Hunters Point South Gets Go-Ahead By City Council

The Hunters Point South development project was approved last Thursday, Nov. 13 by the City Council.

As previously reported in the Times Newsweekly, the 30-acre Hunters Point South plan consists of two parts: the city-owned Site A is bounded by Second Street, 50th Avenue, Newtown Creek and the East River, while Site B (currently private property) consists of property bounded by the creek, Second Street and 54th Avenue, and extending eastward approximately halfway between Second Street and Vernon Boulevard.

The city's plan for Site A includes constructing several streets that would adjoin with the existing infrastructure; Center Boulevard, which currently ends at 50th Avenue, would be extended south, while 51st, Borden, and 54th avenues would be extended westward to connect to Center Boulevard.

The city will add 55th, 56th and 57th avenues; 56th and 57th avenues would run solely between Center Boulevard and Second Street (both would terminate at 57th Avenue).

The areas immediately west and south of Center Boulevard and 57th Avenue would become an 11-acre waterfront park that would include amenities such as playgrounds for local children and a bicycle trail that will con- nect to Gantry State Park.

On these newly-created city blocks, the city plans to construct several apartment buildings of various heights, with 126,000 square feet of retail at ground level.

One of the blocks is planned to be home to a 180,000-square-foot intermediate and high school, which is currently in the design phase and is intended to complement the 665- seat public/intermediate school at Queens West.

On the site, 5,000 apartment units will be built. Sixty percent of them will be permanently set aside for middle-class residents.

There are several "bands" of housing; with different apartment sizes at different levels of annual household incomes, ranging from approximately $55,000 to $158,000.

These numbers are based on an formula from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and are scalable, meaning that the costs can be adjusted to reflect a two-person household as opposed to a four-person household.

As for Site B, the city has created an inclusionary zoning, and the site's developer is slated to be building 1,650 units, of which 330 will be affordable.

Reaction

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a press release announcing the approval of the Hunters Point South and the Willets Point projects, stated that the Long Island City development "will be New York City's largest development that includes permanently affordable housing targeted primarily to moderate- and middle-income families—our police officers, teachers, nurses and vocational workers, among others."

"With our vote today for Hunters Point South we will be creating a vibrant, sustainable and well designed middle income community and waterfront park in Hunter's Point South on abandoned manufacturing land just minutes from Midtown," added City Council Member Melinda Katz, who chairs the City Council's Land Use Committee.

At the Nov. 13 United Forties Civic Association meeting, Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley stated that the Hunters Point South project was borne out of the rising prices at Queens West. "It's really become a neighborhood that I have to tell you, including me, we're priced out of," he noted.

"We wanted to make sure that this was an inclusive neighborhood," he said, but added that "affordable housing has many different meanings to many different people."

However, the Queens Coalition for Affordable Housing, a consortium of groups that have pushed for housing units to be available to lower-income residents, issued a press release calling Hunters Point South "exclusionary."

"From the start the vision for this project failed the fairness standard since it directs public funds to create a project that ignores both the majority of residents and those with the greatest need," the QFAH's Hannah Weinstock said in the release. "Now, in the midst of a crushing economic crisis with even more of the borough's families falling over the brink, despite modest gains, this plan is a real missed opportunity."

The release did note that the project will now include 1,000 units that would be affordable for families earning about $60,000 a year. Of those, 200 units will be affordable to senior citizens at lower income ranges. There will also be incentives for the creation of additional lower-income units on various other locations in the community.

"While we recognize and applaud the efforts to create additional housing that would be available to low-income seniors, and every unit has value, in the balance, this plan is a far cry from what Queens working families deserve," stated QFAH's Rev. Lancelot Waldron.