The battle over whether much of Coney Island’s famous – but rickety – wooden boardwalk should be replaced by cement will now be decided in court.
A string of civic groups and local activists filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court today seeking to block the Parks Department from moving forward with plans to replace five blocks of the 89-year-old wooden walkway with a combination of cement blocks and plastic planks.
The project, signed off by the city’s Design Commission in March, is a precursor to a larger Bloomberg administration plan to replace the entire 2.7-mile boardwalk with cement and plastic – except four blocks in the amusement district that would remain wood.
The suit alleges the city would be breaking the law if it broke ground on the project because it has failed to conduct a proper, public environmental review. It claims the city’s cost-savings plan to replace the wood will wind up costing taxpayers much more longterm to maintain because cement cracks easily and gets very slippery during cold weather.
Critics also say a cement boardwalk would strip Coney Island of an historic wooden treasure.
“Rather than spend the money to properly maintain the boardwalk,” said Brighton Beach activist Ida Sanoff, one of the plaintiffs, “the Parks Department wants to destroy this beautiful piece of New York, and replace it with a different structure altogether without any environmental review or community input.”
A city Law Department spokesperson said the agency received the suit and is in the process of reviewing it.
The boardwalk pilot plan calls for a 12-foot concrete pathway for emergency vehicles flanked on each side by 19-foot-wide sections of plastic planks for pedestrians. The test area would run in the Brighton Beach section of the walkway from Coney Island Avenue to Brighton 15th Street.
The city in 2008 stopped using long-lasting lumber from tropical tree species to help preserve the rain forest, and officials claim they’ve had trouble finding a reliable supply of more environmentally friendly hardwood. However, opponents say the city hasn’t looked hard enough and that cement will cause even more maintenance problems.
Two small sections totaling seven blocks in parts of Coney Island near Seagate and Brighton Beach off Ocean Parkway have already been replaced with cement blocks. The sections are already filled with thousands of cracks.