How would you utilize NYC’s waterfronts? The city wants to know.

The Comprehensive Waterfront Plan is up for renewal in 2020. The city is soliciting input from Queens residents. Photo via the Department of City Planning.

By Victoria Merlino

The Department of City Planning will host a “Waterfront Planning Camp” to engage New Yorkers in how they want to see their 520 miles of city waterfront space used. This comes as the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, a document that must be updated every 10 years by law, comes up for renewal. 

“Surrounded by water on three sides, Queens and its coastal communities have a significant stake in any plan to make our city’s waterfront more accessible and resilient over the next decade,” Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said in a statement. 

The camp will be an afternoon’s worth of interactive activities as city residents collaborate on ideas for the future of the waterfront. This is part of a larger effort on city government’s part to seek public input into the plan, including a website, an online survey and planned community feedback sessions. 

“It is vital that residents from the Rockaways to Long Island City to Bayside and beyond participate in the process of creating a new Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, as we work to ensure our many miles of coastline continue to be hubs of recreation, resiliency, industry and economic opportunity for our families,” Katz said.

The new waterfront plan, set to debut in 2020, will build on the plan first announced in 2011 that tried to expand the public waterfront and improve water quality, among other issues identified by the public and the city. 

Waterfront space has become a hot topic in Queens as of late. With the closure of Rikers Island imminent, some borough lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, want to see Rikers’ waterfront space turned into a renewable energy powerhouse. New solar power facilities and wastewater treatment center on the island could transform the rest of Queens’ waterfront as a result, argued Councilmember Costa Constantinides at a community event in June. Rikers Island is located in Constantinides’ district.

The event will take place on Aug. 17 on Governors Island from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Visit here to register.