The Cross Island Parkway was first proposed in 1930 by Robert Moses, President of the New York State Council of Parks, as part of a $20 million (1930 USD) plan to construct several parks and parkways throughout New York City. This proposal also included proposals for the Richmond Parkway and the corridor of the Grand Central Parkway. The proposal was held at the Hotel Commodore in Manhattan during the Park Association of New York City annual dinner, which had an attendance of 500 civic leaders. While the group accepted the idea, there were certain complaints about costs of the new projects, which were centered between Queens and Staten Island. The city had about $400 million in borrowing capacity, and that most of these projects should wait and be dealt with one at a time for funding by their importance.