City Plans $90M Expansion Of UWS Boat Basin

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city is pitching a $90 million project to breathe new life into the Upper West Side's 79th Street Boat Basin, according to a city Parks Department presentation unveiled at a December Community Board 7 meeting.

The city project would repair storm damage suffered by the boat docks off Riverside Park, add additional docks to the facility to increase capacity and make the space more resilient to climate change, according to the city's presentation. Most of the funding, a little more than $60 million, will be allocated by City Hall and the rest will come from FEMA, according to the Parks Department plan.

The 79th Street Boat Basin currently consists of five docks, but city officials want to push that number to nine, according to plans revealed by the Parks Department. Increased capacity will allow more year-round residents to live on boats parked at the basin. City officials disclosed that there's currently a 780-person wait list with a 14-year wait for residency at the boat basin.

City officials are also pitching an elevated dockhouse as part of the plan. The new facility would double the size of the existing dockhouse, bring it up to modern ADA and safety standards and include a green roof, according the city's presentation.

The Parks Department's boat basin plan is currently in its preliminary design phase, and a final design is expected to be in June 2021. Construction on the project would begin in either October 2021 or May 2022. Community Board 7 members received the plan well and wrote a letter of support following the presentation, the West Side Rag first reported.