Revisiting New York’s Massive Sunnyside Yard Master Plan

An article by Samar Khurshid for the Gotham Gazette checks-in with the massive Sunnyside Yard Master Plan, announced in March 2020 with plans to spend $14 billion on a railyard deck, tens of thousands of new homes, new public and green space, and a new regional rail hub.   

“But the plan was released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, just before the city and state went into lockdown, economic activity slowed to a crawl, and every city infrastructure project was put on pause,” writes Khurshid. “The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan, a product of an announcement that de Blasio first made in 2015 during his State of the City address, was shelved.”

There have been a few signs of life for the master plan, according to Khurshid. “The MTA recently included a new ‘Sunnyside Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Station’ in its 20-year needs assessment of transit infrastructure, beginning the process of studying the proposal before deciding whether it can be funded down the line,” but, adds Khurshid, “the entities involved in the overall Sunnyside Master Plan don’t seem to be making any progress.”

Yet, as detailed, in the article, many advocates and economic development experts say the project is an idea fit for the needs of the city, as shared in the source article, linked below.