NYC resumes contentious Flushing Waterfront land use review process
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In order to move ahead with the proposed waterfront redevelopment, the city council needs to approve zoning changes. Rendering courtesy of FWRA LLC
By Rachel Vick
UPDATE, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020 — This story has been updated to include a response from developer consortium FWRA LLC.
Opponents and supporters of a plan to transform the Flushing Creek Waterfront into a luxury residential complex faced off in three-minute increments Wednesday during the first City Planning Commission land use hearing in six months.
New York City’s COVID-19 safety protocols halted the city’s Universal Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP, in March, putting the brakes on a plan to rezone a chunk of the waterfront manufacturing district for residential use. The controversial plan was approved by local Community Board 7, before Acting Borough President Sharon Lee recommended rejecting the rezoning.
The rezoning proposal would extend a larger project put forth by a trio of developers who formed the consortium FWRA LLC.
They say they will build a mixed-use residential and commercial development “as of right” on the property around the site that they have applied to rezone, regardless of whether the city council ultimately approves the land use application for the strip along the waterfront. Activists, however, challenge the notion that developers can build as of right on the land.
Throughout the process, the plan has encountered fierce opposition from community members who made their presence known during the hearing Wednesday.
Opponents argued that additional luxury development would be irresponsible as the financial impacts of COVID-19 devastates residents and small businesses in Flushing.
“We need actual affordable housing, and not only as a tradeoff for more luxury housing,” said Sarah Ahn, director of the Flushing Workers Center. “There’s nobody who wants a Queens waterfront more than Flushing residents, but it shouldn't come at the cost of 2,000 luxury condos.”
Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce Executive Director John Choe said developers used their influence to skirt regulations and community input. Choe said developers have brushed off community engagement, encounters he characterized as a troubling indication of future gatekeeping in the proposed waterfront complex.
“In the Oscar Award-winning movie ‘Parasite,’ wealthy elites live in luxurious mansions atop the highest point in the city while low-income households are relegated to precarious, flood-prone areas,” Choe said. “If you vote in favor of this project this is exactly what will happen.”
Choe said affordable housing created to comply with rezoning laws would be located in a floodplain, while the market-rate units would be built higher.
The development, he said, will “exacerbate social inequalities as our working families are forced to move out as rents escalate, and contribute to decline of our small businesses devastated by the pandemic.”
Several other attendees spoke in favor of the project, however.
A representative from the Waterfront Alliance said she was impressed by the “potential to revitalize the Flushing waterfront.
The developers have pledged to decontaminate the land and conduct brownfield remediation as part of the project. Flushing Creek and Flushing Bay are polluted by sewage water, waste and chemicals that pour from overflowing waste water treatment plants or from backed up sewers.
Rev. Richard McEachern, another local resident, said he supports the project despite its imperfections.
“There are no perfect proposals,” McEachern said. “Although we’re caught between two dynamics, the community and development, I would rather see the project move forward than see it vacant and abandoned for the next decade.”
“Hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle,” he added.
UPDATE: FWRA LLC provided the below response following the CPC hearing Wednesday.
Following today’s City Planning Commission (CPC) hearing, we express immense gratitude to the members of the community who took time from their working day to support and speak on behalf of their community in favor of the Special Flushing Waterfront District (SFWD). With this support, we are more dedicated than ever to push forward during what can only be described as dire economic times.
The specifics as to why the development of this underutilized land is a critical part of Flushing’s future are evident. Our community was one of the first and hardest hit when the pandemic reached New York City and we are still feeling its effects. We need jobs. We need tax revenues. We need an economic stimulus that advances Flushing and expresses the forward-thinking nature of our community.
Flushing’s intricate economic and communal needs are in harmony with what the SFWD has proposed. In addition to good and important jobs that will re-start the economy, our project will clean up and provide waterfront access, a new road network to relieve congestion, affordable housing, environmental remediation, significant tax revenues and so much more. This development team is rooted in Flushing, believes in Flushing, and is building for Flushing.
This project is the answer to moving Flushing forward.
