Acting BP issuing conditional disapproval on Flushing rezoning
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MARCH 20-MARCH 26, 2020 23
BY MAX PARROTT
A controversial proposal to
transform the Downtown Flushing
waterfront got some pushback
on Thursday when Interim
Queens Borough President Sharon
Lee issued a conditional recommendation
against it.
Lee shocked the coalition of
developers who own the property
with her advisory vote, but
her disapproval came with conditions
that would presumedly
allow the property owners and
the city to make the project tenable
in her view.
FWRA, a coalition of area
developers, is proposing to create
a special zoning district
containing nine buildings in
the 29-acre area along the creek
in downtown Flushing. In addition
to creating 1,725 new apartments
and 879 new hotel units,
it would result in a privately
funded new road system, an expanded
public waterfront park,
and infrastructure upgrades to
the existing sewer and drainage
system.
“Downtown Flushing, however
is not immune to the consequences
of transformative
large-scale new development
that inadvertently leaves many
behind, such as displacement of
long-time residents and families
— oftentimes the elderly and
others on fixed-incomes,” Lee
wrote in her recommendation.
Lee gave conditions that the
proposal would need to include
a commitment to prevailing
wage for workers on the project,
a “good faith effort” to employ
union labor, more units of affordable
housing — particularly
for seniors, and collaboration
with the School Construction
Authority to locate a school site
in Downtown Flushing.
In her recommendation, she
acknowledged that many of the
criticisms raised in the public
review process touched on larger
systemic concerns of land use
across the city, but she tried to
focus issues more local to the
immediate area.
“These people living closest
to the SFWD will bear the brunt
of the noise, dust, traffic and other
construction-related inconveniences
as the proposed project
is built, with little chance to afford
or secure some of the new
housing that will be built in the
new modern waterfront development,”
she wrote.
The decision sparked an outcry
from the developers, who
shot back by criticizing Lee.
“We are stunned by the unusual
manner in which the interim
borough president would
go against the wishes of the community.
This project will create
jobs, stimulate the Flushing
economy which is suffering and
bring activity and much-needed
environmental cleanup to a vacant,
blighted parcel of land,”
FWRA wrote in its response.
“These factors are why there
is broad range of community
support from local businesses
and residents, but were unfortunately
overlooked by someone
who is not familiar with our
community.”
A spokesperson for the borough
president clarified that Lee
worked under John Liu from
2006 to 2009 when he was the
City Council member representing
Flushing, and has worked in
borough hall since 2014.
Joseph Sweeney, the chair of
the Community Board 7 committee
in charge of the project, was
equally shocked by the decision.
The community board, which
stretches up to Whitestone and
College Point, voted 30-8 in favor
of the project in February.
Sweeney, who testified in favor
at the borough president’s public
hearing over the rezoning,
said he wished Lee had reached
directly out to the community
board prior to her decision.
“Perhaps politically it’s a
bargaining chip. I don’t know,”
said Sweeney of the conditions
in Lee’s recommendation. “We
made recommendations, she
made recommendations. Perhaps
they could fulfill her wishes.
Of course that’s going to be
up to them.”
Claire Shulman, former borough
president and leader of an
local development corporation
that was in charge of environmental
planning efforts leading
up to this proposal, said that she
was confused by the exact meaning
of a conditional disapproval,
which she did not issue in her
capacity as borough president.
“The issue is whether they
go in the ground as-of-right or
whether they go into the plan
with a better plan that City
Planning designed,” said Shulman,
who is legally barred from
lobbying on the land use process
based on her work with the
LDC.
Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee (r.).
Flle photo: Max Parrott/QNS
NEW CARD
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