A letter from Coney Island Development Corp. president Lynn Kelly went out yesterday afternoon to announce an upcoming meeting that is the first step in the official public approval process for the city’s Coney Island rezoning proposal and plan. Here is some of what it said:

As you may know, the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC) and the New York City Department of City Planning held three public information sessions last week to discuss the City’s proposed rezoning framework for the Coney Island amusement area.(Detailed information regarding the rezoning plan is available at www.thecidc.org and at www.nyc.gov/planning.) Just as community participation was integral to developing the CIDC’s 2005 Strategic Plan, so too has recent input received from the community been key in informing the overall planning process.

In tandem with our community outreach efforts, we are also pursuing a detailed environmental analysis of the impacts of the proposed rezoning, in accordance with all regulatory requirements. The City has now completed the Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS) as part of the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) process, as well as a Scope of Work for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The lead agency has issued a positive declaration and notice of scoping, here attached for your information. All of these documents can be found on the CIDC website at www.thecidc.org or on the website of Office of Environmental Coordination at www.nyc.gov/oec…As a next step in the environmental review process, a public scoping meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 6pm, at Lincoln High School, 2800 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY, to hear comments from the public regarding the proposed scope of work for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Coney Island rezoning. Written comments will also be accepted through Friday, February 29th, 2008, as further detailed in the official scoping documents…

The meeting is actually the most technical part of the long public process.