City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research John Jay College of Criminal Justice 2016 The Limits of Liberal Planning: the Lindsay Administration's Failed Plan to Control Development on Staten Island Jeffrey A. Kroessler CUNY John Jay College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_pubs/77 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] The Limits of Liberal Planning: The Lindsay Administration’s Failed Plan to Control Development on Staten Island Jeffrey A. Kroessler John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Published in Journal of Planning History: 1-22 (2016) 2 The Limits of Liberal Planning The Lindsay Administration’s Failed Plan to Control Development on Staten Island Abstract: Staten Island grew rapidly after the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in 1964. Mayor John Lindsay introduced a plan to control and guide development there, and encouraged planned unit development. The Rouse Company, then building Columbia, Maryland, was contracted to plan new communities for the southern third of Staten Island to more than double the borough’s population. State Senator John Marchi introduced legislation for the South Richmond Development Corporation in 1971. The plan called for the city to use eminent domain to buy property and transfer it to the Rouse Company, which would also construct residential towers on landfill in Raritan Bay. Behind the banner of private property rights, the Conservative Party led opposition to the proposal, and their influence over elected officials on Staten Island led to the legislation’s defeat in Albany.