4 THE QUEENS COURIER • NOVEMBER 27, 2014 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com City Council passes Astoria Cove development project BAYSIDE NO LONGER UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR HOMELESS SHELTER SITE BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ [email protected] @EricJankiewicz Potential plans to create an emergency homeless shelter in Bayside have been scrapped after a month of deliberations. In late October, the Department of Homeless Services looked into Bayside as a possible candidate to host a homeless shelter. But, according to Councilman Paul Vallone, those plans have since been removed. After hearing about the potential shelter last month, Vallone wrote a letter to the agency in which he asserted his belief that Bayside was not a good site for a shelter because of a lack of transportation and the residential nature of the area. “I thank the Department of Homeless Services Rendering courtesy of STUDIO V Architecture for listening to our concerns,” Vallone said, “and deciding to abandon plans for an emergency shelter in Bayside. As I’ve said before, my district not only has the lowest population of homeless persons in the whole city, but Bayside in particular lacks the infrastructure and public transportation options to support an emergency shelter. I’m glad that the DHS considered these obstacles and concerns and came to agree that Bayside is an inappropriate location.” BY LIAM LA GUERRE [email protected] @LiamLaGuerre The City Council voted overwhelmingly to approve the Astoria Cove mega development on Nov. 25, clearing the way for the major land use project. The project now goes to Mayor Bill de Blasio for his likely approval. He has already praised the project after concessions were made by the developer to boost the amount of affordable housing included. He has five days to either sign or veto the measure. Earlier in the month, Astoria Cove developers delayed the City Council Land Use Committee vote to strike a last-minute deal with elected officials concerned about having enough affordable housing in order to win committee support for the project. Now more than 460 units of the 1,723 total apartments throughout the 2.2-million-square-foot project on the Astoria waterfront will be affordable housing. Developers also agreed to hire union labor for construction and building maintenance jobs associated with the project, and commit to building a ferry dock. “This agreement shows what we can achieve when the private and public sectors work together,” Astoria Councilman Costa Constantinides said. “This agreement provides real benefits to the neighborhood and will help further link our booming communities along the East River.” Astoria Cove will consist of five buildings, three on the waterfront ranging from 26 to 32 stories and two on the upland portion of the site, including a six-story residential building. The project, which is anticipated to take more than 10 years to complete in four different phases, will also include about 84,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, a school and some retail.
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