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Difficulty of Work Blamed for Delays Replacing Park Space Lost to Yankee Stadium

A parks department official, called before the City Council to explain why an effort to replace recreation space lost to construction of the new Yankee Stadium has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, said on Tuesday that the department’s inexperience with such complex projects was partly to blame.

The city was required to build new parks in the Bronx after Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park were chosen as the site of the new stadium. State and federal law dictate that a similar amount of parkland of equal or greater fair market value replace the old parks.

The Parks and Recreation Department originally said that seven of the eight replacement parks would be completed by April 2009, in time for opening day at the new stadium. The eighth, Heritage Field, planned for the site of the current stadium, had been scheduled to open in December 2010, after the stadium is demolished, but that date has been pushed back to 2011.

Earlier this year, the agency said the completion of some of the parks would be delayed for as long as two years and cost $174 million, up from an earlier estimate of $95.5 million. The new figures prompted the City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee to call for a hearing.

On Tuesday, council members asked Liam Kavanagh, the parks department’s first deputy commissioner, a series of pointed questions, including whether the agency had been dishonest about its original cost estimates.

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Who Says: We should have known this was coming. Just wait until the start tearing down the old stadium and find that the land is contaminated from an oil leak from the stadiums oil tanks..

Time and Cost Rise for Yankee Stadium Parks

 Anthony Santiago, left, and his twin brother, Christopher, playing in a temporary park at Jerome Avenue and East 161st Street.

 Cost estimates for eight small parks around the new Yankee Stadium have almost doubled.

The cost of replacing two popular parks where the new Yankee Stadium is being built has nearly doubled. At the same time, several of the eight new parks, which were supposed to be completed before the new stadium opens next spring, have been delayed by as much as two years, according to city documents.

The price of the new small parks — which are to replace tennis and basketball courts, a running track and baseball and soccer fields eliminated to make way for the new stadium — is now projected to be $174 million, almost one-seventh the cost of the $1.3 billion stadium itself. The original estimate had been $95.5 million. The increase comes amid skyrocketing costs for construction projects, both public and private, around the city.

The stadium is being financed by the Yankees with city subsidies, while the eight new parks for the South Bronx, which range in size from 0.24 acre to 8.9 acres, are being paid for by the city.

None of the replacement parks have been completed, and construction on several has not yet started; however, the parks department has built a temporary replacement park on a parking lot in the area, opened a ball field this spring at a school almost a mile to the east, and is building a sports field at a recreation center about a mile to the north.

The city was required to build the new parks after it selected the 28.4-acre Macombs Dam Park and a portion of the 18.5-acre John Mullaly Park as the site of the new stadium in 2005. State and federal law dictated that a similar amount of parkland nearby of equal or greater fair market value be built to replace the parks that would be lost.

Some residents have been critical of the trade-off. While Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks were almost contiguous stretches of grass and trees amid the concrete topography of the South Bronx, the replacement parks are small parcels scattered around the area. The sites include sports fields atop a planned stadium parking garage and a park along the Harlem River, which is on the opposite side of the Major Deegan Expressway.

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Community Calls On City To Quickly Replace Parkland Taken By Yanks Stadium

November 15, 2007

As the Yankees move full speed ahead with construction of their new stadium, community leaders say they want the city to build parkland just as quickly to replace what was taken to make way for the ball field. NY1’s Dean Meminger has been following the stadium story and filed this report.

The Parks Department broke ground Thursday on some of the parkland that is supposed to replace Macombs Dam Park, which was destroyed to make way for the Yankees new stadium.

“Bit by bit we are keeping the promises of building the replacement parks,? said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. ?Also, this is well ahead of schedule compared to the original plans.”

Three million dollars will be spent to put in a synthetic field for baseball and soccer, along with a few other pieces of playground equipment. This new development is happening behind the West Bronx Recreation Center on Jessup Avenue.

But not everyone thinks this new park is actually a good replacement for the parkland taken by the Yankees.

“It is very far, and it is not centrally located like Macombs Dam was,” said City Councilwoman Helen Foster.

The Jessup Avenue parkland is about a mile a way from the old Macombs Dam track and field.

Park advocates say this new field is not really new. They say kids have played here for decades.

“We are obviously happy that this park is being redone, but this has been used for parkland for many years,? said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. ?It is disgraceful the city is trying to pass it over as replacement parkland.”

The Parks Commissioner says he is working hard to create as much parkland as possible to replace the 25 acres lost to the new stadium.

“We are going to building three baseball fields adjacent to Yankees Stadium and a soccer field adjacent to the stadium, a baseball field here and a baseball field at P.S. 29,? said Benepe. ?So, in fact, we are getting more fields than we originally had as a part of the project.”

However, residents will have to deal with fewer parks for now. Last week, the Yanks took over the softball field, basketball and paddleball courts on the side of the old stadium to make room for an underground parking garage. A new park will be built on top of it.

Community leaders say they hope the new parks are completed before the new stadium opens in the spring of 2009.

- Dean Meminger

Source: NY1 / Bronx

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