LIC Composting Site Staves Off Eviction By City, For Now

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A Long Island City composting site that faced eviction by the city's parks department at the end of the year is getting a six-month extension, after elected officials joined forces with hundreds of supporters in pressuring the city to let it stay put.

Under the deal, the nonprofit Big Reuse will get to remain on its site under the Queensboro Bridge until June 2021, while the NYC Department of Sanitation works with them to find a new permanent home, city officials announced Friday.

“As the caretaker of our City’s 30,000 acres of parks — of which 10,000 are natural areas — composting has long been a regular part of our sustainable management practices,” NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver said. “In an effort to help Big Reuse continue their composting operations without interruption while they relocate, Parks will grant a 6-month extension of their use of Queensbridge Park.”

Big Reuse signed an agreement with the parks department in 2018 to use its space for free, though the nonprofit processes leaf and other yard debris from New York City parks and gives the agency some of the resulting compost.

This year, the parks department declined to renew the agreement, which expires Dec. 31.

Agency officials said they needed the space for operations, including parking, and even argued that Big Reuse using parks department property was a violation of the state's public trust doctrine.

In a news release Friday, the parks department said Big Reuse needs to vacate the space so that it can proceed with a long-planned $11 million capital project in Queensbridge Baby Park to provide more recreational space for residents of the nearby Queensbridge Houses complex.

Future park amenities will take up space along Vernon Boulevard that the agency currently uses for operations, according to the news release.

That project is slated to kick off in January, after being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.