By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — The City Council voted unanimously Thursday in favor of the purchasing and development of the High Line’s final section, clearing the way for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s review of the plan and, at last, the completion of the elevated park.
The area in question, bounded by 30th and 34th Streets and traveling between 10th and 12th avenues, is still owned by a railroad company, not the city. Unlike the High Line sections running from Gansevoort to 20th Street, it was not acquired by the city in 2005.
The City Council’s vote delivered on the promise of a recent subcommittee meeting, where High Line supporters had a final opportunity to make their arguments for passing the High Line through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) — a public approval process that is a precondition for acquiring land.
Madelon Spiers, a Chelsea resident since the 1960s in the audience at the City Council meeting, reflected on the project's long journey, noting that she used to hate the High Line.
She remembered years of listening to the sound of trains creaking above her apartment, and a dangerous environment on the unmaintained grounds in the years after trains stopped running.
“It was very scary,” said Spiers, who is in her 70s, of a bike trip she took on the High Line years ago. “If anybody wanted to make trouble, there was no escape.”
The High Line’s ULURP application must now go to Bloomberg’s office for final review. If he approves it, the city can begin negotiations with the railroad company that owns the land, CSX Transportation, Inc, which has indicated its willingness to sell.
"The vote brings us one step closer to the transformation of the entire High Line," Joshua David, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, said in a statement.
"We look forward to working with the Bloomberg administration and all parties to discuss the next steps for the High Line at the rail yards."
