The Kissena Park and Kissena Corridor Park sections of the Eastern Queens Greenway are two of the largest Parks Department infrastructure projects we’ve ever seen in Eastern Queens. This Monday the updated design plan is going to review by Community Board 7 and we’d love to have you attend to make sure this greenway gets built!
When: Monday, April 13th at 7:00PM
Join by Computer: https://meeting.windstream.com/j/11117580010
Join by Phone: (646) 741-5293 Meeting ID 111 1758 0010
Meeting Focus
As the Department of Parks gets closer to building the greenway, it’s connecting to local organizations to share it’s work and receive feedback. At this meeting we’ll see the most up to date design of the greenway and hopefully hear about their timeline to completion. This is a Committee Meeting of Community Board 7 so they’ll have discretion on if we can give any public comment (we hope they do), but even if not just having a large showing of community interest can really help a project like this move forward.
In 2022 we had the Destination:Greenways! design which broke out the Eastern Queens Greenway into different sections. Since then we’ve had $43 Million Dollars of funding for multiple sections, mainly from work of Sandra Ung and her team.
With the funding now in place, these sections are calling in architects, plant specialists, designers, and many other teams to finalize exactly what will be built. These experts will make sure we’re not destroying animal habitats, unnecessarily cutting down trees, or creating paths so narrow they cause crashes.
You’ll be one of the first people to see the details of what they came up with this Monday. With so many experts focusing on our part of Queens, we’re very excited to hear about what they came up with.
Design Focus
The greenway sections being discussed are sections 4b, 5a, and 7, which is generally from Main Street to Fresh Meadows Lane. This meeting will not discuss:
- Section 4a, around the Botanical Gardens, which has not yet been funded.
- Section 5b, the forest overlook, which is paused due to proposed flooding prevention projects.
- Section 8, through Peck Park, which is funded but the design process has not started yet.
What we will be seeing at Monday’s meeting is:
- an entirely new trail going east/west through Kissena Corridor Park
- a major shift in the east/west trail through Kissena Park, out of the flood zone (with a new spur that connects to the velodrome)
- an entirely new trail north of Kissena Golf Course (removing the need to be on Underhill Avenue) and an upgrade to the current path between 170th Street and Fresh Meadows Lane
All told that will be about 2 miles of modern, well thought out infrastructure that connects our community. It will give a safe space for our children away from traffic. It’ll create accessible paths where our elderly population can enjoy nature. And it will fill in a major gap of the Eastern Queens Greenway, the 12 mile route from Fort Totten to Flushing Meadows, that will connect dozens of neighborhoods across Queens.
What We’re Advocating For
We could not be more excited to see this project moving forward, our organization has spent DECADES fighting for it. Here are the issues we’ll be looking for in the project.
The first priority is safety. We want to make sure this route has trails with a good sight distance and that are wide enough to accommodate heavy usage once the entire greenway is completed. For reference, the Motor Parkway (pictured to the right) has paths as wide as 20 feet in some places. We are confident that bringing people into the park will push out the crime, but for that to happen we need adequate lighting and an environment that encourages people to use the space.
There will be major street crossing at Main Street, Kissena Boulivard, 164th Street, and Fresh Meadows Lane. We trust that our friends at DoT will re-design these intersections to prioritize the pedestrian traffic. Specifically what we’ll be looking for are concrete protection any time the path touches the street, pedestrian priority light signals, and a traffic control device at Fresh Meadows Lane.
We defer to the experts on what part of the park to go through, we respect there are a lot of wildlife concerns that need to be taken into account. What we care about is connecting to as many amenities as possible, especially playgrounds and sport fields. This should be the main path to guide people to their park land. They key connections we’re looking for are a spur to the velodrome (which Parks has discussed previously) and a connection to the paths that lead to Kissena Park Lake.
This will be a new route for many residents, so any way finding (like maps) would help people not only explore the park, but also connect more with the communities that surround them.
And importantly, we really need to have an automated bike counter on the brand new path in Kissena Corridor Park. We’re spending tens of millions of tax payer dollars on this projects, we need something to show public how much usage these new trails are getting (as seen below being erected in Manhattan in 2018). It looks like there are about 20 counters across NYC already, yet none in Eastern Queens. By tracking the growth in usage of this trail now, and as infrastructure is added to it over time, we’ll have better tools for both advocates and engineers for future projects around the city and around the world.
Why Your Attendance Matters
These segments represent some of the most consequential improvements to the Eastern Queens Greenway we’ve ever seen. The plans are strong, but the details that determine safety, usability, and long‑term success—path width, street‑adjacent protection, and data‑collection infrastructure—depend on clear, consistent community feedback.
A strong turnout next week will help ensure these priorities are incorporated into the final design. Be part of the greenway that you want to see.
Eastern Queens Greenway 