Council OKs Willets plan

After more than a year of negotiations, protests and public hearings, the city’s plan for Willets Point finally received the green light.
Of the 51 City Councilmembers, who determined the fate of the city’s ambitious plans for the roughly 60-acre Willets Point redevelopment project on Thursday, November 13, 42 voted in favor of the project, two voted against it, one abstained and six were absent.
Council speaker Christine Quinn called the redevelopment plan “an economic engine right at the time when the city needs it most.”
The controversial $3 billion mega-development project, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made a centerpiece of his second-term agenda, would bring 1 million square feet of retail shops and restaurants, 500,000 square feet of office space, 5,500 units of housing and a convention center to a site described by many as blighted and an eyesore.
One day before the hearing, Queens City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, who has been the most vocal opponent to the project, stood with Bloomberg to announce an agreement that increased the affordable housing quotient included in the plan to 35 percent – a significant increase from the 20 percent the city had previously proposed. In addition, a number of units in that 35 percent will be set aside for low-income residents.
“This is the most affordable affordability project we have ever undertaken,” Monserrate said at the hearing. “This is a victory for the people of New York.”
Two Willets Point businesses – Bono Sawdust Supply Co. and Crown Container – did not negotiate at all with the city leading up to the hearings, and Jake Bono, the third generation owner of Bono Sawdust vowed to take the matter to the courts.
“I’m telling you right now, Bloomberg, the EDC, they are not going to be the ones to dictate me off my land,” Bono said.