Locals Pack Town Hall For Update
A crowd bursting out of the P.S. 1 art center’s lobby and onto the streets of Long Island City last Thursday, Jan. 12 heard the latest on the largest city middle-income housing development in almost half a century, including a big change to its first phase.
Ruth Anne Visnauskas of the city bureau of Housing Preservation & Development gave the crowd an overview of the Hunters Point South development, which will create 5,000 housing units, 3,000 of which will be made affordable for middle-income residents.
Those 3,000 units will be further split into three income brackets, for households earning 80, 130 and 165 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) for New York, a federal income calculation which roughly translates into incomes of about $49,000, $106,000 and $135,000, respectively.
Visnauskas would later add that the AMI is recalculated every year, and that rents would be adjusted accordingly.
The remaining 2,000 units will be offered at market rate.
In addition, the site, bounded by 50th Avenue, 2nd Street, the East River and Newtown Creek, will include a 1,100-sear intermediate/high school and an 11-acre waterfront park.
Currently, the two northernmost parcels are under construction, with the school being the first building to be built, according to Josh Wallack, an aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In addition, new roads, sewers and sidewalks are being built by the project’s winning bidders, Phipps Companies, Related Companies and Monadnock Construction, with a target completion date at the end of 2013.
Applications will be available six months before the project’s completion, Visnauskas stated, with certain units set aside for Board 2 residents, government employees, veterans and the disabled.
However, Visnauskas noted that their winning bid will include a provision to make all 950 units on the first two parcels affordable, with 20 percent of the units at the 80 percent tier, 20 percent at the 130 percent tier and 60 percent at the 165 percent tier.
“We think it’s really the ideal outcome for this project,” said Wallack, while Michael Wadman of Phipps Houses called the decision the “safest way” for the project to proceed.
Frank Monterisi of Related Companies would later explain that building the first two parcels with the affordable housing would make future market-rate units easier to fill.
Visnauskas noted that the actual percentages for future units will be determined during the planning and project process, and that the city would return to Board 2 to hold additional hearings.
However, several residents questioned whether this would lead to changes in further phases of the projects, specifically that the market-rate housing planned for the remainder of Hunters Point South would disappear.
When asked by a resident whether the city’s goal would be to make the site 100-percent affordable, Visnauskas responded that “it’s not our intent.”
“Not everything that’s happened in this development over the past 15 years has been what we on the ground wanted,” Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan stated. “We’re in the middle of trying to constantly fight with the larger forces in government to try to reflect what we hear from the community.”
Van Bramer noted that the decision to accept the bid for the first two parcels was the city’s.
Board 2 Chairperson Joseph Conley assured the crowd that the project will have a mix of housing, with lower-income residents having the opportunity to obtain penthouse and waterfront units.
“We’re still looking to maintain that overall project plan,” he stated, “so we’re not going to let the city get out-of-scale either way.”
One resident expressed concern that a future mayoral administration may amend the terms of the plan. Visnauskas responded that she expected no change to the plans for Hunters Point South.
Infrastructure and more
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer told the crowd that he was attempting to ensure that the area’s infrastructure is in place before residents move in.
“Now is the time to plan, now to wait 10 years down the road,” he stated. “Now is the time to do it.”
Notably, he had offered to find capital funds for an express bus from the Vernon Avenue-Jackson Avenue 7 train station to Grand Central Terminal to augment the subway service, only to be rebuffed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Van Bramer stated this in light of the current service changes on the subways line, saying that “shutting the 7 train for 11 straight weekends is ridiculous and a real grave injustice for the people of Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside.”
Wallack did note that the new East River Ferry service has a stop in the area near Hunters Point South.
Turning to education, Conley noted that another elementary school is planned for the area, and P.S. 78 will remain in use. Van Bramer added that he is pushing the Department of Education to build even more schools to prepare for the influx of families to Hunters Point.
Some residents worried about property values, but Visnauskas and Monterisi both noted that the income levels at the 165 percent tier would not be that far off from the current market-rate rents in the area.
