Willets Point losing pols’ support

Two Queens City Councilmembers are saying not-so-fast to the long-awaited, multi-billion dollar proposal to redevelop Willets Point.
City Councilmembers Hiram Monserrate, who represents neighboring Corona, and John Liu, who represents Flushing, both have cautioned the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) that its plan currently has too many question marks, and said they cannot support it at this time.
“We all support the development of Willets Point; and, over the years, we have talked about many important issues with EDC and have been told over and over that they hear us,” Liu said. “This non-plan of a plan is not something that the community supports.”
The city wants to develop the current 60-acre site, commonly referred to as the “Iron Triangle,” which officials described as blighted and environmentally contaminated, and transform it into a site complete with more than 1 million square feet of retail shops and restaurants, 500,000 square feet of office space, 5,500 units of housing, a school, hotel and convention center.
Currently, 250 businesses and more than 1,300 employees occupy the site, and, although nearly a dozen people own the majority of land, the landowners do not want to move their businesses.
While the city remains in negotiations with the landowners to acquire the property without using eminent domain, Monserrate spoke about the EDC’s lack of progress in this area as one of his concerns.
Monserrate said he attended a meeting on Thursday, February 14 of the Flushing Task Force, which Queens Borough President Helen Marshall - a strong supporter of the development - chairs, and he found out that EDC has not reached a settlement with even one property owner at the site.
In addition, Monserrate expressed concerns about a lack of specifics in the plan regarding the number of union jobs and amount of affordable housing.
“We talk about 5,500 units and to this date they have not specified how many are affordable and what they define as affordable,” Monserrate said.
Alex Rosa, Chief of Staff and spokesperson for Marshall, said that although no numbers have been finalized yet, there is still time.
“As the financials become more evident, we will find opportunities to discuss the amount of affordable housing that will be a part of the project and the amount of subsidy from the city and state to make that happen,” Rosa said.
Meanwhile, Liu said the lack of specific information from EDC surrounding these issues was disconcerting in itself.
“The EDC is just taking the easy road and not truly understanding the far-reaching impact and precedent-setting implications with what they think they are going ahead with,” Liu said. “The waterfront has so much potential, and it would be great to have that potential unlocked. The way in which the EDC is approaching this unfortunately doesn’t truly unlock that potential.”
Meanwhile, EDC originally targeted February 25 as the date to seek certification for its plan, however, an EDC spokesperson said that date is being pushed back in order for the agency to make sure all of the materials are finalized. The spokesperson said that the delay had nothing to do with the opposition from the local councilmembers.
EDC wants the city council to certify the Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) prior to the city selecting a developer for the project. Monserrate said that he plans to meet with EDC officials in the next few days to continue discussions about the plan, but he said he is not supporting the current one.
“This is bad public policy, and I’m not going along with it,” Monserrate said. “Queens deserves better and the residents of this borough deserve better, and I’m going to fight to ensure that they get better.”