Community Board 2 last week gave its stamp of approval to the city for creating an 11-acre park at the southern tip of Long Island City but urged planners to rethink one detail — the use of artificial turf in the proposed park’s sporting field.
The park, slated to be part of the 30-acre Hunter’s Point South development, is to include a large oval-shaped green, which city planners envision as a place for active sports like soccer, football and baseball.
They say artificial turf would allow teams to use the area year round, but residents worry about the safety and cost of maintaining the synthetic grass.
All but two board members opposed the use of artificial turf, and many area residents who attended the C.B. 2 meeting also spoke out against it.
One resident questioned how the turf could be kept clean in an area overrun by seagulls. He said artificial turf, unlike grass, would not absorb bird droppings, and added that the cost of continuously washing the field could be problematic.
Another resident argued that high temperatures in the summer can leave artificial turf extremely hot, which can cause discomfort to those who use it.
Other concerns included worries that rainwater might not drain properly, leaving the turf area flooded, and that the material might not last long. The Parks Department says artificial turf should hold up for 50 years, but according to one resident, the manufacturers say it lasts only eight — a claim backed up by an independent organization called New Yorkers for Parks.
City officials responded that artificial turf has been used citywide with much success.
“Turfs date back to the fifties,” said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, adding that the city would not install anything deemed unsafe for residents.
Lewandowski also pointed out that in parks like Queensbridge River Park, natural grass used for the soccer field wore away quickly. “The area soon turned into a dust bowl due to constant use,” she said. “The residents then came to us and asked us to put turf in.”
Some environmentalists and health advocates claim children can be harmed by chemicals released when pieces of turf are broken off or crushed.
Lewandowski said turf isn’t dangerous, though. “I know there are concerns, but I want you to know turf is safe, otherwise we wouldn’t be putting it there,” she said.
Parks Chief of Design Charles McKinney also sang the praises of artificial turf. “Look at me as the cheeky waiter that says ‘Don’t order the fish,’” McKinney said. “I am saying, ‘Don’t order the grass.’”
He pointed out that 90 parks and sports fields in and around the city use the artificial surface, including Giants Stadium, and Rutgers, Columbia and Fordham universities.
“People who use the fields are happy, as they have it year-long,” said McKinney, in contrast to those using real grass, who sometimes have to shut down their sports fields in the fall. “With natural fields, it’s not grass, it’s just dirt.”
The park is to be created in conjunction with the Hunter’s Point South development, which will include 5,000 new apartments.
C.B. 2 had already approved the development as a whole; Thursday’s vote concerned just the park. Community boards are merely advisory committees, but the city is supposed to take their opinions into consideration in projects such as new parks.
In the first phase of the park’s construction, a dog run, multi-purpose courts, restrooms and a maintenance room are to be built.
The city bought the property from the state this past summer but has been generating ideas for the development since 2006, when Mayor Mike Bloomberg first expressed interest in purchasing the land and undertaking a large-scale middle-income housing project.
This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle
