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`In general the plan is a big step forward. But it doesn't respect what we've talked about on the Lower East Side.' Ruth Messinger, Manhattan borough president
A necklace of promenades around Manhattan, new ferry links and an end to riverfront skyscrapers are all part of the city's long-awaited grand plan for New York's 578-mile waterfront scheduled for release today - a document almost certain to raise the ire of both real-estate developers and community leaders.
After more than a year of testy meetings of city planners, developers and local representatives, the administration is presenting a scaled-down vision of the waterfront that rejects the towering mega-projects championed in the boom years of the 1980s.
Parts of the weighty document shown to New York Newsday by sources reveal an ambitious scheme to turn the grimly rotting walls and corroded piers along much of Manhattan's waterfront into a wraparound public esplanade, and to ban any skyscrapers from springing up alongside it.
The changes might force a complete redesign of Donald Trump's Riverside South project on the Hudson River, which in its current plan could be as high as 49 floors.
The plan also proposes opening new commuter ferry services at Kennedy Airport and Flushing Bay in Queens, Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, and extending cycle paths in Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Long Island Sound, Jamaica Bay and the New Jersey riverfront of Staten Island are all singled out for special protection of their wetlands.
That is good news to neighborhood groups, local politicians and environmentalists. But as one official who has seen the document said, "Nothing in this city becomes a lovefest."
Though each piece of the plan is still months from completion because of the lengthy review process and required City Council approval, at least three items could spark renewed battles.
One of the...