aDanny Zausner, managing director of the National Tennis Center, describes the $500 million overhaul of the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center during a news conference in June. (Christie M. Farriella For New York Daily News)
Queens
Not every aspect of the U.S. Tennis Association’s proposed expansion in Queens is an ace right down the middle in the court of public opinion, according to the New York Daily News.
Advocates are yelling “fault” at the proposal to build two parking garages in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, saying they have no place in the greenspace.
The garages are included in the $500 million expansion plan for the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center announced last month.
“We’re just trying to accommodate the minimum needs to run the event,” Daniel Zausner, managing director of the National Tennis Center, said during a meeting at Queens Borough Hall on Wednesday evening.
The two garages — two and three stories — to be built on the footprint of current surface-level parking, would add 500 spaces.
“It gets very difficult to operate with just 200 and 100 spots on our entire site,” Zausner said.
But several community board members and parks advocates panned the proposal.
“Queens is getting to be a parking lot. It’s wrong,” Eugene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, said during Wednesday’s hearing. “We’re not building parking garages. I can’t see my board voting that way.”
The park falls under the jurisdiction of Community Boards 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8.
The USTA’s sweeping modernization project would include a new tennis stadium, rearranged courts and several viewing upgrades to keep up with international competition.
The centerpiece of the plan is a new 15,000-seat stadium to replace the aging Louis Armstrong Stadium and revamping the Grandstand court.
Marta Lebreton, chairwoman of Community Board 3, said car garages would threaten the greenspace’s integrity.
“You don’t need to put a large structure and ruin what the park is,” she said. “It is still a park.”
Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates said a garage complex would be unprecedented and completely incompatible with the mission of the greenspace.
“This is a public park — it’s not a commercial zone,” he said.
But Zausner volleyed back, noting that the tennis complex, which hosts the U.S. Open and several year-round programs, is operating with 800 parking spaces less than the number allowed under its contract with the city.
“We’re actually trying to help the city with a lease obligation that they have for us,” he said.
“It’s such an insignificant amount of parking that we’re talking about,” he said. “We weren’t talking about taking additional park land.”
A Parks Department official said there are other garage structures on city park land, pointing to the Macombs Dam Park near Yankee Stadium and the Boat Basin on the Hudson River.
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New York Daily News - July 20, 2012 - By Irving Dejohn
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