Your LIC project sparks debate over private use
in public land at Community Board 2 meeting
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Your LIC, the waterfront project
bringing together stakeholders and
residents to plan the future of the Long
Island City properties where Amazon’s
HQ2 would have been located, was the
topic of animated discussion at Community
Board 2’s Jan. 2 meeting.
CB2 invited Your LIC to give board
members and residents a presentation
of their workshop on resiliency and
public open space that they conducted
in December. But the meeting became
more of a debate about what the project
will mean for the community as a
whole and whether residents should
allow private companies to use public
land.
Before Your LIC officials gave their
presentation, Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney addressed the “extraordinary
opportunity” of developing the
waterfront with parks and schools,
with a resiliency plan that will protect
the neighborhood from the next
hurricane.
Maloney added that “public land
should be for public purpose,” setting
the tone for the rest of the evening. She
said that as the fastest-growing community
in the whole country and “one
of the most underserved in the city in
terms of green land,” the community
must address its infrastructure and
parkland.
“If I were on this community board
I would be putting out a resolution
that we should take the public land
and turn it into a park for public use,”
Maloney said.
Your LIC, which is made up of developers
TF Cornerstone, Simon Baron
Development, L&L MAG and Plaxall,
is currently conducting a communitydriven
and collaborative process for
the development of the 28-acre land
around Anable Basin. They conducted
their first workshop back in November,
which was on economic empowerment
and career development and led by Dr.
Gail O. Mellow, former president of La-
Guardia Community College.
During the CB2 meeting, the Your
LIC presentation — led by Jason Loiselle,
principal at Sherwood Design
Engineers; Gena Wirth, design principal
at SCAPE Landscape Architecture;
and John Barrett, projects director at
SHoP Architects — showcased a working
draft on their plan to implement
seven to eight (out of the 28) acres of
open space that would be accessible to
the public.
They also detailed their climate
change-driven research on the LIC waterfront
and how they’ll address it by
designing the developments to, among
other things, withstand coastal flooding
and preserve the ecosystem.
Based on their research, they have
several ideas for the seven to eight
acres of open space that include large
lawns with a public center, a soccer
or sports field, and an eco-basin for
coastal ecology.
Community board and
resident response
Although impressed with the presentation,
several community board
members were concerned that Your
LIC didn’t reveal images nor give
an estimate of the amount of buildings
as well as tenants they expect to
introduce to the waterfront.
“Resilience isn’t just about the
land, it’s also about the people that live
there,” CB2 member Christine Hunter
said.
“One of your goals is to help developers
maximize their projects and design
it in a way that protects the neighborhood,
but I’m wondering … if there
were no buildings on that land, how
much better would it be?” CB2 member
Kenny Greenberg asked.
In regards to the seven to eight
acres Your LIC plans to designate for
open space, CB2 member Karesia Batan
asked if they’d consider expanding
it — to which Loiselle of Sherwood
Design Engineers responded by saying
that the open space they’re proposing
is “above and beyond” the requirements
and it ultimately comes down
to what’s “economically viable for
redevelopment.”
During the public comment portion,
Diane Hendry, a 30-year resident
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.4 COM | JAN. 10-JAN. 16, 2020
and member of LIC coalition, said that
the coalition is asking “TF Cornerstone
to walk away from this parcel
and support a Community Land Trust
at the DOE and DOT sites, with the rest
of the 44th Drive becoming resiliency
and open space sponge park.”
Tom Paino, a former sustainability
director of New York Department of Design
and Construction who specialized
in coastal resilience, said he saw “a few
disconnects” in the presentation, such
as that there’s “no advocacy from the
community; this is all coming from the
developers.” He mentioned that not factoring
the amount of residential units
is an issue, because “every time there’s
a tower that’s built in Hunters Point,
the open space ratio worsens.”
Memo Salazar, who was recognized
at the 10th Annual Hispanic and
Latinx Leadership Awards by Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer in October,
introduced a counter-plan for Your LIC
entitled Our LIC. Salazar, who is also
a member of the Western Queens Community
Land Trust, said that the resident
led coalition seeks to develop the
waterfront as public land that would
include a school, a rooftop farm and a
community commercial kitchen.
“The renditions look great, I love
the environmental aspect, but we already
know what the stuff behind it
means,” Salazar said. “There’s obviously
a ULURP process, and in that
process we ask, as many people have
already said today, to please keep
public land public.”
Our LIC will have a public meeting
on Jan. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Jacob Riis
Center on 1025 41st Ave. to further discuss
their vision. For more information,
visit OurLIC.nyc.
Your LIC response and
an upcoming workshop
Throughout the meeting, the Your
LIC speakers emphasized that community
engagement is an integral part of
their plans for the waterfront.
Loiselle of Sherwood Design Engineers
also emphasized how impressive
it is for four developers to create a resiliency
plan before going through the
ULURP process — which CB2’s First
Vice Chair Lisa Deller said won’t be
happening anytime soon.
“The fact that we’re here with four
different development groups talking
about a resilient strategy, a resilient
master plan with four developments
coming together, that is the most exemplary
example of how things have
changed since Hurricane Sandy and it
has to do with the city,” Loiselle said. “It
has to do with the community pushing
the city to enforce and make this kind of
thing happen.”
In a statement to QNS, Your LIC said
this is an “unprecedented” opportunity
for four stakeholders to work with the
community to “collectively develop one
inclusive, sustainable and equitable
plan for the waterfront.”
“During summer 2019, the New York
City Council and key city agencies gathered
stakeholders with property along
the waterfront in Long Island City to
propose a unified planning approach to
better respond to the needs of the community,”
Your LIC stated. “We believe
so much can be accomplished by working
together … This is an important conversation
and we encourage everyone to
participate and share their ideas on our
website YourLIC.nyc and in person at
our next two public workshops.”
Your LIC’s next public workshop,
which will be dedicated to community
resources like schools, recreation, and
culture, will be held on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.
at the Plaxall Gallery, located at 5-25
46th Ave.
Residents can also directly send
their ideas, comments and suggestions
to Your LIC by registering for an account
on their website, Community.
YourLIC.nyc.
Your LIC also agreed with the comments
made by Maloney and other residents
about public land being used for
the public.
“We agree that the public land
should be used for public good and support
community priorities, such as open
space and job-creating uses,” they stated.
“Our public engagement process is
informing us of the key community benefits
that all will be able to enjoy.”
Community Board 2 invited Your LIC to give a presentation on the upcoming
waterfront project on Jan. 2. Photo: Angélica Acevedo/QNS