Borough Hall hosts public hearing on Flushing Creek rezoning

A land use plan before the city would rezone a piece of the Flushing Creek waterfront for residential use, potentially paving the way for a large-scale development plan. The proposal has generated significant opposition from local residents. Eagle file photo by Victoria Merlino.

By David Brand

Queens’ acting borough president will host a public hearing on a controversial Flushing rezoning plan Thursday morning, 10 days after the local community board voted in favor of the proposal at a contentious hearing.

A residential rezoning of a piece of the Flushing Creek waterfront would pave the way for a large-scale development project for the area — a proposal that has generated significant opposition from local residents and some candidates for Queens borough president. 

Despite the backlash to the project, Queens Community Board 7 voted in favor of the plan Feb. 10. 

FWRA, a partnership among three developers, has proposed rezoning the piece of land from manufacturing to residential use. The rest of the land is already zoned for residential use, which would allow the developers to build housing “as-of-right” there without meeting the city’s affordable housing restrictions for rezoned regions, known as mandatory inclusionary housing.

The public hearing will take place at 10:30 a.m.