Forest Hills Stadium Files Restraining Order Against Residents Group

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Forest Hills Stadium filed a restraining order against a neighborhood residents' group after citizens threatened to block the safest street that takes concertgoers from the train station to the popular venue.

The venue, owned by the West Side Tennis Club, was granted a restraining order against the nonprofit Forest Hills Gardens Corporation after it threatened to close Burns Street to pedestrians, the only safe walkway into the stadium from Station Square to Forest Hills Stadium.

The move comes after the residents' group filed a lawsuit against the stadium's owners, claiming the concerts are violating residential zoning in the community. Forest Hills Stadium is poised to host more than two dozen events this year as the venue celebrates its 100th anniversary.

On the complaint, the stadium owners said that the "threatened interference will, in short, shut down or at least materially compromise the entire concert season at the Stadium because it will deny concertgoers a safe and convenient route to and from the Stadium from public transportation."

If Burns Street closes to pedestrians, concertgoers would have to walk out of the Gardens, around, and back into the Gardens via Yellowstone Boulevard, which is about a mile walk. The Burns Street path is about a 0.2-mile walk.

Forest Hills Gardens Corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch.

Forest Hills Stadium hosted its first major event of the year this weekend, gathering thousands of concertgoers to the Head in the Clouds music festival. The venue will also host the popular hip-hop festival Rock the Bells later this summer, and will also bring The Strokes, Dave Matthews Band, and other big names for its 100th anniversary.