Environmentalists are concerned about LGA plan

From AM-NY

Flushing Bay, once derided for its unseemly smell and murky waters, has started to make a comeback in recent years.

Thousands of people use it to practice and race dragon boats. Families stroll along the promenade, no longer repelled by the powerful rotten-egg smell known to permeate cars driving by on the Grand Central Parkway.

But advocates worry the slow but steady progress will be wiped out by a controversial proposal to build an AirTrain that links LaGuardia Airport with the subway and the Long Island Rail Road.

The first steps in the environmental review process are slated to start later this week, and advocates for the bay are hoping they will get an opportunity to be heard.

“I think it would really take away so much of the work we have been advocating for — clean water, increasing community access,” said Hillary Exter, an avid dragon boat racer and board member of Guardians of Flushing Bay, a watchdog group. “Building the AirTrain either in the water or along the promenade really destroys what is a tremendous resource for the city.”

Cuomo decision allows Claire to rezone Flushing waterfront

From QNS:

A 62-acre portion of land on the Flushing waterfront may soon see substantial redevelopment after receiving a special designation from the state.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) designation for an area of land in the western area of downtown Flushing, bounded to the north by Northern Boulevard, to the east by Prince Street, to the south by Roosevelt Avenue and to the west by Flushing Creek and the Van Wyck Expressway.

The Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation (FWCLDC) presented the application for the BOA, which is described as a vacant, underdeveloped and/or polluted area where, under the program, economic environmental conditions are examined and redevelopment opportunities are identified in an attempt to attract public and public investment.

The designation opens up several benefits for future developers, including support from state municipalities and a potential for tax credits.

“I thank our entire board for its support during this process and now look forward to the next phase which will include a formal ULURP application to implement the zoning recommendations included in our nomination study,” said Claire Shulman, president and CEO of the Flushing Willets Point Corona LDC said in a letter to the LDC’s board. “The LDC thanks the Department of City Planning for its stellar work on our nomination study and environmental assessment report. Our staff at the LDC also deserve thanks for their hard work in overseeing and ensuring completion of this critical phase of our work. The LDC will apply for funding for the next phase of our work (implementation) as soon as it becomes available from the state.”

What killed the Flushing Creek fish?

From the Queens Tribune:

With reports last week of “thousands of dead fish” floating in Flushing Creek, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) placed the blame on predatory TK fish, which the agency said chased the defenseless fish into low-oxygen areas where they ultimately died.

But Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) and local environmentalists tell a different story, blaming the deaths of the fish on the polluted conditions in the creek, where the city is currently looking to reduce combined sewage overflows (CSOs). These are instances where, during heavy rainfall, sewage-treatment plants cannot handle the increased load, and a combination of excess rainwater and untreated sewage seeps into local waterways.

On Aug. 11, Koo used the deaths of the fish as evidence that the city should rethink its long-term control plan for Flushing Creek and Flushing Bay—which is the DEP’s plan to reduce CSOs. Alongside environmentalists, Koo argued that the plan’s use of chlorine to disinfect the waters could have a negative impact on the waters’ ecosystems, and that the city should invest in increasing the capacity of the area’s sewage infrastructure.

The DEP also says it sampled the waters the Monday before the fish kill, which occurred on Aug. 9, and found sufficient oxygen to support marine life. Additionally, it says the rain that occurred that Monday was all captured by the $350 million sewer overflow tank. It argues that fish kills like this have happened before, and if the water conditions were at fault, the predatory fish would be dying as well. The DEP is building green infrastructure in the area to capture stormwater before it enters the sewer system.

But marine immunologist James Cervino, who is the chairman of Community Board 7’s environmental committee, said that he analyzed the dead fish and concluded that the fish were killed by polluted waters. He said that had the fish been killed off in a predatory event, there would be “massive lesions and bitemarks.”

“There [are] no bitemarks,” he said. “Some of the fish have been eaten by blue fish and chased, which is a normal process, but a majority of fish that died off were due to a harmful algal bloom.”

What the hell is a TK fish?

Flushing West seems to be permanently dead

From the Times Ledger:

The city’s abrupt decision to withdraw its plans to rezone Flushing West, which would have brought 1,600 units of housing to the downtown area, has drawn mixed reactions from the community.

Some say it was a good move due to key infrastructural problems for which the city did not have concrete solutions, while others say it was a missed opportunity for the community.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal sought to clean up and rezone 60 acres on the Flushing waterfront and form a planned community with waterfront access for housing and commercial space.

Although State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was the first elected official to oppose the plan and was joined by state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), the project fell apart when Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) asked for it to be withdrawn in a May 27 letter to City Planning Chairman Carl Weisbrod.

Koo cited the ongoing problems with airplane noise from LaGuardia Airport and the need for remediation in Flushing Creek as the key factors motivating his shift in opinion. He alsmo mentioned other issues, such as the proposed development’s proximity to the overcrowded No. 7 train.

He said the city could decide to pursue the proposal again in a year or two if tangible solutions are made to fix the problems.

“The residents would be very unhappy if they lived there, all these airplanes coming in the morning — it would drive them crazy,” he said. “Flushing Creek is so dirty. I wouldn’t want to stay there for 10 minutes, let alone 24 hours and every day.”

City Planning said it could revisit Flushing West if those issues are resolved.

