State pitches plan for Creedmoor development

Officials unveiled a plan this week detailing the long-awaited development of 54-acres of currently unused land at Creedmoor in Eastern Queens. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach  

By Ryan Schwach

Officials on Wednesday released an ambitious plan to develop over 50 acres of the decrepit and long-abandoned Creedmoor campus in Eastern Queens with over 2,000 housing units, public spaces and various other amenities.

The Creedmoor Master Plan, a joint effort between Empire State Development and the borough president, aims to bring major development to an area that hasn’t seen change in half a century.

Although the result of several community sessions and a delayed timeline, the plan still leaves out several details including affordability rates and new modes of transportation to the far-flung corner of the borough. Despite the lack of details, some locals are already planning their strategy to combat the plan while other advocates are still waiting for more to make a judgment on the massive project that essentially amounts to a new neighborhood in Eastern Queens.

The plan's unveiling Wednesday marks the beginning of a state approval process that typically takes a year and a half before shovels can hit the ground.

The master plan was the result of a handful of community workshops and aims to develop 58-acres of the Creedmoor site. It features plans to build a total of 2,873 new housing units, including supportive housing, senior housing, affordable housing and a list of homeownership options like co-ops and two-family homes.

Specifically, 1,633 of the units will be available for individual purchase, and 1,240 will be rental units.

“My goal is to make sure that there are apartments for the college student, for somebody getting their first job, for folks in public service, people from all different backgrounds,” Borough President Donovan Richards said at a public forum for the plan on Wednesday night. “We want this to be a diverse community with diverse incomes.”

The homes and apartment buildings will range in size and height, officials said on Wednesday, some will be walk-ups and some will have elevators. An unspecified percentage of the homes will prioritize veterans, a feature of the plan requested by a number of residents at ESD’s visioning sessions on the project.

“There was a lot of conversation about housing, and the need for housing for a variety of different populations, including seniors, veterans,” said Doug McPherson from ESD.

The first phase of housing, which includes mainly home ownership, will be affordable at 80 to 100 percent of the surrounding average median income, but the rest of the development's affordability is yet to be determined.

“For the later phases, the specific AMI is going to be like a work in progress,” said McPherson. “Although, we're proposing to serve individuals who need supportive housing, we're proposing to serve low-income seniors, we're proposing to serve a variety of different populations.”

The goal, the ESD official said, is to keep within the character of the surrounding community, with the density and height only growing as one moves inward into the development.

“Our goal is for Bellrose to continue to feel like Bellerose, Queens Village continues to feel like Queens Village,” he said.

Green spaces, amenities and retail

The plan also includes other community amenities, like green spaces, retail corridors, community centers and plans for a school.

There will be 14 acres for open space in the development’s layout, as well as pedestrian paths and malls along roadways and sidewalks. The plans also feature a proposal to build a “town square.”

There are also plans set aside for amenities such as a recreation center, daycare facility, school, and neighborhood retail.

The school, which would be on a 30,000-square-foot plot of land, will likely be a K through 8 school. It’s size has yet to be determined.

The Creedmoor master plan unveiled this week includes over 2,000 housing units ranging from two-family homes to apartment buildings with supportive housing.  Photo via Empire State Development 

Also yet to be determined are plans to increase public transportation for the proposed new community. Currently, there is only a single bus line in the area.

McPherson said ESD is in talks with the MTA to potentially change bus routes as part of the Queens bus network redesign to close the gap between Creedmoor and the Long Island Railroad, making commutes to Midtown Manhattan faster.

He added that transportation will become clearer over the upcoming environmental review process, and told residents to “stay tuned.”

Some locals aren’t thrilled

Over the course of the community sessions, suburban locals in the surrounding communities seeked to push back on any density or low-income housing at the Creedmoor site, and aren't thrilled with the current layout of the plan.

“We're not very happy with what we saw at all,” said local civic leader Bob Friedrich. “The Creedmoor plan is high density, this is not what we signed up for. We've had discussions with them, we gave them a well thought out plan and basically, they've ignored most of it.”

Freidrich called the community input sessions “dog and pony shows” and said that the plan does not prioritize what many in the community hoped for.

“There needs to be much more parking than the plan shows, we'd like to see more senior housing, and we'd like to see the density brought down a bit,” he said.

Freidrich also took issue with the type of housing, saying that although he does not have an issue with the affordable housing, he doesn’t want the supportive housing, which he referred to as “homeless” housing.

He also was irked by the lack of detail about the homeownership options.

“There was a lot of information that was not given about that,” he said. “They talked about triplexes. Is that a triplex or one-family triplex? There's a lot of things that were not clear.”

Friedrich added that a coalition of 14 civic associations that surround Creedmoor are aiming to create a strategy to deal with their issues with the current proposal after the New Year.

Housing advocates want more information

Other local pro-housing advocates, who all align under a group called Queens Power, said that they think the plan is a solid step in the right direction.

“It's a good start,” said Jamaica-based Reverend Father Patrick O’Connor. “The master plan doesn't tell us the affordability level and that is critical to being a successful development for families who are leaving or planning to leave New York.”

O’Connor, happy with the step, says there just isn’t enough currently available from the state on the amount of affordable housing options, which he believes is key to the plan.

“The governor and her team need to spell out what the affordability levels are,” he said.

“The timeline of this plan does not do enough for the millions of New Yorkers who need affordable housing right now,” he said in a separate statement. “We will continue to fight for everyday New Yorkers and work with the governor to quickly and fully develop Creedmoor into thousands of affordable housing units and publicly commit to 100 percent affordability.”

The Creedmoor master plan includes several examples of commercial and open space, as well as a potential K through 8 school. Photo via Empire State Development 

Next Steps

It will be quite a while until any shovels are in the ground, with phase one not starting until at least 2026, McPherson said.

The next steps include the creation of a community task force made up of elected officials and community members to weigh in on the plan as it moves forward.

“[We’re] making sure that we're hearing from you and that we have the ability to communicate about the next steps as the plan moves forward,” said McPherson.

After that, there will be further public meetings as the project undergoes an 18- to 24-month environmental impact study.

“We would expect development to be in multiple phases over multiple years,” he said. “This isn't something that we think we can do in a rush, it'll take time to phase it in.”

Richards echoed the same sentiment, and looked to make it clear that this is not the end of the debate on what Creedmoor will look like.

“This is the beginning of a conversation,” he said. “Community engagement will not end tonight.”

Although he said he was proud of the plan in its current form, there is still more to be done.

“We were trying to accomplish a goal here, it doesn't mean it's a perfect plan,” he said.