The New York City Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy (WAVES) has been launched.

The citywide initiative aims to create a new sustainable blueprint for the City’s 578 miles (930 km) of shoreline.

The WAVES strategy — to be developed over the next nine months — will include two core components: the Vision 2020 — The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan that will establish long-term goals for the next decade and beyond, and the New York City Waterfront Action Agenda that will set priority initiatives to be implemented within three years.

The initiative will focus on open space and recreation; housing and economic development; natural habitats; climate change adaptation; and waterborne transportation. A series of public workshops in all five boroughs to discuss the strategy will begin this month.

"After decades of abandonment and neglect, our administration made it a priority to increase access to and jobs on the waterfront and from the construction of Barretto Point Park in The Bronx to the expansion of Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, we’ve made enormous headway over the past eight years. Now, the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy — or WAVES," says Michael R. Bloomberg, New York Mayor.

The plan will seek to address the City’s 'Blue Network' — the waterways — from the expansion of water transport to climate resilience. New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) will lead a complimentary effort to create the New York City Waterfront Action Agenda, a set of high-priority initiatives that can be implemented during the next three years.

Priority initiatives could include programs such as piloting the City’s first wetlands mitigation bank to incorporating new ecological designs into the repair and restoration of waterfront infrastructure.

For each initiative, the Action Agenda will identify current conditions and desired outcomes, specific steps to achieve goals, benchmarks to measure its success, agency responsibilities and funding sources. New York is a city of five boroughs, with four of them islands.

WAVES will be consistent with the sustainable vision of PlaNYC and will seek to advance many of its goals, from wetland protection to expanding ferry service to increasing climate resilience.

Since 2002, the City has rezoned more than 700 acres of largely vacant or underutilised waterfront to create new housing and public waterfront access.

Architecture & Design Team

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