Opinion: Special Flushing Waterfront District rezoning appeal is grounded in misinformation

FLUSHING CREEK. PHOTO VIA THE DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING

By Tarry Hum

In advance of Wednesday’s City Planning Commission public hearing on the controversial Special Flushing Waterfront District rezoning, community residents and leaders led a well-attended protest rally calling attention to Downtown Flushing’s affordable housing crisis, which will surely be deepened with the proposed addition of 3 million square feet of market-rate residential and commercial condominiums, hotels, and retail. 

If the SFWD is approved, the meager number of affordable housing units — 61 to 90 depending on “affordability” range — will do little to moderate the transformative gentrification of Flushing’s waterfront.  The attendance of the Sunset Park Popular Assembly and Justice For All Coalition members underscored citywide community opposition to developer and investor-led rezonings.

FRWA LLC, the development consortium comprised of three Chinese transnational development companies, maintain that their Special Flushing Waterfront District proposal is largely “as of right” and that the land use actions being sought would benefit the Flushing community through a cohesive design of waterfront connectors, visual corridors, and an integrated network of privately owned and managed streets.  Moreover, FRWA LLC notes that without the rezoning, the developers would not be obligated to provide any affordable housing.  

A March Queens Eagle article restated FRWA LLC’s view that “(M)ost of the land can be built ‘as-of-right,’ meaning that the developers do not need a land use variance or rezoning to build the bulk of the project.”  

FRWA LLC’s legal counsel, Ross Moskowitz, was quoted in another local news venue as saying, “I just want to make it perfectly clear to you. It’s going to be this type of development or it’s going to be an as-of-right development.”  

If, in fact, the as-of-right development achieves FRWA LLC’s land use goals (and profit margins), why would the developers bother with a special district and rezoning application, and the headache of ongoing community pushback?  

It may be that the massive mixed-use development cannot be developed “as of right,” and requires waivers and modifications of current zoning and land use rules including rules governing waterfront upland connectors and visual corridors. 

Young Nian LLC is a subsidiary of ZhongGeng Group USA, the US branch of a Shanghai-based conglomerate engaged in transnational real estate development including industrial parks and financial investments.  

Young Nian LLC was incorporated in June 2017 and a few months later, the LLC purchased the former Assi Plaza for an astounding $115 million.  This site is development site #2 in the FRWA LLC Environmental Assessment Statement for the Special Flushing Waterfront District.  The SFWD encompasses sites owned by the other two FRWA LLC transnational developer-investor corporations, F & T Group and United Construction & Development Group.   

Starting in Spring 2019, Young Nian LLC filed applications with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and NYC Department of Buildings  to begin preparation for development. 

Young Nian LLC applied for NYS brownfield remediation tax credits and the LLC’s Draft Remedial Action Plan was available for public review at the Queens Public Library and Community Board 7 office in April 2019.  

A few months later, Young Nian LLC’s application for a DOB permit to excavate and remove an existing slab for soil remediation was approved.  News articles about Young Nian LLC’s development proposal appeared in New York YIMBY and Flushing Post.  However, Young Nian LLC’s application for DOB permits to construct a new building was ultimately disapproved this past April. 

Young Nian LLC sought permits to develop a massive 19-story mixed-use building comprised of three towers providing over 660,000 square feet of residential and commercial (hotel and retail) space designed by Pei Architects LLP.  

The LLC paid DOB the minimum requisite fee of over $200,000 for an examination of their application.  NYC DOB plan examiners review permit applications for compliance with zoning regulations and building codes.  Young Nian LLC’s proposal was disapproved pending zoning approvals, which suggests the development proposal did not align with current zoning regulations. In other words, contrary to the developer’s claim, the development proposal is not as-of-right. 

Notably, as site two in the EAS, Young Nian LLC’s proposal increased from 664,278 square feet of new development (as stated in the DOB application) to 817,328 square feet with the greatest increase of 29% in commercial uses.  

Despite the recent media pitches on the public benefits of this massive development project, FRWA LLC conceded in the Environmental Assessment Statement (page 12) that given the area’s topography, large lot configurations, and Downtown Flushing Waterfront Access Plan requirements, the current C4-2 zoning is “restrictive,” which necessitates a special district designation.  A special district grants flexibility and waivers without which the developers would not be able to maximize the current zoned C4-2 as-of-right development parameters.

Despite FRWA LLC’s efforts to characterize community opposition to the SFWD rezoning as “misinformation” by “a small group of loud, misguided voices”, presenting the massive waterfront market-rate residential, hotel, and retail development as a largely as-of-right project that will benefit Flushing’s immigrant community appears to me, as misinformation.

Tarry Hum is a professor and chair of the Urban Studies Department at Queens College, City University of New York.