Case Study 16

A Non-Profit Builds on a City Study to Advance a Plan for Staten Island's North Shore

Background

When the Northfield Local Development Corporation (LDC) began studying the Port Richmond area in 2010, the Department of City Planning’s Staten Island borough office (DCP) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) had just completed a strategic plan for Staten Island’s North Shore. Known as The North Shore 2030 Plan, it included a thorough analysis of existing conditions as well as recommendations to support new retail services and jobs, strengthen the working waterfront, and create new open space and public access to the waterfront. These goals matched Northfield’s plans for the area, so Northfield hired DCP staff with its state planning funds to produce an area study expanding on the North Shore 2030 Plan.

Strategy

By relying on the analysis contained in the North Shore Plan, Northfield and DCP staff were able to persuade the state agency funding the Port Richmond study to skip the first phase of the state brownfield planning process and move immediately to the identification of strategic development sites and plans for their redevelopment. In this case, Northfield and City Planning both benefited: the City’s North Shore Plan allowed Northfield to accelerate the place-based planning process, and the City stood to benefit from the emergence of new development sites on the North Shore.

Conclusion

The agency-CBO relationship between DCP and Northfield allowed community members, government agencies and officials, and property owners to work together in the development of a comprehensive vision for the Port Richmond area.

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