28 The Queens Courier • OCTOBER 3, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com
28 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 3, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Too many questions left unanswered
When the City Planning Commission
approved the de Blasio administration’s
plan to build four borough-based prisons
STORY: Queens to get its fi rst IKEA location in Rego Park next
summer
SUMMARY: Ikea Retail announced that it will open a
115,000-square-foot store in the Rego Center at the corner
of Queens Boulevard and Junction Boulevard in the summer
2020. It’s the fi rst branch of the furniture giant in the borough.
REACH: 31,323 people reached (as of 10/1/19)
in order to close the Rikers Island
prison complex, a City Hall press release
on Sept. 3 called the 9-3 vote “penultimate
approval” and that the ULURP process
now heads to the City Council for
fi nal approval.
But to Community Board 9, which in
March voted unanimously against the
plan to build a new jail on 126-02 82nd
Ave., in Kew Gardens, where the old
Queens Detention Complex is located,
this is a case of ULURP usurped.
Th is week, CB9 fi red off a letter to
the City Council urging it to vote no on
the borough-based jails saying the city’s
Uniform Land Use Review Procedure,
in this instance, failed to comply with
the New York City Charter. In a detailed
explanation signed by CB9 Chairman
Kenichi Wilson, the advisory body stated
that the application “violates” New York
City Charter’s “Chapter 9, sections 210
and 222, Chapter 8 sections 197 and 204.”
In brief, this ULURP application contains
no plan, no design, no budget and
no program details, all of which are specifi
cally required by the New York City
Charter for a NYC capital budget project,
CB9 explained. Th e so-called facts presented
by the Mayor’s offi ce are a moving
target, they said.
“Th e eventual project cost is in the billions
of public dollars,” the CB9 statement
continues. “We believe that no
comparable private applicant, even one
using private funds, would have had such
a vague application certifi ed to enter the
ULURP process.”
To vote for a “concept,” a vague outline
that will cost billions of public dollars is
a violation of the New York City Charter,
CB9 declared.
If the City Council approves of the
ULURP application, the proposal will be
on track to impose the changes by 2026.
It will cost taxpayers approximately $11
billion over the course of that period.
A no vote is what is required at this
stage, CB9 concluded, and we agree.
However, 11 out of 15 City Council
members from Queens, including
Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz who
represents Kew Gardens, who will vote
on the borough-based jails in a couple of
weeks, will be term-limited out of offi ce
in 2021. Th e Mayor is also term-limited
in 2021.
Maybe that is why this entire ULURP
process has raised so many eyebrows
from the start.
No one will be around to be held
accountable by 2026. ULURP usurped,
indeed.
THE QUEENS
sun
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
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PRESIDENT & CEO
VICE PRESIDENT
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
EMILY DAVENPORT
ANGELICA ACEVEDO, JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, MAX PARROTT, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
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CELESTE ALAMIN
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier
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Courtesy of NYC Department of Corrections
Community Board 9 is urging the City Council to vote against the mayor’s plan to turn the Queens
Detention Center and a municipal parking lot (foreground) in Kew Gardens into a new community
based jail.
Publisher & E ditor Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher Joshua A. Schneps
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