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A big battle over a plot of land in Jackson Heights splits the community
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Jul 16, 2025
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Arun Venugopal
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Arun Venugopal
Published Jul 16, 2025
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A debate over a small, church-owned parcel of land in Jackson Heights has split the community and cast doubt on Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to increase the amount of green space in underserved neighborhoods.
Elected officials and community members are pushing for the land to be turned into a public park and have involved the state attorney general. The owners argue they’re being pressured into acting against their best interests.
The parcel, adjacent to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 33-50 82nd St., measures less than one-fifth of an acre. The space is currently used for the church’s early childhood education program and is dotted with a plastic slide, a miniature basketball hoop and other recreational equipment.
Officials with the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island told Gothamist they would prefer to sell the land to a private developer in order to generate revenue quickly, and are considering various options, including one that would allow for a charter school to be built on site.
Discussions between the two sides have descended into recrimination, with both accusing the other of communicating in bad faith.
Local City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, who is urging the church to sell the land to the city, said the matter is made all the more urgent by Jackson Heights' severe lack of green space.
“ We have reached out over and over again to request meetings with the church,” Krishnan said in an interview. “They have denied those requests.”
The office of state Attorney General Letitia James, which oversees the sale of real estate by religious organizations, appears set to weigh in.
“We understand the Jackson Heights community’s concern for preserving much-needed green space and are carefully reviewing this matter,” Alexis Richards, a spokesperson for the attorney general, said in a statement.
The stalemate has implications beyond this particular parcel of land. In May, Adams announced that the city had committed $30 million to its “Vital Parks for All” initiative, meant to quickly turn “vacant, underutilized and abandoned lots” into playgrounds and parks in neighborhoods that lack such spaces, in part by eliminating red tape and bureaucratic hurdles. The standoff in Jackson Heights suggests that efforts to dramatically ramp up the amount of green space across the five boroughs may encounter significant roadblocks.
Krishnan said he and officials in the city parks department had taken “extraordinary” steps to transfer the land from the church to the city, reducing the normally cumbersome process of the land use review process from “many years” to “months.” The purchase was approved by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in the 2026 budget, where it’s listed as a $3 million expenditure. Krishnan said his office is contributing another $1 million.
However, Ellen Liu Chan, the director of asset management for the diocese, said in an interview with Gothamist that the timeline of a sale to the city “doesn't align with the church's needs” and that the institution is confronting “ fairly dire financial circumstances.”
“We're trying to make the best financial decision for the church,” Chan said.
The lot is approximately 8,000 square feet in size, according to the diocese. It said a sale to a private developer would help the church pay for around $1.3 million in expenses, including structural repairs and upgrades to bathrooms and HVAC systems. Although the church is considering the sale of the lot, officials said an existing garden located at the corner of 81st Street and 34th Avenue would remain open to the public during limited hours.
In a statement, the Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, said, “we remain deeply committed to keeping our church open and thriving for generations to come.”
“As part of that commitment, parish leaders are carefully considering offers for the vacant lot behind the church, while ensuring our existing buildings and the cherished garden on 34th Avenue remain available for the community — so that we can build a financially sustainable future and continue serving our neighbors with love and care.” Provenzano said.
The exchange has become increasingly heated, however. Pro-park voices argue the church has failed to act in the community’s best interests. The diocese argues it’s being intimidated into submission.
“Your behavior has been heavy handed and overreaching, and we do not appreciate attempts to bully the church into capitulating to your demands,” Chan wrote in a July 1 letter to Krishnan.
She added, “As an owner of private property, it is the church’s imperative to make decisions that guarantee its survival in this community.”
Similarly, Krishnan and Jessica González-Rojas, a state assemblymember representing the area, have taken issue with the diocese’s tenor. In a June 17 letter, the two lawmakers told Provenzano that his response was “an encapsulation of the Church’s deceptive and disrespectful approach to this entire process. The fact that you refuse to meet, after dodging numerous phone calls, is revealing in itself.”
The space adjacent to St Mark’s Episcopal Church is currently being used by the church's early education program.
Arun Venugopal
Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa has tried to allay the church’s concerns, records show. In a June 30 letter to church officials, Rodriguez-Rosa wrote that the city “compensates property owners based on fair market value and is well positioned to negotiate in good faith.”
“We believe there is strong support in the community for the preservation of the yard as a public open space,” Rodriguez-Rosa wrote. “Moreover, we realize and understand that the parish is experiencing financial distress and we are doing our utmost to obtain the acquisition approval needed in order for the City to make a formal offer.”
An online petition in support of converting the space into a park had received more than 1,800 signatures as of Tuesday.
“Instead of allowing a real estate developer to build more residential housing — a development that would make our neighborhood even more crowded, and further tax local resources and infrastructure — let’s work together and lobby the city to buy the land for public use,” the petition reads.
Krishnan said Jackson Heights holds an unwelcome status, ranking last among neighborhoods in terms of park space per capita. According to a report from the city’s Independent Budget Office, Jackson Heights, Bensonhurst and Borough Park “have as little as 2 square feet of park space per resident.” The city’s parks department said that just 7% of Queens is under its jurisdiction, the least of any borough. That’s compared to 19% in the Bronx, 13% in Manhattan, 8% in Brooklyn and 14% on Staten Island. The department operates a total of 30,000 acres of park space across the five boroughs.
Melissa Zavalas, a Jackson Heights resident who has attended services at St. Mark's for more than 20 years, said the issue had split the congregation, with many people siding with church leadership. Zavalas felt otherwise.
“This is truly a park-starved neighborhood,” she said, arguing that the construction of a new building on the lot would be highly disruptive to the neighborhood, far more than if it were turned into a public park.
“ The idea that the church is going to get a lot more money from a private developer to build a very large building in the last remaining plot that hasn't been developed in the neighborhood, it is just really wrong minded and unfortunate.”
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Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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