By Matthew Monks
Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) voted against the change, saying it would threaten the district's roughly 2,000 manufacturing jobs, a charge critics have regularly leveled against the rezoning.But the argument did not stop the scheme from passing, 45-1, during a regular session on Aug. 12. It reworks 43 blocks of Hunters Point, lifting restrictions on residential expansions, artists' studios, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants.Department of City Planning officials predict it will bring 300 more residential units to the area over the next decade.”The zoning is an opportunity to strike desirable balance between creating new housing opportunities, stimulating small business activity in Hunters Point and fortifying Long Island City's concentrations of light industrial operations,” City Planning Director Amanda Burden said during a Council hearing earlier this month.The project, in the works for two years, has sparked intense debate during a series of public hearings in the last several months. While supporters say it will brighten a dismal industrial zone, detractors contend the mixed-use plan will unfairly squeeze Long Island City manufacturers. “I anticipate rents going up in this area because of less manufacturing space,” said Ernie Smith, president of Penn & Fletcher, a Long Island City-based embroidery designer. “And that's a problem.”Smith's company fled Manhattan four years ago, chased out of the Lower West Side as industrial space was usurped by trendy computer companies. During a public hearing last week, he told the City Council that he fears history will repeat itself in Long Island City.He was dismayed that the city was moving forward with the rezoning despite his and other manufacturers' concerns. “Whatever voices come up are politely heard and disregarded,” Smith said. “I think it's a shame.”It is also a shame that the rezoning includes no safety net for potentially displaced manufacturers, said Adam Friedman, director of the New York Industrial Retention Network, a non-profit manufacturers' advocate.City Planning should have developed programs to help businesses relocate, he said, or included an industrial employment district, which would have stabilized rents.And if supporters of the rezoning think it will not affect light manufacturers, he said, look at the case of Green Mountain Graphics.The 12-employee sign designer was displaced from its 6,000-square-foot space in the rezoning district last month, said company manager Eric Greenberg. The owners of the building at 11-30 45th Rd. sold the lot for $300 a square foot, he said, a steep price that leads him to believe the new owners want to develop the property.Luckily, he said, he found a decent location a few blocks away. While he is paying $7,000 more a year in rent for a smaller space, he said it is worth it to stay in Long Island City because he does most of his business in nearby Manhattan. The rezoning probably forced him out, he said, but he takes the whole thing in stride.”In all honesty it's mixed emotions. I think there is a certain inevitability to this kind of thing,” Greenberg said.While it is often against the self-interest of small manufacturers, he said, owners are entitled to develop their properties.And one local company that owns about 15 residential and manufacturing spaces in Long Island City said the new rezoning would give them new freedom to do just that. Plaxall Inc., a plastic packaging company on 46th Avenue, has an empty lot on 49th Avenue it has been unable to develop due to complex and archaic zoning restrictions, said Matt Quigley, company counsel.With its hands free, he said the company could erect a mixed residential and commercial building with a ground floor for businesses and apartments on top, “which would work out good for us and great for the neighborhood, too.”Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
