The Fight to Preserve Udalls Cove

Previously, I described the early battles of Aurora Gareiss and the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee to preserve the last undeveloped wetlands and woodlands in the Udalls Cove watershed. New York City established cove’s park in 1972, but it extended south only as far as the Long Island Rail Road. 

The first authorizations and funding appropriations to start acquiring land for the park came in 1975. Then, in 1978, Mayor Ed Koch approved an amendment of the park map to include the entire Udalls Cove Ravine, a narrow but ecologically important strip of woodlands stretching south from the railroad to Northern Boulevard. 

The ravine, totaling a little more than 17 acres, was divided into many parcels with different owners. The single largest owner was St. Anastasia’s Church, which is located on the opposite side of Northern Boulevard.

The church owned an estimated six acres of the ravine facing the boulevard, between what is now the Mobil gas station on the corner of 244th Street and the 7-Eleven convenience store on the corner of 247th Street.

Filling of the deep ravine had started here in the late 1950s as concrete rubble from the construction of the Long Island Expressway in the bed of the Horace Harding Boulevard was dumped into this convenient location. A decade later, the filled area covered the entire six-acre parcel and extended north to 44th Avenue, behind the Douglaston Firehouse. 

The church used the filled area for overflow parking and planned to build a diocesan high school at the site. But by the early1980s, declining student enrollments caused that plan to be dropped and the church instead prepared to sell the parcel to a developer who intended to build a commercial shopping center on the site.

Aurora and the preservation committee moved into high gear, recruiting all their allies in the effort to have the land acquired for the park. State Sen. Frank Padavan was instrumental in securing funding for the acquisition and, in 1982, the City Planning Commission approved acquisition of the St. Anastasia’s parcel. The city proceeded to condemn the land and, in due course, the courts awarded the church $1.2 million for the purchase. 

The slow process of acquisition proceeded as other parcels within the officially designated boundaries of Udalls Cove Park were purchased in both the ravine area and the earlier-designated areas north of the LIRR.

By October 1990, enough land had been acquired for the city’s Parks Department to hold a ceremony in Douglaston to formally dedicate the Udalls Cove Wildlife Preserve. Meanwhile, owners of land that had not yet been purchased continued to seek permits under the State’s Tidal Wetlands Act to build. 

Each time a proposal arises, the preservation committee has opposed the permit application and persuaded the city or state to move ahead with another acquisition.

The most recent threat came in 2002 when two owners applied to build 18 homes on four acres in the ravine in a section north of the former St. Anastasia’s parcel. Despite the city’s financial crisis, Mayor Michael Bloomberg eventually approved condemnation and purchase of these parcels. 

Today, nearly all areas designated for inclusion in the park have been acquired by the city or state and only a little more than four acres in the ravine are still at risk in private ownership. The Udalls Cove Preservation Committee remains steadfast to see the acquisition completed.