After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the end of Romania's communist era, a large portion of the area was transferred from state property back to private persons, who had obtained judicial recognition of their family deeds.

[2] The same journal also claimed that the site was one of the locations at the center of another political scandal, allegedly involving former Mayor of Bucharest and later President Traian Băsescu alongside controversial real-estate developer Gabriel Popoviciu [ro].

[2] Both Cotidianul and Jurnalul Național cited a private audit used as justification by developers, according to which the building of facilities in the forest had the positive effect of reducing noise pollution, and claimed that the firm in question had among its shareholders the former Environment Minister and Democratic Liberal politician Sulfina Barbu.

[1][2] Băneasa Forest is assigned a central presence in Noaptea de Sânziene, a novel written after 1949 by Romanian author and researcher Mircea Eliade.

Referred to as the "forbidden forest" in the English version of the book, it is a paranormal site, where the protagonist Ștefan finds escape from the suffering of the modern world.