VISION FOR A NEW PARK

This artist rendering offers a possible design for a public park on the site formerly occupied by St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Maspeth. According to Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society, elected officials are working to secure funds for the purchase of the site, which is currently vacant and undeveloped. (photo courtesy of Christina Wilkinson) Hoping to pique the interest and attention of state and city agencies, the president of the Newtown Historical Society has unveiled a computer-generated rendering of a public park on the former site of St. Saviour’s Church in Maspeth.

During Community Board 5’s Feb. 24 meeting at Grover Cleveland High School, Christina Wilkinson presented an image of what the park might look like at the one-acre site in the vicinity of Rust Street and 57th Road.

Featuring items suggested by residents living around the empty lot, the rendering included green lawns, tall trees framed by the Manhattan skyline, a monument atop a small hill and a playground for local children. The image was created, Wilkinson said, by a graphics designer who layered the items onto a photo of the site taken from a nearby rooftop.

Speaking before the advisory body, Wilkinson stated that local elected officials including City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and Borough President Helen Marshall have been working with officials with the city and state parks departments to find the resources needed to purchase and develop the St. Saviour’s property into a public park.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe had sent a letter to Wilkinson last August indicating that the city was open to the possibility of purchasing the site provided that elected officials secured the resources to complete the transaction.

While elected officials and preservationists turned to the state for help, Wilkinson noted, they were informed that no funds were available for the purchase of the St. Saviour’s site due to budget cuts.

Crowley and Marshall, along with Representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velázquez, State Sen. Joseph Addabbo and Assemblywomen Catherine Nolan and Margaret Markey, co-signed a letter to State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash in November asking for the agency to provide funds toward the property’s purchase and renovation.

“We respectfully ask for funds to secure this last sizable open space left in this community,” the elected officials stated in the letter. “Should we miss this chance to create public parkland, another opportunity such as this will not likely present itself in our lifetime.”

In her response to Council Member Crowley last month, Ash stated that while the site would most likely qualify to be purchased by the state through the Environmental Protection Fund, the budget proposed by Gov. David Paterson for the coming fiscal year would place “an indefinite moratorium on land acquisition” beginning on Apr. 1.

Ash suggested that “the city may want to seek funding under the Environmental Protection Fund matching grant programs administered by State Parks” of up to $600,000.

Wilkinson urged residents at last Wednesday’s board meeting to contact their local elected officials and urge them to urge the state to provide funds for the purchase and development of the St. Saviour’s site.

“We can’t afford to have housing there,” she said. “It would be a travesty to see it developed.”

St. Saviour’s Church was constructed in the mid-1800s on a plot of land located in the area where Maspeth was first settled, it was noted. The structure itself was designed by architect Richard Upjohn, who also drew the plans for Trinity Church in lower Manhattan.

When the St. Saviour’s Episcopal congregation was folded in 1996, the church was sold to San Sung Korean Methodist Church, which occupied the location for 10 years before selling it to Maspeth Development in October 2005.

Soon after the latter sale was announced, Maspeth Development presented plans to rezone the property—currently zoned for manufacturing purposes—in order to demolish the church and build up to 70 housing units. Local civic leaders including the JPCA sought to thwart those plans through litigation while also appealing to the city to purchase the site for the creation of a public park and community center.

In an agreement reached with the property owner, the JPCA was permitted to dismantle and remove the church from the property in April 2008. The organization plans to rebuild and renovate the house of worship on a plot of land provided by Lutheran/All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.

The site is currently assessed for $2.5 million by New York City; according to Wilkinson, the property is being offered by the owners for $9 million.