City starts Willets Point review as Council objects

As Mayor Bloomberg and the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) continued to push ahead with its $3 billion development plan for Willets Point, a majority of the City Councilmembers are telling the city, it had better make major changes to the plan or else the City Council will not support it.
Just hours before the city certified the plan on Monday, April 21 that begins the seven-month community review process, City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate along with 28 other representatives sent a letter to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber that called the current plan deeply flawed and unacceptable.
“Your decision to push the project forward into ULURP (Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure) without public discussion indicates to us that you are not serious about ensuring that the project meets the basic standards of public benefit and fairness required for a redevelopment of this magnitude and this level of public investment,” read part of the letter.
Bloomberg, who has made the redevelopment of the 61-acre site a major part of his agenda, believes that this project is critical for Queens.
“At Willets Point, our plan will transform what is now a highly contaminated area into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood, with new housing, parks and thousands of jobs,” Bloomberg said.
Last year, the city unveiled its master plan for the area that would include 1 million square feet of retail shops and restaurants, 500,000 square feet of office space, 5,500 units of housing and a school.
However, the city’s most recent plans set aside roughly 20 percent of the units for affordable housing, while Monserrate believes that 33 percent of the units should go to people making less than $25,000 and another third to middle class residents.
“It’s a huge difference, and I think these are the reasons we have this type of opposition,” said Monserrate indicating there is very little room for compromise on his part. “There is a very wide gap in the plans that the administration is putting forward and what the council’s wishes are with this project.”
In addition, the city is still negotiating with landowners and businesses in the area in order to find possible relocation sites for the businesses, but the city still has not ruled out the possible use of eminent domain - a philosophy that many Councilmembers also oppose.
“The city is proceeding with undue haste given the large number of open issues remaining,” said Michael Gerrard, an attorney for the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of 10 businesses and landowners who recently filed a lawsuit against the city for failing to provide basic infrastructure to the area during the past 40 years. “It will only complicate the review process.”
However, advocates for the development project supported the start of the ULURP at this time.
“We believe this is the necessary next step in realizing the transformation of Willets Point from the black hole of Queens into a thriving retail, commercial and residential community for the 21st century,” said Evan Stavisky, a spokesperson for the Flushing-Willets Point-Corona LDC, one of the prominent groups supporting the redevelopment plan.
Stavisky said that his group is looking forward to working with the City Council and the local communities in order to educate them about the project.