CITY RELEASES LONG-AWAITED
SUNNYSIDE YARD MASTER PLAN
3
QUEENS WEEKLY, MARCH 8, 2020
BY BILL PARRY
The city and Amtrak
released the long-awaited
Sunnyside Yard Master
Plan Tuesday, a detailed
framework on building new
public transit first and making
all housing affordable,
with a focus on New Yorkers
earning less than $50,000 a
year. The ambitious project
would deck over a large portion
of the 180-acres of active
rail yard in order to build a
small city on top of it.
This plan is very different
from the $2.6 million
feasibility study that was released
by the city’s Economic
Development Corporation
in Feb. 2017 that called for
up to 24,000 units of housing
in residential towers as tall
as 69 stories with an overall
cost of $16 to $19 billion.
“After over a year of extensive
community engagements
and scores of conversation
with a wide range of
stakeholders, we developed
a thoughtful framework to
guide development at Sunnyside
Yard for generations
to come,” Deputy Mayor for
Housing and Economic Development
Vicki Been said.
“We benefited enormously
from those discussions, and
the master plan responds
to the feedback by putting
neighborhood needs for
transit, affordable housing,
and open space first, to ensure
that future development
is responsible, inclusive
and fair.”
The master plan calls
for the creation 100 percent
affordable housing with
12,000 homes, 60 acres of
new open space, equitable
home ownership opportunities,
the long-sought Sunnyside
Station and necessary
infrastructure and other
public amenities on a publicly
controlled site equal in
size to Roosevelt Island or
six times the size of Hudson
Yards.
“What we are doing is
creating public land like
Battery Park City that
would support buildings,”
Director of Sunnyside Yard
Plans for the Sunnyside Yard development project now calls for transit options first and 100% affordability after a year of public
outreach. Courtesy of NYCEDC
Adam Grossman Meagher
said. “It’s a reflection of
the public process we were
engaged in and the urgent
need for affordable housing.”
The master plan accommodates
approximately
12,000 affordable homes,
more than Stuyvesant Town
and Peter Cooper Village
combined. All of the homes
will be affordable and restricted
to incomes that
reflect the most pressing
needs of Queens, with 6,000
units for very low-income
New Yorkers. All rental
units will be rent-stabilized,
according to the NYCEDC.
The remaining 6,000
homes would create affordable
homeownership opportunities
to help families
build wealth through a 21st
century financing mechanism
based upon the Mitchell
Lama Housing Program,
which for decades has created
opportunity for many
New Yorkers.
The cost of the deck will
be around $14.4 billion dollars.
Grossman Meagher
would not speculate on the
exact cost of the residential
component other than to say
it would be “regular building
costs that you see in
New York City these days,”
but he said the “scale of the
building will make sense.”
The towers close to Long
Island City would be 30 to 50
stories high and residential
buildings approaching Sunnyside
Gardens would be
mid-rise to low-rise.
Before the decking and
developing proceed, infrastructure
such as the Sunnyside
Station will come
first.
“That’s something communities
in western Queens
and their elected officials
have been calling for and
that’s why we decided to
make that a priority,” Grossman
Meagher said. “We
believe the station should
come first. It will be built
at the western edge of the
yard on the east side of the
Queens Boulevard Bridge
and it will be served by the
Long Island Rail Road and
eventually Metro North
when service begins to Penn
Station. New Jersey Transit
and Amtrak could also factor
in connecting western
Queens to every part of the
greater New York City region
and major cities of the
northeast.”
Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney has been an advocate
for years for a transit
hub near the East Side Access
project.
“I am encouraged that
the Master Plan includes
the Sunnyside Station in its
first phase,” Maloney said.
There is also planning
for a new Rapid Bus Line
connecting Queens with
Midtown Manhattan, as
well as the potential for a
future new Queens subway
line to connect New Yorkers
with existing and emerging
economic centers, fueling
job growth and access to
opportunity, according the
NYCEDC.
“It is exciting to see the
release of this framework
plan for Sunnyside Yard,
the largest and best located
opportunity to holistically
address both the existing
community needs and future
growth in western
Queens and the city,” LIC
Partnership President Elizabeth
Lusskin, co-chair of
the Sunnyside Yard Steering
Committee, said. “The
preliminary framework
released today responds to
those priorities, proposing
a new rail hub to support
a fast growing western
Queens and the area’s transit
network, more than 60
acres of new public open
space, and 100% affordable
housing, a range of jobs and
resilient planning. As we
move into the next phase
of the project, community
input will continue to be
the key to ensuring Sunnyside
Yard lives up to its
potential and meets the diverse
and growing needs of
the people and businesses
based here.”
Maloney will be watching
how the planning process
proceeds.
“While I am initially encouraged
by the proposal for
the Sunnyside Yard Master
Plan governance entity, it
is necessary that this continues
to be a community
driven process and I will
not support plans that abandon
this approach,” Maloney
said. “I will continue to
be a fierce advocate for an
open dialogue that ensures
none of our neighborhood’s
voices are left out.”
To read the Sunnyside
Yard Master Plan, visit the
NYCEDC’s website.
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone
at (718) 260–4538.
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