By Madina Toure
The $3 billion Willets Point project is in limbo after the city announced it would not appeal a recent appellate court ruling requiring state legislative approval before a proposed megamall could move forward. At issue is the absence of affordable housing in the first phase of the multi-use development.
In February 2014, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), along with the City Club of New York, Queens Civic Congress, members of Willets Point United and nearby residents and business owners, filed a lawsuit against the transfer of 47 acres of Queens parkland, worth about $1 billion, to build the Willets West mega-mall near Citi Field.
In July, the Appellate Division ruled that the development could not continue without approval from the Legislature because it involves city parkland.
After the project’s developer, Queens Development Group, filed its appeal Aug. 19, the city declined to join the action. A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said the housing would be hard to deliver and would not happen in a reasonable time frame.
Work on the affordable housing component is now scheduled to start in 2025, well past the dates envisioned when the project was first proposed.
“We really want to see significant improvements that would mean that the public would also see a healthy mix of affordable and market rate housing, delivered on a real time frame,” Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen said in a statement.
Avella, one of two City Council members who voted against the plan in 2008, had publicly called on de Blasio to re-evaluate the plan and said he was “surprised” by the administration’s continued support of the project.
“They’re trying to renegotiate at this point, but that’s just speculation and I haven’t talked directly to the administration,” Avella said.
In 2008, the City Council voted 45-2 in favor of the plan, with Avella, who was on the City Council at the time, and former City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) dissenting over concerns about possible use of eminent domain.
The plan, which expanded from 62 acres to 108.9 acres, includes the megamall, which was not initially part of the plan, mixed-income housing, a hotel, community facilities and a convention center.
Avella said the city neglected the area for decades and that people, including family-owned businesses, were told to leave the area so the city could remediate it.
“This plan has gone through so many amendments, it’s just absurd,” Avella said. “It only points out that this was not properly planned from the beginning.”
Arturo Olaya, president of the Willets Point Defense Committee, said most of the people in Willets Point are working on the street.
He also expressed frustrations about an agreement brokered by the Sunrise Cooperative and City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who voted for the plan, in which the city would give the group $5.8 million to move, noting that the group’s space in the South Bronx has not been constructed yet.
“If they started from the beginning doing a good relocation for us and doing things right, for sure, the project won’t be like this,” Olaya said.
Richard Hellenbrecht, vice president of the Queens Civic Congress, said the megamall project is in limbo, noting that the city should negotiate with the developer or someone else to ensure that parkland is not used and that there is sufficient affordable housing.
But he believes de Blasio is merely trying to meet his affordable housing goals and that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s intention was not to push poor people out of the area.
The megamall created the problems, he said.
“As a developer came along and negotiations came along, they really tried to come up with a combination of affordable housing, education, commercial and everything else that went into that site,” Hellenbrecht said.
The Queens Development Group said it is confident its appeal will be successful since the plan would “finally clean up the long-contaminated land” at Willets Point.
“We support the administration’s efforts on affordable housing and are committed to significantly accelerating the housing portion of this plan,” the company said in a statement. “But those efforts need to be backed by a financially viable model.”
Ferreras wants to focus on bringing more affordable housing to the people who live in the area.
“My community urgently needs affordable housing, jobs and transportation enhancements,” Ferreras said in a statement. “I have been working to this end, to improve Willets Point for the past eight years. We cannot wait any longer. I will work with all parties to find a fair and equitable solution.”
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
