of sanitation opened a "super dump" in howard beach, located along jamaica bay stretching west of cross bay boulevard. the new dump, proposed by parks commissioner robert moses, was intended to receive most of the garbage from southern queens and replace smaller landfills in other areas of the borough. the new super dump would either reduce the load on or entirely replace the edgemere landfill. the howard beach dump would operate until the completion of the south shore incinerator in spring creek, brooklyn. afterwards, the reclaimed land would become part of the planned spring creek park. in november 1952 and again in january 1953, parks commissioner moses proposed to the new york city board of estimate that the city purchase the edgemere landfill, keep it in operation for 15 years, and eventually develop it into a park. at the time, it was estimated that keeping the site in operation would save the city $1 million annually in waste disposal costs. in 1955, the city began plans for a housing project in edgemere. the plans included an adjoining park on the site of the edgemere landfill, which had been in operation for nearly twenty years at this time. the new york city board of estimate approved the park project on april 29, 1955. on october 4, 1955 the city of new york began condemnation proceedings in order to acquire the edgmere landfill site adjacent to the future edgemere houses site. the park was to be named "edgemere park". at the time, the property was still owned by the new york city waterfront corporation. plans for the park included eight tennis courts, along with a boat basin and ice skating rink. by this time, the site occupied 264 acres (107 ha). many of the small islands that once existed in little bay were now joined together and connected to the main rockaway peninsula by landfilling. however, much of the future park site was still underwater. it was referred to as "the largest remaining undeveloped area in the rockaways". moses developed several public housing projects on the rockaway peninsula during this time, all of which included an adjoining park. construction on the other adjoining infrastructure for the edgemere housing project, public school 105 and rockaway beach hospital (the future peninsula hospital), began in 1957. the landfill site was purchased by the city via condemnation on december 12, 1957, costing $1,496,564. the purchase of the property by the city was criticized in 1958 by queens borough president james j. crisona, with crisona believing that the city paid too much for the property. the city paid $1.5 million for the site following an evaluation by city real estate appraiser james c. sheridan. however, the city tax rolls assessed the site at $150,000, exactly one tenth of its purchase price. crisona noted that sheridan's appraisal was based on the land's potential for industrial development, but claimed that it could not be developed for 20 to 30 years due to its status as a landfill. he also compared the price of edgemere park to that of other properties in the area, which were appraised at much lower prices. crisona criticized sheridan, corporation council peter campbell brown, and mayor robert f. wagner jr. for their roles in the purchase. sheridan proceeded to file a $1 million defamation suit against crisona, while sheridan's $22,000 commission for the job was withheld by city controller lawrence e. gerosa shortly afterwards, in july 1958 brown resigned from his post. initial park development by july 1958, the rockaway airport was closed and demolished to make way for the housing project. on october 16, 1958, ground was broken on the edgemere houses project, with robert moses, borough president james crisona, and governor w. averell harriman in attendance. during the ceremony, moses spoke about his plans for the adjoining edgemere park. the first portion of the park would be a 300-foot (91 m)-wide "buffer between the edgemere state housing project and the operations of the department of sanitation". the plans for the remainder of the park, which would be the "largest park on the rockaway peninsula," included an 18-hole golf course and a marina. moses planned to create several parks on wetlands by filling the land with municipal waste before developing the land into parkland. these included the future edgemere park and spring creek park, as well as sites in marine park, brooklyn; ferry point, bronx; fresh kills, staten island; and kissena corridor park in queens.: 8 in december 1959, the board of estimate allocated $144,650 to add an additional 160,000 cubic yards of sand to the edgemere landfill, which would extend the site up to 2,000 feet (610 m) north into jamaica bay. the board also planned to lay out almeda avenue between conch place (conch basin) and beach 58th street (sommerville basin), and to lay out beach 51st street, beach 54th street and beach 58th street in the area north of beach channel drive. these streets would eventually serve the new housing project and park. in july 1960, the board of estimate approved of plans to begin developing 12 acres (4.9 ha) of edgemere park on the north side of almeda avenue across from the edgemere houses. the park would include baseball fields and eight clay tennis courts along with landscaping and paths. conch playground, then known as p.s. 105 playground, was opened in august 1960. on october 17, 1960, parks commissioner newbold morris (successor to robert moses) announced plans for improvements to edgemere park, including baseball fields, tennis courts, and a park trail. the first building of the edgemere houses was opened on november 27, 1960. by 1962, plans remained to develop a marina at edgemere park. the next year, tennis courts were completed at edgemere park, with a playground planned. in 1965, it was claimed that the edgemere landfill contained more american herring gulls feeding and residing at the landfill than cape ann, massachusetts, a known nesting region for the herring gulls, along with "all of nova scotia and maine".: 37 at the time, it was estimated that 20 to 30 thousand herring gulls resided in the area around jamaica bay, attracted by the edgemere landfill and the pennsylvania and fountain avenue landfills in brooklyn.: 