Who We AreWe're not here to follow norms—we're here to build something timeless.
With a blend of creativity, strategy, and heart, we help ideas within Coney Island residents come to life. Every collaboration we take on is an opportunity to learn, grow, and do something meaningful.
About the Coney Island People’s Planning Collaboration
Comprehensive community planning efforts in Coney Island have been sparse. A comprehensive zoning update for the peninsula was adopted in 1961. During the mid-2000’s, the neighborhood underwent a rezoning process, which was finalized and approved by the City Planning Commission and City Council in 2009. The plan, which covered 19 blocks and was bounded by the New York Aquarium to the east, West 24th Street to the west, Mermaid Avenue to the north and the Riegelmann Boardwalk to the south, intended to “reestablish Coney Island as a year-round, open and accessible amusement destination” with “new housing opportunities, including affordable housing, and neighborhood services” (https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans/coney-island/coney_island.pdf).
For more information on the planning and development history of Coney Island, see the Historical Development section of our Existing Conditions analysis.
Ongoing Planning Efforts in Coney Island
To date, no comprehensive 197-a planning process has been completed for Coney Island. In the absence of an up-to-date, comprehensive land use and development strategy, private developer-driven, ad hoc land use plans have proliferated.
In early 2024, the Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) was approached by leaders from the Coney Island Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation (CINRC) to explore the possibility of developing a collaboration to assist CINRC with a community-wide planning initiative.
Together, CINRC and Pratt GCPE began building a process centered on strategic gathering, collective visioning, and authentic engagement with residents, local organizations, small businesses, youth, elders, and cultural stewards across the peninsula. The goal was not simply to respond to development, but to create a people-centered framework that reflects the lived realities, cultural memory, and long-term aspirations of the Coney Island community.
As part of this ongoing effort, Pratt GCPE supports community-led development through seasonal semester studios that connect graduate planning students with neighborhood stakeholders. Through research, technical development support, participatory engagement, spatial analysis, and planning recommendations, students contribute tools and strategies that help advance locally identified priorities and strengthen community advocacy efforts.
The Coney Island People’s Plan emerges from this collaborative process — as both a living document and an organizing tool — designed to help residents negotiate with developers, advocate for equitable investment, and shape a future where development is accountable to the people who call Coney Island home.
Pratt Studio Community Work History
2025 Fall Studio
Beginning in the Fall of 2025, students, instructors and CINRC executive leadership reconvened to build upon the foundation established during the Spring 2024 studio. This next phase of collaboration focused on deepening prior research, validating community-driven priorities, and advancing actionable strategies for implementation. Students enrolled in this studio supported the Coney Island Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation by:
Refining and expanding upon previously identified community visions, values, and priorities through targeted engagement and iterative analysis.
Fall 2025 studio concluded with:
(12+) Interviews and/or focus groups with key stakeholders
(1) Community visioning event
(4) Street team engagement activities
A comprehensive report building on Spring 2024 findings
Phased recommendations for near-, mid-, and long-term development
An actionable roadmap to support continued community-led planning and development
2024 Spring Studio
Beginning in the late Spring of 2024, Studio instructors and CINRC executive leadership engaged in a series of meetings to scope out this collaboration. Students enrolled in this studio supported the Coney Island Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation by:
Developing and executing a series of planning and community outreach activities designed to help local stakeholders identify the visions, values, and priorities they wish to guide planning and development in the neighborhood.
Translating this research into professional quality products that can be used by studio clients to advocate on the community’s behalf.
Spring 2024 studio concluded with:
A multi-sector online survey
(4) Interviews and/or focus groups with key stakeholders
(2) Community visioning activities
(2) Street team activities
Contextual research and analysis
A planning and development Community Wish List
Recommendations and Implementation Toolkit
2025 Taconic Fellowship
Building on the foundation established through the Spring and Fall 2024 planning studios, the 2025 Taconic Fellowship focused on deepening community engagement, synthesizing research findings, and advancing the development of the Coney Island People’s Plan into a cohesive and actionable neighborhood planning report and digital website. Fellowship activities included:
Compiling and synthesizing findings from both planning studios into a comprehensive community planning report
Supporting additional survey and outreach efforts to broaden resident participation and feedback
Organizing a public community open house to share completed work, gather community reflections, and identify next steps for the continued development of the Coney Island People’s Plan
Strengthening visual, narrative, and technical planning materials that support long-term advocacy and community-led development efforts
The fellowship reflects an ongoing commitment to participatory planning practices that position residents not simply as stakeholders, but as authors of Coney Island’s future.
