Forest Hills Stadium uproar: Property association sues NYC, saying city improperly closes local streets during concerts
The intersection of 69th Ave. and Clyde St. outside Forest Hills Stadium on Tuesday. Several streets outside the stadium are closed during concerts. Credit: Ed Quinn
A Queens property association is suing New York City over a longstanding practice of closing private streets and blocking residential access when concerts are held at Forest Hills Stadium.
The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn federal court late Monday, was brought by the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, a planned community built on 142 acres of farmland back in 1909 and now home to 4,000 residents, according to the complaint.
According to court documents, the corporation maintains community streets, parking and landscaping and owns the streets and sidewalks.
But since 2013, a for-profit promotion company has had an agreement with the West Side Tennis Club, which owns the stadium land, to use the venue to hold commercial concerts on a large scale, resulting in crowds which have overwhelmed the community and its infrastructure, the lawsuit alleged.
The situation was worsened by the fact that the NYPD, as much as 40 times a year during concerts, closed the privately owned streets to traffic, erected barricades on association property and directed as many as 13,000 concertgoers through the property to access Forest Hills Stadium, according to the complaint.
Residents have had to witness public alcohol and drug consumption, public urination and littering, along with overpowering noise from concerts "resulting in chronic violations of the City’s noise code," the lawsuit alleged.
As a result, the city’s action amounts to an unlawful and unconstitutional taking of the community’s private streets and sidewalks without compensation, according to Katherine Rosenfeld, a partner in the law firm representing the association.
"The City has carried out a long-standing unlawful taking — siding with a billion-dollar concert enterprise over the rights of local residents," Rosenfeld said in a statement. "The lawsuit is about finally holding the City to account."
In a telephone interview, Rosenfeld said as many as a million concertgoers have walked through the private streets. She said while residents normally had private parking permits for the area, they still weren’t allowed to park during concerts and sometimes had their cars towed by police.
The lawsuit names only the city as a defendant. The complaint asks for unspecified damages and the award of attorney fees.
A spokesman for the New York City Law Department said Tuesday the case was under review.
According to court papers, the Forest Hills stadium had earlier been the site of concerts but fell into disrepair and, by 2000, had been essentially abandoned.
It was upgraded in 2013. With an agreement that year with the promotion company, the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation allowed the Tennis Club the right to hold concerts with the city providing sound amplification permits and the NYPD allowed to close off certain private streets and to allow concertgoers to use the streets to access the stadium, court papers explained.
But after concerts became too disruptive to the neighborhood, in 2022 no more licenses were issued by the association, according to the complaint.
But concerts continued to be held from 2023 to 2025 despite no permission from the Forest Hills Gardens group, causing an "invasion" of crowds into the neighborhood, the complaint alleged.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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