Sandy Hook not included in Gateway design competition
Project aims to turn park unit into an iconic national park
BY LIZ SHEEHAN
Correspondent

A recently announced international design competition seeking to create a new vision for Gateway National Recreation Area, will not directly affect Sandy Hook, an administrator of one of the sponsoring organizations said Monday.

Alex Brash, senior director and head of the Northeast Regional Office of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonprofit organization, said this week the design competition is "aimed on two levels."

The first, he said, would ask participants to look at all components of Gateway and "think about the big picture," such as transportation issues and a unifying theme for the national park.

The second would be "honing in" on Floyd Bennett Field, in New York, originally a municipal airport then a Naval air reserve training station until it became a part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway in 1972, and the Fort Tilden area, looking for more specific uses and landscaping.

Brash offered the information in response to a question about whether the competition would play any role in the effort by Save Sandy Hook, a local organization, to overturn the 60-year lease granted by the National Park Service (NPS) to Rumson developer James Wassel to commercially develop at least 36 buildings at historic Fort Hancock at the Sandy Hook Unit.

The lawsuit filed by Save Sandy Hook to block the lease is still pending.

Brian Feeney, a spokesperson for the NPS, said Monday "we are not taking calls on this," when asked whether the competition would include Sandy Hook, and referred inquiries to Brash.

The NPCA, the Van Alen Institute and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation announced the international public design competition on Feb. 22.

The competition for the 26,000-acre national park is entitled "Envisioning Gateway: A Public Competition for Gateway National Park" and is underwritten by the Tiffany & Co. Foundation, according to a statement released by the three groups.

Columbia University "has prepared an extensive research report that examines Gateway's significance as an ecological, cultural and recreational resource," the statement said, which will be used as background information "and serve as a tool to inspire designers, planners and stakeholders that will transform Gateway into a thriving national park."

The statement also said that a poll by Zogby International shows "The majority of New York residents desire an iconic national park in the region, but nearly half of them are unaware of, and have never visited Gateway - a mere 50 minutes from Times Square."

Those who did visit found the facilities below average, the poll said. And the majority of city residents prefer to get to the park by subway, and the greater part of Gateway is not now accessible by subway or PATH.

The statement said Gateway is "one of the largest urban parks in the United States," and was added to the park system by Congress in 1972.

It extends from Queens, through parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, to Sandy Hook at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore.

The competition is being presented on-line and all the information, including instructions, guidelines, registration, site plans and photographs are available at www.vanalen.org/gateway.

Brash said the NPCA is a 90-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the national park system.

The group is trying to "ensure sufficient funding" for the national parks which have had a $600 million gap in federal support for routine maintenance and needs.

He said the National Park Service would celebrate its centennial in 2016 and the NPCA is working on making Gateway a focus project of the celebration.

One goal would be for Congress and the President to "line up" behind this initiative by providing matching federal funds for private donors and funding for the parks, he said

The Van Alen Institute said in a press release that "Gateway was designated the first urban national recreation area on Oct. 27, 1972, exactly one century after Yellowstone became the first national park in the United States and in the world.

"Thirty-five years later, Gateway continues to struggle to meet the aspirations of its founders, to negotiate its relationship with the communities that surround it and to balance the goals of historic preservation, environmental conservation and active recreation."