On Monday, the city’s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) released a feasibility study in regards to a planned, mostly residential development over the Sunnyside Yard.
The study is a follow up to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to build thousands of units of affordable housing on top of the massive rail yard, which he first announced at his state of the city address in early 2015.
Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed his opposition to the project shortly afterward claiming that the owners of the site—the MTA, Amtrak, and New Jersey Transit all had expansion plans that would interfere with any development in that area.
The results of the feasibility study are now looking to dispel those concerns. The study identified that about 80-85 percent of this 180-acre site is buildable with the use of decking, and highlighted three potential proposals, costing anywhere between $16 to $19 billion, on how best to move forward.
The first would see the creation of 18,000-24,000 apartments, 5,400-7,200 of which would be affordable (that’s about 30 percent of the overall development). That proposal would also create between 13-19 schools, 38-52 acres of open space, and retail.
6 comments:
Sunnyside Yards has been proposed since the 1990s but the way to make it work is to take advantage of the fact that NJ Transit, Amtrak and LIRR trains are stored there. There is no reason we can't have Queens and Bronx Amtrak stops. Boston has three stops North, South and Back Bay. Philadelphis was two, North and South. What they also need to do is rationalize the Queensboro Bridge ramps. It takes forever to get off the bridge coming to Queens. There is also no reason the Queens Plaza and Queensboro Plaza stations haven't been merged the way Court Square and other stations have. There is so much development in Queensboro Plaza the developers should pay for it, and I'd bet they would love to pay because it benefits their projects.
Watch as Court Sq and Hunters Pt civics vote for it (getting free coffee for their meetings from public monies DOES have a price tag for it) and the community board asks to have an influence on design - as the color of doors and the placement of shrubbery. Important stuff.
Notice how these 'studies' studiously leave out any mention of the local elected officials.
So go ahead, blame the governor, blame the head of the railroad, blame the mayor.
Then cluelessly watch as your reps in Albany and Washington fund this and city council vote in favor of it. Those are the only people that matter.
There wee plans to roof over part of the yards since the 1920s, and a large building where the viaduct runs over the yards with a train station in its basement.
The problem is the area is already at max. Queens Plaza is a noisy wind tunnel. You cannot even have a conversation there some days and the bicyclists sometimes are nearly swept off their bikes with the force of the breeze when the round the curve to get on to the bridge.
No amenities here - food, stores, shops, NOTHING! After the bloom fades from the hotels they will be barracks for wait staff for the Manhattan elite. Queens Plaza will revert to its dreary days past much louder, much windier, and with 50 story buildings filled with proles with little to do but to stare at all that rail and vehicular traffic thinking God knows what.
THERE WILL NEVER BE AFFORDABLE HOUSING HERE OR ANYWHERE IN NYC.
Affordable housing is making housing unaffordable.
You all think this will never happen. But Atlantic Yards happened and Hudson Yards happened . The time will come when you have a particularly corrupt borough president and a council member who talks the affordable housing talk but walks the developer walk, and the civics are tired of fighting development and losing all the time. And then this project will happen. By that time, they will be asking not for 24,000 units, but 36,000 to pay for the affordable units (because costs have gone up of course!).
And when 100,000 more people try to get on the 7 train, you will no longer need to go on the hajj to Mecca or attend a World Cup soccer match to experience the thrill of a deadly stampede. You just have to try and go to work in the morning like every other regular person in NYC (if there are any left).
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