The first Hunters Point South meeting in 17 months featured an engaging presentation about parkland and the nature area that would be developed along with the construction of an ultimate 6,500 housing units near the point where the East River and Newtown Creek meet.

Housing was covered by Josh Wallack, senior policy advisor in the office of the deputy mayor for economic development, who described Hunters Point South as “the largest middle income project in New York City since the 1970s”. In making a quick description of the first units to be built, he said the least expensive of them would be in the price range usually sought by city workers. (Later he had to clarify that by saying that he was using city workers as a representative income level, but not saying that those units would be reserved just for them.) He also said that when those first units were built, an intermediate school for 1,100 students would be built, too. But though important, housing and the HPS traffic plan were largely set aside for the evening at St. Mary’s Church in Long Island City while Wallack and other officials and an architect described places where residents and the public at large could enjoy outdoor activities or simply appreciate the natural revival planned for the water’s edge.

Two main objections arose on the Thursday evening a week before Thanksgiving. The first had to do with a less-than-natural surface on a large recreational area; the second with the all-toonatural matter of birds and what they drop.

The parkland and nature preserve discussion began when Wallack introduced Christian Gabriel, chief architect of the 11-acre waterfront entity comprising the two facilities. Gabriel said the parkland and nature area would have two segments, northern and southern. A bikeway would run through them, part of the great bikeway going north from Newtown Creek and through the lengthy stretch of waterfront parkland that would extend at least until LaGuardia Airport. There would be an internal park walkway and a bioswale to collect rainfall runoff. The northern district would have a canopy of trees, a dog run (7,000 square feet, Gabriel said, and split into runs for large dogs and small ones) and a children’s play area—and an open green that appeared somewhat oval on the illustration shown to meeting attendees.

There are two natural East River coves at Hunters Point South divided by a peninsula, Gabriel said. The northern cove, where Water Taxi Beach is located, would remain a recreational area, while the southern cove would become a nature area, with recreation excluded. The peninsula, rising steeply above the water, would have to be topographically altered, the architect said. At water’s edge, a marsh of Spartina, or cordgrass, would be developed at the junction of river and creek. On the creek itself, there would be a launch for kayaks and other watercraft, where Second Street meets the water; Gabriel called it “ecoactive”.

Other amenities include park comfort stations and a concession building with access to Water Taxi Beach on one side and the recreational oval on the other; an overlook that would extend over the nature area and into the river itself, providing a vista of natural scenery and a look into three boroughs (called “the diving board” by some who considered the way it looks on the illustration); a variety of trees as well as the little leaf lindens currently there, which would range from broadbranched trees in the park to pitch pines on the beach; and street and park lights that are environmentally friendly. The southern district nature area would have no lighting at all.

Gabriel said the recreational oval would be a large space, as much as 40,000 square feet in size, and a place for a wide range of activities. The thought of a great community green was certainly appealing, but how green it might be beyond its color was the main question. The green is to be covered with artificial turf. Charles McKinney, Parks Department chief of design, capital products division, said that turf was necessary because a natural grass surface would quickly be worn down by the volume of activity and would have to be cordoned off in large part during reseeding intervals. Fear that turf would become excessively heated during the summer was refuted by McKinney, who said that it might be warmer but was a soft turf, not like the Astroturf of 1970s athletic fields. What’s more, he asserted, kids love its flexibility. It would have to be washed daily, but that was only maintenance, he said. One woman feared chemical toxicity and its effect on people, particularly children. McKinney said only turf with non-leaded fibers is purchased by the city.

A Long Island City resident, Peter Johnson, brought up the problem of birds. He said that gulls would flock to the area and would be particularly attracted to the recreational oval, where their droppings, of which he warned of abundant amounts, could not be degraded into a natural surface. McKinney said that the turf to be used here, and already in use in parks throughout the city, was repellent to Canada geese, but Johnson said it wouldn’t be to gulls. He suggested the whole residential area and nature preserve would simply draw birds in great numbers and would ultimately present the problem of large guano deposits.

Wallack said that the first 900 housing units and the school are the focus of construction in the next two years. That and the further development of parkland and the nature preserve should be the topic of meetings to come.