NEW YORK CITY-The Bloomberg administration on Monday unveiled a plan to make the city’s 520 miles of river- and oceanfront shoreline more conducive to redevelopment. It’s budgeted at $3.3 billion and entails 130 individual projects, including the development of more than 50 acres of new waterfront parks, creation of 14 new waterfront esplanades and introduction of new commuter ferry service across the East River.

“New York City has more miles of waterfront than Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland combined, but for decades, too many neighborhoods have been blocked off from it,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg says in a statement. “We have made huge strides in re-connecting communities to the waterfront, and now we launching an ambitious plan that ties those projects together into what will be one of the most sweeping transformations of any urban waterfront in the world.”

Bloomberg adds that when the plan is fully executed, “New York City will again be known as one of the world’s premier waterfront cities.” Titled “Vision 2020,” it’s reportedly the first citywide plan for the waterfront since 1992 and the first-ever comprehensive plan for the waterways themselves.

Several of the individual projects have been previously announced and are part of the city’s capital plan. Yet the 192-page “Vision 2020” document released Monday intends to put these projects, along with newly announced ones, into the context of realizing the potential of what Bloomberg calls “the sixth borough.”

About two-thirds of the project’s dollar expenditure will go toward improving water quality, including $1.6 billion to upgrade water-treatment plants and $650 million in gray infrastructure investments. But there are also projects to improve public access to the waterfront, enhance use of the waterways, spur industrial jobs along the waterfront and encourage residential and mixed-use development.

One of those development-oriented projects, focused on the Hunter’s Point South neighborhood of Queens, got momentum last month with the announcement that Related Cos. would build more than 900 housing units, 75% of which will be permanently targeted to low-, moderate- and middle-income residents. In all, the city plans to facilitate 21 waterfront development projects through “Vision 2020.”

Location along waterways poses risks from flooding and coastal storms; the city has taken direct hits from hurricanes throughout its history and may do so again. With that in mind, part of the waterfront plan announced Monday calls updating the city’s PlaNYC sustainability initiative to establish a strategic planning process for “climate resilience,” and working with FEMA to update the flood insurance rate maps to reflect current risks. There may also be zoning changes to remove disincentives to enhanced flood protection of buildings, according to the document.

As required by City Council legislation passed in 2008 that calls for a new waterfront plan every 10 years, “Vision 2020” was submitted to the City Council, the city’s public Advocate, all five borough presidents and 59 community boards. The full plan and more information can be found online here, and the city plans to provide regular updates on the plan’s progress.