Real Estate
Community opposes LIC
waterfront project
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@QNS.COM
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I SEPTEMBER 2017 15
As the city envisions a new future
on the Long Island City waterfront with
towering residential buildings, commercial
and industrial industries, a new
school, and office and art space, many
in the community believe the proposal
is missing a key element: park land.
The Long Island City Coalition has
created a petition opposing the Economic
Development Corporation’s
(EDC) Request for Proposals (RFP)
to create a massive 1.5-million-squarefoot
mixed-use development on two
undeveloped, city-owned lots on 44th
Drive, known as the TF Cornerstone
project.
The petition calls for the city to use the
undeveloped land to create more open
space and park land, and preserve Lake
Vernon — which is not a part of the RFP.
“We the Community are tired of the
City’s promise of affordable housing
at the expense of open/public space,
and in exchange for massive density
that further contributes stress to the
waterfront and the flood plane sic,” the
petition states. “We are offering the City
a chance to show its constituents that
their cry for public open space and for
protection of the environment is heard.”
The LIC Coalition has three specific
requests: they want to protect and preserve
the land located in the flood plain
as a natural wetland in order to maintain
a healthy ecosystem, protect against future
flooding, and provide educational
opportunities for the community; support
Community Board 2’s (CB 2) request to
seize and protect Lake Vernon; and dedicate
the 44th Drive RFP site as park land.
The petition — which, as of Thursday,
Aug. 17, has 274 supporters out of
the 500 signatures needed on change.
org — will be delivered to Mayor Bill
de Blasio, Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz, state Senator Michael
Gianaris, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan,
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, and
Community Boards 1 and 2.
“We demand our elected officials
to help us put forth a solution. We, as
residents and business owners, are
dissatisfied with the way open space
has been ‘planned’ for, ‘protected,’ and
‘maintained’ to this point,” the petition
reads. “Families live here. People work
here. Much of our livelihood is sourced
here. A reasonable ratio of development
to active open space is critical to the
health, safety and overall well-being
of residents and to the environment.”
The proposed project is designed
to include 100,000 square feet of light
industrial space, 400,000 square feet
of commercial space featuring incubator
spaces, at least 1,000 units with 25
percent of them affordable, an arts and
technology accelerator, classroom space
for workforce development and career
training and office space, a 600-seat
school, 19,000 square feet of retail space,
and more than an acre of open space with
a canoe and kayak launch point.
Photo courtesy of TF Cornerstone
The LIC Coalition wants elected officials to stop over-development and
create more open space.
