Controversy Erupts Over Staten Island Comprehensive Plan Idea

"Staten Island is the city's fastest-growing borough. That growth has produced new woes, like rapidly rising housing prices, congested roads and a shortage of high-paying jobs, said Mr. Bowles, who wrote the study for the Center for an Urban Future, a public policy group. What is needed, the study said, is an immediate change in zoning rules, which have prevented more dense developments near the waterfront."

"Additionally, 'The lack of a comprehensive plan to solve those problems is very likely to continue driving younger people away', he said.

"'The borough's basically been turned into a borough for more expensive one- and two-family detached homes,' said R. Randy Lee, a builder and the chairman of the economic development corporation, the group that commissioned the study."

"From 2000 to 2006, the median price of a single-family home on the island doubled to $425,000, according to the study."

"Mr. Lee is leading the push for the borough to draft a comprehensive master plan that would direct future growth to appropriate areas. A master plan is one of the recommendations in the center's study and Staten Island's members of the City Council plan to call for each borough to have its own master plan."

"But that idea does not have the support of Daniel L. Doctoroff, a deputy mayor, who appeared at the conference to promote Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's broad vision for the city."

"'We've done a lot of the master-planning for Staten Island,' Mr. Doctoroff said. 'We're doing it in chunks. We don't think we need one comprehensive plan. What we have found is the one big plan typically will die of its own weight.'"