2026-09-21_A Driving Range in Van Cortlandt Park? More like a Merry-Go-Round
September 21st, 2026 Posted in Front Page News, Parks Committee, President's Blog, Water Committee
A Driving Range in Van Cortlandt Park? More like a Merry-Go-Round
NYC Department of Parks brings us bad news: the reopening of the Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park is delayed again—until 2028. Earlier this year, NYC Department of Parks announced that the facility would open in 2027 with the award of a new concessionaire by August 2026. Now the opening is stalled until a new concession agreement is awarded two years from now. Round-and-round it goes.
If the new date holds, it will mark 29 years since New York City Council voted to temporarily alienate the existing Mosholu Golf Course, sitting on 23 acres of Van Cortlandt Park, for the construction of the Croton Filtration Plant (with another 46 acres NYC DEP permanently taken for NYC DEP staging and operations). That’s literally a generation of Bronxites who have never known there was a golf course behind those walls and fences on Jerome Avenue.
Why this delay? Those 23 acres have been passed from NYC DPR to NYC DEP and back to NYC DPR. Now it is passed from NYC DPR to a yet to be named third party. Can there be any doubt that when one agency or party does not take control and responsibility for the property the project will suffer?
For BCEQ, this is more than a delayed concession agreement and park amenity. This is about the law and the spirit of temporary alienation of parkland that the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park established in court, with the support of BCEQ. When you temporarily take parkland for non-park uses, you give it back. For New Yorkers desperate for green space who want their government to manage their parkland and keep their promises, the carousel of agencies and concessionaires around the Mosholu Golf Course sends a message: you can wait.
BCEQ is tired of waiting and looks to you for your support. Look to this space for the next step in our effort to reclaim our parkland.
~Robert Fanuzzi, President BCEQ
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