Queens residents and presidents of local civic associations gathered with activist Paul Graziano outside the office of Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans) on Monday to protest next Thursday’s City of Yes vote and announce their intentions to sue the city should it go through.
The City Council is expected to vote on Dec. 5 to approve the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity text amendment, the last third of the City of Yes agenda. The amendment would ease regulations to allow accessory dwelling units, more high-density housing, greater building heights and much more, detailed in the 1,400 pages of text.
Warren Schreiber, the president of the Queens Civic Congress, told the Queens Chronicle that the civic associations would file an Article 78 class action lawsuit against the city to stop it from implementing the rezoning program on the basis that the action would be “arbitrary and capricious.”
“An Article 78 [is] what you bring against a government entity when you think that they’ve made a wrong decision,” Schreiber said.
Schreiber added that the opponents have yet to decide who would be the plaintiffs, although the Queens Civic Congress would certainly be one, and they have yet to contact a lawyer. When asked how it would be funded, he said they were looking at a GoFundMe. Schreiber said they would at least be looking for the judge to issue an injunction while the suit plays out.
“Everybody seems to understand the importance and they understand that it’s urgent that we move forward as soon as possible,” Schreiber said.
During Monday’s rally, Schreiber and others took shots at city officials for making supposed backroom deals to get the City of Yes through the Council.
“When the City Council plays ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’ they do it behind closed doors, in secret,” Schreiber joked.
“Speaker [Adrienne] Adams and [Chair of the City Planning Commission] Dan Garodnick, both attended the Somos lobbyist convention in Puerto Rico and they met behind closed doors,” Schreiber added, referring to the tropical getaway attended by many in the New York political scene every year. “Nobody knows what they said to each other.”
Claudia Valentino, a magazine editor and Forest Hills resident of 40 years, told the Queens Chronicle that overdevelopment that could happen under City of Yes would do “nothing but cause damage and take community review away.”
“The moment you start digging up driveways to try to put ADUs in backyards, garages and so on, you will endanger the foundations of the houses,” Valentino said. “It will cause a whole world of problems with our ancient sewer and electrical grid.”
For Aracelia Cook, the president of the 149th South Ozone Park Civic Association, infrastructure was also a top concern, citing the catastrophic 2019 Southeast Queens sewer pipe collapse.
“Now all of a sudden they throw in, ‘Oh, we’re going to give X amount of billions of dollars for infrastructure,’” Cook said. “Where did that come from? You should give that to people anyway, regardless of whether they are going to vote for the City of Yes or not.”
Graziano, an urban planning consultant who has been making his rounds across the city rallying against the City of Yes, compared the newest amendments to the housing opportunity section of the program to treating a gunshot patient.
“When you have a patient that’s been shot by six bullets — it doesn’t matter if they got shot by five, the patient is still gonna die,” Graziano said, referring to the Council’s modifications to the bill.
Graziano was particularly peeved by the $5 billion City for All budget, which has been set aside “to address the city’s housing crisis,” according to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica).
“This is not $5 billion in a bank account that they’re waiting to tap to give to all of these things,” Graziano said. “This is our tax dollars.”
As the City Council’s voting deadline on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity steadily approaches, residents, civic groups, and local elected officials throughout Queens have voiced their stance on the monumental rezoning proposal.
The City Council is expected to hold a final vote on Dec. 5 regarding the City of Yes, which was approved with modifications by two influential council committees on Nov. 21 following a hearing.
The changes included modifying the proposed elimination of parking mandates for new residential developments and adding restrictions on where accessory dwelling units can be built. Additionally, Mayor Adams’ administration announced a $5 billion commitment to fund the City Council’s housing plan, City for All, earlier this month.
The City for All Housing Plan’s points include mandating affordable housing in large transit-oriented and town-centered developments, allocating increased funding to the city’s housing programs, and increasing support for tenants’ rights.
In Southeast Queens, a steady coalition of residents and civic leaders have protested for months against the rezoning initiative, which aims to bring a little more housing in every neighborhood.
The organizing against the plan started earlier this year. In May, Alicia Spears, a Cambria Heights homeowner, held a packed town hall meeting at Cambria Heights Library. More than 500 Southeast Queens residents came together, voicing concerns that their single-family and two-family zoned neighborhoods would become unrecognizable in the near future if higher-density housing developments—as well as accessory dwelling units—are permitted.
Other vocal nay-sayers include Paul Graziano, a Flushing resident and urban planner who has long opposed the City of Yes for Housing initiative, and Reverend Carlene Thorbs, Chair of Community Board 12 and organizer of recent ‘Say No to City of Yes’ rallies held in South Jamaica. Two weeks ago, Graziano, Thorbs, and Spears hosted another rally in St. Albans, urging their elected officials to vote no this December.
The organizers led their most recent rally on Monday, Nov. 25, in front of Council Member Nantasha William’s office, located at 172-12 Linden Blvd. Much of Monday’s rally centered around homeowners reiterating concerns about the City of Yes.
Graziano and Warren Schreiber, president of the Queens Civic Congress, said that if the plan passes on Dec. 5, they would pursue legal action. ” We will be filing a lawsuit… it’s happening,” Graziano said.
Schreiber expanded more, sharing that they would file the lawsuit under Article 78, which allows citizens to appeal decisions made by government agencies or officials to the New York State Supreme Court. “The first step would be an injunction until the Article 78, the lawsuit, could be heard,” Schreiber said. Schreiber said that he wants to ask the court for an injunction as soon as possible. “We’re still working on its logistics and how it’s going to be funded,” Schreiber said.
