By Stephen Stirling
As the public approval process steams forward, two Queens city councilmen warned supporters of the city's plan to redevelop Willets Point that last week's conditional Community Board 7 approval will not be a “green light” for the project.
Members of Community Board 7 voted 21-15 June 30 to support the city's proposed $3 billion redevelopment, contingent on a set of conditions they hope are met by the time the City Council votes on the project this fall.
The project will now go to Borough President Helen Marshall, who is expected to issue her recommendation following a public hearing at Borough Hall this Thursday. Business owners, workers and affordable housing advocates have planned a rally outside the hearing shortly before it starts at 10:30 a.m.
Following the June 30 vote, City Councilmen Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst) and Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said the city should think twice before touting the vote as a milestone achievement on the road to Council approval.
“This fractured vote is not a green light for the [Bloomberg] administration's plans,” Monserrate said. “Rather the close margin and intense debate are at most a yellow light to proceed cautiously and cooperatively. Those members who did vote in favor of the plan did so while specifying they shared my concerns regarding the use of eminent domain, affordable housing, parking and congestion.”
Avella and Monserrate spoke to board members prior to the June 30 vote, expressing their concern over the project in its current form. The city has proposed a framework for a sprawling mixed use neighborhood that would include more than 5,500 housing units and upward of 2 million square feet of retail and office space.
The plan has been mired in controversy, chiefly because it would require uprooting more than 260 businesses at the site, possibly through the use of eminent domain. Affordable housing, traffic issues and a lack of specific detail have also dogged the plan, which was entered into the public approval process by the city in April.
Avella, who has been more openly critical of the plan than Monserrate, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the board's vote.
“Once the community board put conditions on their approval, the city will ignore the conditions. The best thing in that situation would have been to turn down the project and make the city come to the negotiating table,” Avella said.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
