Community News
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
The waters of the East
River around 44th Drive
in Long Island City are
deep and choppy, but
steps are being made to
allow residents more ac-cess
to water in spots like Anable Basin.
Real estate developer TF Cornerstone
has announced plans to restore and
enhance the natural waterfront habitat
at the Long Island City Innovation Center.
“We really don’t spend that much time
lingering in the cove area as it is not
protected from the main current,” said
David Matten, senior administrator at
the Long Island City Community Boat-house,
a nonprofit that is dedicated to
kayaking and environmental education
on the East River. Matten has worked at
the community boathouse for nine years.
TF Cornerstone will remove an old
platform and restore a half acre of wa-terfront
for the benefit of the environment
and people alike. The sloping shoreline
will feature boulders and rocks, which will
be interspersed with plants. It’s unclear
when the project will be completed but
once it’s done, visitors will be able to
travel down to the water’s edge.
Matten attended a June 25 public
meeting hosted by Economic Develop-ment
Corporation where the agency
asked community members for their
thoughts about potential designs for
the waterfront. While controlling erosion
was of the essence, Matten said he and
others pushed the department to limit
the environmental impact of the project
on the marshland there.
“You can build this the same as the
rest of the waterfront where you can’t
24 SEPTEMBER 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
touch the water or you cannot let me
build up,” Matten said.
Bioswales — manmade sloped areas
filled with vegetation designed to drain,
concentrate and remove water — will be
installed in the low-lying area to prevent
flooding during severe storms. Piles
that supported the old platform will be
left in place to minimize the disruption
to the river bottom and provide habitat
for the river’s marine life and wave at-tenuation
in order to calm the waters in
the cove and reduce wave impact along
the shoreline.
Preservation and restoration are in the
works not only to create a welcoming
and sustainable public space for Long
Island City residents, but to also protect
the community from rising sea levels
and coastal storms which are becoming
increasingly more severe due to climate
change, according to a press release from
TF Cornerstone, which has developed
properties in the adjoining area.
In 2017, the real estate manage-ment
and development company, TF
Cornerstone, along with the nonprofits
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design
Center and the Coalition for Queens,
were chosen to create a new, mixed-use
development in the hopes of bringing
affordable industrial space, workforce
training, offices, a school, affordable
housing and public space to the Long
Island City waterfront.
“It’s a forward-thinking approach
that all waterfront developments in
our coastal city must take in this era
of climate change,” said Roland Lewis,
president and CEO of Waterfront Alliance,
a nonprofit organization that works to
influence the development and use of
the waterfront of New York City and
northern New Jersey.
Rendering courtesy of TF Cornerstone
LONG ISLAND CITY
INNOVATION CENTER
/www.qns.com
