Framework
This draft document was developed to spur conversations with New Yorkers about the themes and goals that will guide the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan.
Beacons
NYC Planning has established three beacons of Resiliency, Equity, and Health to guide our planning process, shape the narrative of the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, and inform the strategies that will help achieve the city’s collective vision for the future of the waterfront.
Resiliency
As we plan for the next decade and beyond, we recognize the inherent risks our coastal city faces. We must adapt our shoreline and shoreline communities to climate hazards, including coastal flooding, increased precipitation, and higher temperatures. This work will support our city’s ability to “bounce forward” after a natural disaster, while improving quality of life for waterfront communities and all New Yorkers.
We must acknowledge that many coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Many have also suffered from underinvestment or historical exclusion from planning and development decision-making processes. The next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan will address these injustices and advance equitable strategies that mitigate the disproportionate effects of climate change on the most vulnerable communities.
Equity
New Yorkers deserve equitable access to all the city’s waterfront has to offer, from parks and beaches to maritime industrial jobs to affordable and resilient places to live. The City today strives to extend these benefits to all New Yorkers, but the effects of previous land use policies and disinvestment have left many shoreline communities, particularly in neighborhoods of color, underserved by jobs, quality housing, open space, and other amenities. Additionally, safe waterfront access remains challenging in many locations for people with disabilities.
Through the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, the City will prioritize working with lower income communities and communities of color to ensure their strong role in planning processes and projects, whether for safe and enjoyable waterfront access or infrastructure upgrades to adapt to climate change.
Health
The health of the city’s waterways and the health of waterfront communities are interconnected.
For example, restoring habitats and improving water quality doesn’t just allow natural areas to flourish. It also creates opportunities for New Yorkers to connect with nature through activities like swimming, kayaking, and fishing. The latest stormwater management strategies help create greener, more livable neighborhoods and boost community resiliency to climate-related hazards. Green infrastructure can improve air quality and reduce the urban heat island effect for nearby residents.
The design of waterfront spaces can also help improve public health. Accessible, pedestrian-friendly and bicycle-friendly streets can encourage healthy activity. Waterfront open spaces can bring heat relief.
The next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan will recognize the link between the environment, equity, and the economy to maximize the health benefits of New York City’s waterfront.
COVID-19 Pandemic and the Plan
The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a shock to every aspect of life in New York City. It has necessitated dramatic shifts in how NYC Planning approaches public outreach and the issues addressed by the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. It has highlighted the importance of access to open space for public health. It has laid bare deep and longstanding inequities in our society, demonstrating how inequity can be not just insidious, but lethal. It has shown how our waterfront and city must be resilient not only to hazards such as coastal flooding, but also to crises like the pandemic.
In addition, the pandemic has dealt an unprecedented blow to the city's economy. Entire industries have idled, one in five workers is unemployed, traditional commuting patterns are upended, and distribution networks and supply chains must adapt to an ever-shifting environment. These are deep and open-ended challenges. While the waterfront is not the primary engine of the city's economy as it was 100 or more years ago, it does play an important role in the city's ability to create and sustain a diverse mix of jobs, move goods, host key infrastructure, support tourism and recreation, and house our population. In addition to addressing the implications of the pandemic for the three Beacons outlined above, the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan will consider the role the waterfront can play in sustaining and strengthening the city's economy.
Explore Themes
Photo: Danny Avila, NYC Parks
Public Access
Over the past decade, there have been remarkable strides in expanding public access to the waterfront in all five boroughs through a combination of public investment and harnessing private development. As successful as this expansion has been in number and quality of public spaces created, more can be done to connect communities to their waterfront.
Photo: Danny Avila, NYC Parks
Water Quality and Natural Resources
NYC’s harbor is the cleanest it has been in over 100 years. However, a range of water quality issues remain, particularly in the city’s most constrained waterways. Addressing these outstanding issues will require substantial new investments and innovative solutions.
Photo: NYC EDC
The Working Waterfront
In the face of both new and familiar challenges—whether it be obtaining required permits or responding to national emergencies— we need to support and enhance the health of our working waterfront and the New Yorkers whose livelihoods depend on it.
As public agencies upgrade and replace aging infrastructure, there is an opportunity to transform how freight enters New York City. Specifically, moving more containerized cargo by ship and rail rather than by truck would alleviate air pollution and congestion on our roadways, improve efficiency, and create good-paying jobs in the process.
Photo: NYC EDC
Economic Activity
Since Vision 2020 was released, public and private investment in the waterfront has spurred the preservation and creation of housing at all income levels, jobs, and open space across the five boroughs. There are opportunities to continue to build on this investment to promote a thriving and more inclusive waterfront for all New Yorkers.
New York City’s shorelines and waterways will be conduits for green power, hosting green infrastructure and playing an instrumental role in mobilizing and building the green economy.
Photo: NYC EDC
Ferries
Ferry services are an essential mode of transit in a city—and region—surrounded by water. However, some communities are disproportionally underserved by NYC Ferry and other forms of waterborne transit.
New York City should continue to support the expansion of passenger ferry services where feasible and should explore opportunities to improve regional connections. As the City grapples with equity and access to the waterfront, transit remains a crucial part of that equation.
Photo: Julienne Schaer, © NYC & Company
Resilience and Climate Change
Adapting the waterfront to the effects of climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face as a city. Sea level rise, flooding caused by extreme precipitation, and coastal storms affect different parts of the city in different ways. Adapting to climate change means that as a city, we will have to make significant investments and difficult decisions, but this will also create new opportunities.