Planning For Sunnyside Yard To Begin This Summer, City Says

SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS -- The long-awaited Sunnyside Yard Project took its first steps to becoming a real neighborhood on Thursday when the city announced a team had been hired to develop a master plan for the megadevelopment over the next two years.

Master planning for Sunnyside Yard, a massive project to build a fully functioning neighborhood in Queens, will begin in summer 2018, the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Amtrak announced.

"The Sunnyside Yard project has long been a priority for Amtrak, as it represents a great opportunity to invest in our rail infrastructure, as well as the local and state economies, and the quality of life in Western Queens," said Amtrak Board of Directors Chair Tony Coscia.

The two jointly hired NYC-based Practice for Architecture and Urbanism as the lead consultant for the master plan and formed a Sunnyside Yard Steering Committee to help develop it. The committee will meet quarterly and host public meetings and workshops for local input on on the project over the next 18 months.

Elizabeth Lusskin, president of the Long Island City Partnership, and Sharon Greenberger, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater New York, will chair the 27-person committee, whose members are a mix of planning experts and local stakeholders.

"The Yard has great potential as a regional and locally significant transportation hub," Lusskin said. "This planning effort provides an opportunity to provide employment, recreational, educational and housing prospects for the next century for the people of Sunnyside, Long Island City, the borough of Queens and NYC."

She is referring to the influx of more than half a million people - 80,000 in Queens alone - that New York City is expected to see in the next 20 years.

The committee and consultants will work on a master plan for a neighborhood to help the city accommodate them all with Sunnyside Yard's newly appointed director and 10-year NYCEDC veteran, Cali Williams.

In February 2017, NYCEDC released a feasibility study on Sunnyside Yard - the busiest passenger railroad in the country - that found potential for around 24,000 homes, up to 19 schools, 52 acres of public parks and other community amenities on the 180-acre site.

"This is a once in a generation opportunity for civic groups, public officials and residents to create a vision for their borough, one that delivers on the central challenges Queens faces like affordable housing, open space, more school seats and better public transit," said Deputy Mayor for Economic Housing and Development Alicia Glen.

(Lead photo courtesy of New York City Economic Development Corporation)