37 that year, the department of sanitation opened the landfill for public use on a trial basis, accepting large items such as appliances, furniture, plumbing, and automobiles. in july 1966 in response to complaints from residents, the parks department began pesticide spraying at edgemere park in order to combat mosquitoes, rats, and phragmites. to eliminate the phragmites, the chemical dalapon was used. it was suggested that physically uprooting the phragmites would be a better solution, but the equipment necessary to harvest the plants could not be used in the park as much of it still consisted of marshland. the rats, meanwhile, were said to have been brought by the dumping of trash at the landfill. that month, $29,250 was allocated for additional landfilling on the edgemere park land in order to create a playground and sports fields. during the fall of 1966, edgemere park was used as a practice field for the far rockaway high school football team, as their own home field was not usable during the season. on july 1, 1967, the department of sanitation again allowed local residents to drop off bulk refuse such as furniture or appliances at the landfill. by july 17, 1,000 tons of waste were deposited through this program at edgemere, and at 20th avenue in college point. on march 24, 1968, the playground at edgemere park was opened, with a basketball tournament taking place. in may 1970, the rockaway cultural, educational, recreational, and historical society proposed to rename edgemere park to rockaway community park. other potential names included brotherhood memorial park, jeanne dale katz park, martin luther king jr. park, tackapouscha indian historical park, and william f. brunner sr. park. on october 9, 1970, a fire broke out at the edgemere landfill, lasting six days before it was brought under control. the bill renaming the park was signed into law in 1971. the park was dedicated as rockaway community park on june 17, 1973. while portions of the park including basketball courts and beach land were available for use at the time, most of the site had yet to be developed. jamaica bay council president jerome hipscher desired for the park to be developed into "a miniature central park". it was also proposed to integrate the park with the new gateway national recreation area created by the national park service. toxic waste dumping and calls to close the landfill the south end of runway 4l at jfk airport extending into jamaica bay, with the rockaways in the distance. in september 1973, the edgemere landfill was described as "the highest land area on the entire rockaway peninsula. it is a hugh mound of sand-covered garbage and waste material which has obliterated the marshy shoreline where marine life thrived for many years." on august 29, 1974 the bodies of three boys from the edgemere houses were found on the beach surrounding the edgemere landfill. their deaths were suspected to have been caused by drowning or a lightning strike. in late 1975, the city began experimenting with methods to discourage birds from feeding off the edgemere landfill, in order to prevent them from interfering with planes at john f. kennedy international airport. the experiments included poisoning the supply of food waste at the site, shredding food waste accepted by the landfill into small pieces, narrowing the area in which garbage was dumped, and installing a horizontal-wire grid over the landfill to discourage birds from landing on it. this was in addition to the existing shotgun patrols at the airport who would discharge firearms or set off fireworks to scare the birds away. the shredding method had already been tested on landfills in the midwest and in charleston, south carolina. the initiatives were motivated by an incident in november 1975, when an ona dc-10 aircraft crashed upon takeoff after colliding with seagulls, which were sucked into the right-wing engine destroying it. following the crash, on march 8, 1976, the national transportation safety board recommended closing the landfill due to potential dangers for aircraft from the airport. on may 18, 1976 the sanitation department informed officials from queens community board 14 and the gateway national recreation area that the edgemere landfill would remain in operation until 1985. at the time, the dsny refuted the assertion that the dump contributed to the bird hazard of jfk airport. mosquitoes and foul odors were also blamed on the landfill. in 1977 the parks department and department of sanitation garnered controversy over the closure of the edgemere landfill on weekends between saturday afternoon and monday morning. as opposed to traveling to the fountain avenue landfill in brooklyn, parks department garbage trucks collecting waste from rockaway beach would deposit their loads onto a parking lot at beach 64th street and larkin avenue in arverne (now part of the arverne by the sea development) and wait until monday to deposit the trash in edgemere. in november 1979 following 11 bird strike incidents at jfk airport in a period of six weeks, the federal aviation administration began collecting evidence in preparation to sue the city in order to close the edgemere, pennsylvania avenue and fountain avenue landfills. faa regional director murray smith had previously met with mayor ed koch on october 5 of that year to discuss the correlation of the bird hazard with the presence of the landfills. during the 1970s, the landfill was said to have received hazardous waste on a daily basis. meanwhile, waste oil was added to the garbage at edgemere and other landfills in order to control dust. between march and october 1979, 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of oil and petroleum byproducts were deposited in the edgemere, pennsylvania and fountain avenue landfills, with most of the waste going to fountain avenue. in 1981 it was discovered that, beginning c. 1972–1974, dsny supervisors were paid $100 per truck to allow the dumping of liquid toxic waste at five of the city's landfills including the edgemere landfill, and into the sewer system. the other sites were the pennsylvania avenue and fountain avenue landfills in brooklyn; the tallapoosa point landfill at pelham bay park in the