PUBLIC REVIEW OF FLUSHING WATERFRONT
DEVELOPMENT SET TO RESUME ON SEPT. 16
Rendering courtesy of FWRA LLC
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | SEPT. 11-SEPT. 17, 2020 27
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
After a five-month hiatus due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Planning
Commission is set to resume the
Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
(ULURP) hearing on the controversial
Special Flushing Waterfront Development
proposal on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
The Flushing Waterfront Development
would include nine buildings in
the area enclosed by 36th Avenue to the
north, College Point Boulevard to the
east, Roosevelt Avenue to the south, and
the Flushing Creek to the west.
The application was prepared by
FWRA LLC, a joint partnership of the
three major developers — F&T Group,
United Construction & Development
Group Inc. and Young Nian Group —
who own plots in the area.
The developers, who have deep-rooted
connections in Flushing and have been
active members of the community for
decades, say the project would involve $1
billion of private investment, and would
generate $28 million in annual revenue.
The proposal seeks to revitalize 29
acres of inactive and underutilized land
that the developers say will provide substantial
public benefits such as a privately
funded and maintained road network
and a 160,000-square-foot waterfront
promenade along Flushing Creek that
will both be publicly accessible.
The plan also includes 1,725 residential
units, including affordable housing,
879 hotels, office and community facilities,
retail space and parking spaces to
help alleviate traffic along College Point
Boulevard.
‘No fences or gates’
According to William Xu, vice president
of United Construction & Development
Group Inc., the waterfront will be
100 percent open to the public.
“We are building it and funding
it — there are no fences or gates,” Xu
said. “Flushing is an area that doesn’t
really have open parks and space that
the public can enjoy and we are involuntarily
increasing that for them. For
the people that are opposing this project,
I really encourage them to take a
deep dive and look at everything that
we are doing.”
The project has been met with some
opposition and criticism from community
leaders, organizers and residents,
but Community Board 7 approved the
rezoning plan in February. Meanwhile,
acting Borough President Sharon Lee
rejected the plan in March, citing the
scale and scope of the project that will
significantly change the landscape of
downtown Flushing.
The developers, however, say there
are extensive legal protocols in place
to obtain a land use approval and will
continue to follow each and every one
of them.
Additionally, the required Environmental
Assessment Statement was
completed and the study is available
via public record, according to the developers.
The development will provide
environmental relief to the Flushing
Creek by providing upgrades to the existing
sewer and storm water drainage
systems and a large-scale removal of
contaminated soils.
According to Xu, the Flushing Waterfront
project will create thousands
of jobs and give the community the economic
lift it needs to recover, especially
amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Xu estimates that there will be between
500 to 558 construction workers
on-site per day, and 3,000 permanent
jobs post-construction including hotel
workers, maintenance workers for the
private roads, as well as commercial
and retail space.
As for affordable housing, only the
northern area of the special district
will have a small existing zoning without
increasing density. There will be
75-90 units under the city’s Mandatory
Inclusionary Housing (MIH) Program,
according to Richard Siu, chief investment
officer of FnT Group.
John Liang, president of Young Nian
Group, said the project will provide upgraded
housing for everyday people.
“This is not for the super rich. We
are not filling super luxury apartments
like Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn,”
Liang said. “This is a place for a starter
family with a kid or a young couple
starting their career that can actually
afford an apartment in New York
City.”
According to Liang, he doesn’t understand
why people are against the project
due to the fact that there are many benefits
to the community and to the people
that live and work in Flushing.
Not affordable enough?
On the other hand, opponents of the
development, such as the MinKwon
Community Center in Flushing, say the
rezoning of the waterfront will exponentially
speed up the process of gentrification
and displacement.
“Their current plan is to have 61 affordable
housing units at 80 percent area
median income (AMI) which is about
$85K for a family of four, when the income
for Flushing residents is between $11k to
$40K — it’s not affordable to our community
at all,” said Seonae Byeon, organizer
at the MinKwon Community Center.
The MinKwon Center for Community
Action along with the Greater Flushing
Chamber of Commerce and Chhaya CDC,
have filed a lawsuit against the Department
of City Planning and the City Planning
Commission, arguing that an environmental
review must be conducted for
the development proposal.
According to Byeon, the developers instead
created an Environmental Assessment
Study (EAS), that does not include
the community’s input or the impact of
the project they say will be detrimental
to the environment.
William Spiask, director of Housing
Justice at the Chhaya Community Development
Corporation, said the project
is “concerning and deeply alarming”
and claims to be meeting the needs of the
developers rather than those of the community.
“They found ways to inflate the buildable
density of the project out of right in
that document, and they found a way to
hide some of the potential development
that they would be able to do if they get
the rezoning and special district designation,”
Spiask said.
Spiask said the construction of a hospital,
community center, green space or
even a school should be prioritized instead
of a “capital-driven, profit-driven”
development that “falls flat across the
board.”
Sarah Ahn, director of the Flushing
Workers Center, said they should look at
Flushing as a whole, citing the existing
luxury condominiums in the community
that ranks second in the city behind Williamsburg
in Brooklyn.
“We need our elected officials to actually
fight on behalf of their constituents
to say that we don’t need any more
of these condos — it’s making all of our
rents expensive, it’s bringing so much
speculation into Flushing and why our
small businesses are closing,” Ahn said.
As the ULURP hearing is near approaching,
the community leaders are
demanding that the city halt the virtual
meeting.
“According to the Comptroller’s report,
41 percent of Flushing residents
do not have internet access, and they’re
making a sudden move to have a public
hearing on a virtual platform that a lot of
people are not familiar with,” Byeon said.
“There is not enough time or training for
people on how to be online and participate.”
Residents can attend the City Planning
Commission hearing on Sept. 16
at 10 a.m. to testify or submit their comments
online regarding the Special
Flushing Waterfront District.
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed by
e-mail at cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260–4526.
link
/QNS.COM
link
