A year in Queens land use

A rendering of the Kew Gardens jail. Rendering via City Hall.

By Victoria Merlino

What do Amazon, jails and homeless shelters all have in common? They were hot topics in Queens this year, as land use concerns took center stage from Far Rockaway to Long Island City. Join the Eagle as we look back on the stories that shaped the Queens’ topography in 2019.

The Amazon saga continues

Amazon launched a retail rollercoaster this year after announcing in February that it had canceled the deal to develop a corporate campus in Long Island City. The e-commerce giant encountered significant pressure from local community organizations and lawmakers who did not have a hand in negotiations.

But the conflict between Amazon and community organization was re-ignited in November, when workers rights advocates turned their attention to an Amazon distribution facility that the company plans to build in Woodside. Amazon signed a lease to build a $5.6 million Woodside distribution center in April, according to THE CITY.

The scuttled Amazon campus plan will continue to loom over the Queens political landscape for years to come.

Queens is getting a new jail

The land use review process for the city’s borough-based jail plan spanned every borough but Staten Island earlier this year, but the latest phase of the mission to close Rikers will depend largely on Queens. 

While anti-jail activists, anti-Rikers/pro-community jails activists and vocal Queens residents publically clashed over the jail from the beginning, city officials and proponents in the City Council worked behind the scenes to get the necessary 26-vote majority to approve the plan in October. Councilmember Karen Koslowitz, who represents the part of Kew Gardens where the new jail will rise, was one of several lawmakers who said they were still undecided on the plan in the weeks leading up to the vote — even though she had maintained her support for the borough-based jail since it was announced.

In the end, Koslowitz did vote in favor of the plan, and her support carried significant weight among some councilmembers, who have traditionally voted in lockstep with affected members on land use proposals.

Shelter backlash

Residents across Queens rebuked plans for homeless shelters in their communities this year.

Hundreds of central Queens residents packed a high school auditorium in Middle Village in October to condemn a planned homeless men’s shelter — and to demonize the New Yorkers who would live there. The public hearing was the latest phase in the saga over a proposed 200-bed men’s shelter that the city plans to build inside a vacant warehouse at 78-16 Cooper Ave. in Glendale.

Meanwhile, a controversial College Point women’s homeless shelter opened in September, following community outcry against the Department of Homeless Services’ original plan to have it be a 200-bed shelter for men.

Target misses mark with Astoria plan, community members say

After Target announced its intent to muscle into Astoria, community members rallied against the retail giant’s plan, which they said would displace a 50-year-old supermarket that employs dozens of union workers.

Proposed Edgemere development highlights divide on Rockaway peninsula

The process of building a large, multi-functional space complete with retail and affordable housing units in Edgemere began in January with proposals and community meetings. Since then, the development, dubbed Edgemere Commons, has moved forward and been a source of hope for some, and a point of contention for others in the neighborhood.

'Middle finger' luxury tower plan tests Ridgewood residents and local councilmember

A proposal for a high-rise luxury apartment complex in Ridgewood in August put longtime residents and the local councilmember in a bind, with the project’s developer suggesting it will build a 300-foot-tall tower without any affordable units unless the city consents to a rezoning.

“Some people might see it as a threat, but I don’t take it that way,” Councilmember Antonio Reynoso told the Eagle at the of plan. “I want to believe people are innately good.”

Additional reporting by Jonathan Sperling