacent to the site and is undergoing a massive redevelopment plan of its own, also be involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny plan that comes out of this process that excludes Resorts World risks duplication and a missed opportunity to build and develop what we have been aiming for over 15 years \u2013 a full destination resort that includes some of the things the state is talking about,\u201d Braton said. \u201cWe’ve been discussing the site for years, and what it could be\u2026now it’s kind of like switching horses.\u201d <\/p>\n
ESD said Resorts World, which just opened the city\u2019s first full-fledged casino in April, would likely have to bid for the site alongside any other potential developers once the state starts taking requests for proposals in about two years. <\/p>\n
\u201cResorts World could apply in that RFP process, and we encourage them to do so,\u201d said Tuttle. \u201cWe hear loud and clear that they’ve been good neighbors to you. That’s great. They’re producing a lot of tax revenue. That’s great. I work for the state. We like that. So those are all good things.\u201d <\/p>\n
Coming into Thursday, CB10 already had a long history with the Aqueduct site, going back half a century, according to Braton. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have almost a 50-year history where the concerns of this board have been about that land and what was going to go on,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Aqueduct has been used to host horse races in one capacity or another for the past 132 years, making it one of the oldest horse racing venues in the country. <\/p>\n
But dwindling attendance and a crumbling facility led the state to announce in 2022 that it planned to close the longtime track and consolidate it with the tracks at Belmont Park just over the Queens border in Elmont, Long Island. Belmont\u2019s redevelopment is expected to be completed in September. <\/p>\n
The track\u2019s impending closure sparked new proposals for the site. <\/p>\n
In 2024, former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who represented the racetrack in the Council, said during her State of the City speech that the state should turn the plot into a new neighborhood with ample housing at its core. The former speaker has since been chosen by Hochul to run as her lieutenant governor. <\/p>\n
The site was also previously eyed by Resorts World, which told the Gaming Commission when it was vying for one of the state\u2019s three downstate casino licenses that Aqueduct could be used to build employee housing. <\/p>\n
Even before Aqueduct\u2019s closure was solidified, the site sparked the imaginations of state leaders. <\/p>\n
Former Governor Eliot Spitzer considered selling the site off in 2007 but didn\u2019t after local officials pushed back on the plan \u2013 the New York Racing Association, which leases the land, ended up agreeing to allow the state to auction off around 7 acres of vacant land near the track to raise money for the struggling venue. <\/p>\n
Several years later, former Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed building the country\u2019s largest convention center at Aqueduct. But he later scrapped the plan in favor of a deal to bring Resorts World\u2019s electronic casino to the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all of the different proposals, some crazy, some not crazy,\u201d Braton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s got to be a transparent process, and thankfully, the state is engaging in a transparent process,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I would hope that that transparency becomes very clear to the community. We don’t need short-term decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first workshop will be held on May 12 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at John Adams High School on Rockaway Boulevard. The second workshop, which will be held on May 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., will be virtual.<\/p>\n
The sessions will include an opening presentation about the site and an interactive open house where residents can use mapping tools to give their input about what they\u2019d like to see built at Aqueduct, including housing, open space, retail, schools, community facilities, or arts and culture facilities, according to ESD. More workshops will be held in the coming year. <\/p>\n
The state says it plans to unveil a master plan for the site in early 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach The community board with jurisdiction over the 100-acre Aqueduct Racetrack site up for redevelopment wants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-227171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}