Sunday, July 17, 2022

City Council approves Edgemere overdevelopment



City Limits
 

 The City Council voted Thursday to rezone a 166-acre swath of Edgemere, approving a plan first proposed by the de Blasio administration that could add more than 1,200 new housing units and improve resiliency in a Queens neighborhood at severe risk of flooding.

The land use plan, part of a broader initiative known as Resilient Edgemere, encompasses the area bound by Beach 35th Street and Beach 50th Street and will change zoning rules to increase density in some areas, limit development in others and raise the shoreline along Jamaica Bay. Resilient Edgemere also includes efforts to develop housing on city-owned parcels, elevate homes, improve parks and infrastructure and designate 16 acres as open space to be used for coastal protection.

The Council specifically approved five applications submitted by the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (HPD) to amend the zoning and allow for new development with mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH) affordability rules, which force developers to cap rents on a portion of their units for low- and middle-income New Yorkers. Around 530 new units will be affordable under MIH, according to HPD, and 35 percent of those affordable units will be up for sale, not rent. The plan would further a Community Land Trust on up to eight acres of city-owned land.

Resilient Edgemere establishes two special coastal risk districts, which HPD defines as “currently at exceptional risk from flooding and may face greater risk in the future.”

Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who represents Edgemere and other neighborhoods in the eastern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula, said the changes will allow for more affordable homes in the waterfront neighborhood, while shoring up the region against rising sea levels and storm-related flooding.

“Edgemere will benefit from vital affordable homeownership opportunities, infrastructure investments and protection from a changing climate,” Brooks-Powers said. “Rockaway has seen a surge of new development in recent years, but that development has not been accompanied by a commensurate investment in local infrastructure.”

Brooks-Powers inherited the project from her predecessor, Donovan Richards, who was elected Queens borough president in 2020 and told City Limits he was pleased that the Council voted to approve the rezoning after seven years of planning and community engagement. Richards recommended the plan in his advisory role in March but urged the city to foster affordable home ownership opportunities in response to community demands.

“There is tremendous promise in the Resilient Edgemere Community Plan,” Richards said, adding that he would focus on ensuring that developers and the city adhere to local hiring and MWBE commitments.

Under the changes, which now await Mayor Eric Adams’ signature, most of the area north of Beach Channel Drive would be zoned for one- and two-family homes, while the stretch between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Edgemere Avenue would allow for taller, mixed-used buildings. City-owned vacant land next to the Edgemere Houses would be converted to open space, as would much of the land abutting the Jamaica Bay.

In a statement following the vote, Adams hailed the plan as “an important step forward for residents of Edgemere, the Rockaways, and the entire city.”

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

" Repeat the Line " This will fail with floods and crime.

Anonymous said...

Is this part of the New Green Scam ?

Anonymous said...

“The best Build Back Better Plan Ever” LOL...

Anonymous said...

Build baby build

Anonymous said...

Another nail in the coffin for Rockaway. Going to Mott Avenue/Far Rockaway is unpredictable. Yesterday a mother pushing a stroller and a man were both shot, the gun man was in an SUV. Do you think he bothered to license his gun?

People with small dogs do not walk them out side, because their dogs are robbed at gunpoint and sold on Craigs List.
Far Rockway is a dangerous ghetto. No matter how much money you flush into it, just like with Jamaica, it will remain a ghetto. The NYCHA buildings are commandeered by drug dealer convicted felons, gang bangers.

Doe anyone besides me think building property in a flood zone is a bad idea? Hurricane Sandy was bad enough, the neighbors from the NYCHA buildings looted, robbed and terrorized Rockaway in the days afterwards. Then they were the first ones on the donations lines with their hands out. They knew when goods and gift cards were coming into Rockaway. One woman ran a supposedly free flea market but was really stealing gift cards, a tractor trailer of Brand New Nike sneakers that was supposed to go any one who needed them and endless brand new appliances that she and her mother blatantly stole. She sold the donated appliances, stoves, refrigerators, etc. Wonderful place, right? I guess she learned from the Community Board members and elected officials on how to graft. Thanks for destroying Rockaway.

Anonymous said...

NYC is a dysfunctional government.
Polls indicate that America’s working class of all races are fed up with Democratic leadership that just doesn’t care about average Sheeple's needs.

NPC_translator said...

People still insist on building on barrier islands, and then wonder when a hurricane floods the place. At least they have the "Global warming" boogieman to blame.

PS - Sea levels aren't rising. It's just another lie.

Anonymous said...

@NPC

Yep. They have Greta Dumberg, the high school nutjob directing climate guilt.
Straight out of the Rockefeller and Rotschild playbook.

Unknown said...

The "overdevelopment" they're planning looks straight out of a suburb. Any development is overdevelopment to you, Crappy.