Astoria development approved, suggesting shift in progressive attitude
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The City Council approved a rezoning application for Halletts North last week, which gained the support of progressive lawmaker Tiffany Cabán. Rendering via Studio V Architecture
By Jacob Kaye
The City Council approved last week a major rezoning that is expected to bring over 1,300 apartments to Astoria.
The project, dubbed Halletts North, got the backing of progressive City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, potentially signaling a shifting attitude the most progressive lawmakers in the city take toward private development and affordable housing.
In a near unanimous vote, the City Council passed the Halletts North rezoning with 49 members voting in favor for the project and one against on Thursday, Sept. 29.
Support for the project came after Cabán, in early September, voiced her backing of the project that she had once hesitated to support.
Located near the intersection of 3rd Street and 26th Avenue, Halletts North will host three towers, standing between 23 and 34 stories high. It will also include commercial space, a 525-space parking garage, the same number of bike parking spaces and a waterfront promenade open to the public.
The plan also includes around 10,000 square feet of community space created for nonprofits Urban Upbound and Zone 126, the latter of which will use the space for a new headquarters.
The socialist lawmaker said that the developers, who operate under a vague limited liability corporation named Astoria Owners LLC, committed to deepening the project’s affordability, which in turn, spurred her support for the project that was previously approved by both the local community board and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
“I believe it would be very, very foolish not to vote aye,” Cabán said in September when announcing her support of Halletts North.
Around 330, or 25 percent, of the development’s 1,340 apartment units will be income restricted.
In total, the developers said 268 units will be priced at or below 50 percent of the area median income. Of those, around 100 will be set at 30 percent of the area median income, which amounts to $28,020 for a single person and $40,020 for a family of four.
A bulk of the remaining affordable units will be set at 50 percent AMI. Around 5 percent of the units will be set at 80 percent AMI, according to Cabán. The remaining approximately 1,000 units will be rented at market rate.
In addition, Astoria Owners LLC in their final bid for the rezoning expanded the number of two- and three-bedroom units they initially proposed to the city. In total, the project will include 950 one-bedroom, 315 two-bedroom and 75 three-bedroom units.
“We are proud to have worked with so many local stakeholders, elected officials, civic groups and the Community Board over the last several years to make this project a reality,” said Jim Hedden, a representative of the development team.
“From Councilmember Cabán, Borough President Richards and so many in the Adams’ administration to leadership of the Astoria Houses – we all understand that our city is facing an unprecedented housing crisis,” Hedden added. “But it’s important to make sure new development is working to lift up and bring opportunity for all. Halletts North will bring desperately needed jobs, affordable housing and develop a publicly accessible waterfront park, from a previously unusable industrial site, returning the waterfront to our neighbors in the
Astoria Houses and throughout northwest Queens.”
The developers of Halletts North had previously announced their intention to turn the site into a last-mile facility for a shipping company like Amazon should the development not get approval from the city. Cabán said that not supporting the project would lead to a less than ideal outcome for the nearby Astoria Houses residents who have already been subject to nearby pollutants.
“A ‘no’ vote today, would be a vote for that,” Cabán said.
Both City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and New York City Mayor Eric Adams praised the passage of the rezoning and the negotiations that went on beforehand.
“I want to emphasize the commitments that were secured by Councilmember Cabán and the Council for this project to benefit the entire community,” Speaker Adams said. “Outstanding.”
Mayor Adams, who has sparred with the council’s progressive wing on a number of issues including private development rezonings, said that approving projects like Halletts North is one of the only ways to address the shortage of affordable housing in the five boroughs.
“We can only tackle the affordable housing crisis by making New York City a ‘City of Yes,’ and approving this project is a significant step in the right direction,” Mayor Adams said in a statement.
“The solution to our housing shortage is simple: building more housing, and this project will create thousands of homes, including hundreds with restricted rents,” he added. “We all need to take responsibility for the housing crisis we are facing, and I applaud our partners in the City Council for advancing this important project.”
But Cabán sees another way forward and different tools she believes will cut into the city’s affordable housing crisis that extend beyond supporting private development.
In announcing her support for the project in September, Cabán also laid out 10 policy positions that she feels would together address the crisis. The policies included in the 10-point plan range from citywide issues to policy positions that can only be taken up by state lawmakers.
The plan includes; a revolving social housing fund, which would create a program to fund publicly-owned mixed-income apartments; a city land bank, which would convert tax-delinquent and vacant properties into affordable housing; programs to support community-based developers, or nonprofits that aim to build affordable housing on city-owned land; an end to selling tax liens to real estate developers and instead converting property lost by “bad landlords” to mixed-income co-ops operated by the city.
Cabán’s plan also calls for the passage of Good Cause Eviction in Albany, and the passage of a Fair Chance for Housing bill in the City Council, which aims to prevent housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated individuals.
Cabán’s approach to the project stands in stark contrast to the approach her colleague, City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan, took to One45, a proposed development in Harlem.
Richardson Jordan turned down One45’s developer’s proposal to make 50 percent of the units income restricted, prompting the developers to withdraw their rezoning application. The site is now slated to house a big rig truck depot, Patch reported.
The City Council will soon decide the fate of Innovation QNS, a controversial mega project slated for Astoria. Progressive Councilmember Julie Won, who represents the area the project is planned for, has expressed serious reservations about approving the 2,800-unit development that will stretch five blocks in southeast Astoria if approved.
After it got approval from the City Planning Commission two weeks ago, Won said that she wanted the developers, who had that time committed to making 25 percent of the units income restricted, to commit to 50 percent affordability.
Last week, the developers sent a letter to Won committing to 40 percent, the Eagle reported. Won has not yet publicly commented on the offer.
