A leading urban planning and development consultant has argued New York should scrap plans to revamp the city's Aqueduct Race Track and use the land to develop an airport city next to Kennedy Airport.

The 77-hectare, loss-making horse track could be demolished and replaced with offices, conference facilities, distribution centres or hotels on the model of Amsterdam Schipol, Frankfurt and Hong Kong, Hugh O'Neil, president of the New York-based consultancy Appleseed, stated in an article for the Center for an Urban Future think tank.

"With a total of 192 acres, its own A-train station, and the potential for easy access to the airport, the Aqueduct site could easily support millions of square feet of low- to medium-density development," O Neil enthused.

"Of course, many of the places that are pursuing the vision of an 'airport city' have something that New York plainly lacks"öa large supply of available land around a major airport. But if advocates of this concept are right"öif easy access to airports that offer high levels of worldwide connectivity is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage"öthen that is all the more reason for New York to be especially concerned about the fate of every piece of potentially developable land on, adjacent to or near Kennedy Airport."

The Bloomberg administration has already made progress towards airport city developments around Kennedy Airport, including the promotion of commercial office development in the area.

By Oliver Clark