And I'm sure Flushing Creek will be cleaned up and LaGuardia Airport will close soon.

Because what Flushing needs is hordes more people

From the Times Ledger:

At a public scoping meeting hosted by the Department of City Planning on the Flushing West rezoning proposal last week, City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) expressed concerns about many aspects of the project.

The Flushing West plan would create opportunities for mixed-income housing, community facilities, economic development and new public access areas along the Flushing Creek waterfront within a roughly 11-block area in the western portion of downtown Flushing, according to the City Planning document outlining the rezoning proposal.

The 47-acre area is bounded by Northern Boulevard, Prince Street, Roosevelt Avenue, College Point Boulevard, 40th Road and Flushing Creek, the document states.

Koo said the de Blasio’s administra­tion’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing tool could help create more than 500 additional affordable housing units, but it is unclear how the policy would benefit the variety of income levels in downtown Flushing.

Koo not sold on Flushing West project

From the Queens Tribune:

At a public scoping meeting on Tuesday, Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) said the pollution of Flushing Creek was a huge concern for the Flushing West Rezoning Proposal.

The Department of City Planning is proposing zoning changes to a portion of Downtown Flushing along Flushing Creek, which they say will increase affordable housing and create a pedestrian-friendly waterfront.

But Koo said he feared no one would want to live in the area, or utilize the waterfront for recreational purposes, if the creek was not cleaned up.

“As we know, the creek is basically a cesspool that fills up whenever it rains. No one wants to go near it, because it stinks. I still haven’t heard a real solution for a sustainable creek. I expected Flushing West will change that, otherwise, who wants to live there?” he said.

Currently, the Tallman Island Wastewater Treatment Plant handles Flushing’s sewage. But the facility works over capacity, so when rainstorms flood the City’s sewer lines, the combined sewage and run-off from city streets is dumped straight into the Creek without being treated.

Koo said city planners had to address the root of the problem.

“The ongoing dredging of the Creek is great, but it’s only a temporary fix to an ongoing problem. The entire creek must be dredged, and more importantly, new capacity must be built,” he said. “We need to be sure that the department of environmental protection and the army core of engineers are involved in the planning and implementation of Flushing West.”

He also cautioned against overly sweet deals for developers, who would already be attracted to the area. “The challenge here is not getting the market to invest, but to make sure the investments meet the needs of the community,” he said.

Flushing waterfront development: Ah, the smell of it!

From the Times Ledger:

A Flushing group and the Department of City Planning have teamed up to push forth a project that would redevelop the Flushing waterfront and bring more affordable housing to the area.

In 2011, the Flushing Willets Corona Local Development Corporation received a $1.5 million New York State Brownfield Opportunity Grant to fund its Flushing Riverfront Project, which would clean up and rezone 60 acres on the Flushing waterfront. The project would create a planned community with waterfront access and housing and commercial space.

City Planning decided to combine the corporation’s project into its study of Flushing West, which supports Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 10-year affordable housing plan.

The study area — whose lot area consists of 32 acres — covers Prince Street to Flushing Creek on the west, Roosevelt Avenue on the south and Northern Boulevard on the north.

“This was a great opportunity to join both efforts because the goals were aligned to create a new community and Flushing has a great need for affordable housing,” said Alex Rosa, a project consultant for the corporation.

The agency will put together a brownfield opportunity area report that will explain the challenges and opportunities for redeveloping the area and prepare rezoning recommendations.

“Flushing did have a lot of dynamics to it where it seemed to be growing towards the waterfront and we wanted to combine the idea of the downtown vibrancy, creating new jobs here and new housing and provide a market with a direction that would also include affordable housing,” said John Young, director of the City Planning’s Queens office.

In 2012, members of the Flushing Willets corporation found that the 60-acre area was mostly made up of industrial and unused lots, which could be used for numerous purposes.

Three-quarters of the study area is zoned C4-2, or a commercial and residential zone. The northern portion of the study has M1-1 zoning, which is light manufacturing. The northern portion along the waterfront is zoned M3-1, which is heavier manufacturing. The study will be introduced at a public town hall meeting May 21 at 6 p.m. at Flushing Town Hall.

So Claire Shulman's bogus lobbying group is pushing to to rezone more manufacturing areas for bullshit "affordable housing" that will do nothing but further enrich wealthy developers? Aren't we tired of this shtick already?

With development looming, Flushing River may get cleaned

From the Queens Courier:

Councilman Peter Koo and Commissioner Emily Lloyd of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) met deep underground on Tuesday to tour the Flushing Bay Retention Facility, which serves as a storage area for raw sewage and is meant to keep the sewage from entering Flushing Creek, but can only hold so much. The small body of water receives more human waste per year than any other dumping site, according to city records, leading Koo to call the creek “shit’s creek.”

“Cleaning up this waterway has long been a top environmental priority of mine,” Koo said. “There is a popular phrase used by many when trying to explain they are in a bad situation: being up shit’s creek without a paddle. With the amount of raw sewage that still enters it, the phrase might as well be changed to, up Flushing Creek without a paddle.”

With Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement that calls for residential development along the Flushing waterfront, Koo and advocacy groups like Friends of Flushing Creek are hoping the spotlight will help spur the city and state to take action and reduce the amount of sewage going into the creek.

“Now that the city has officially announced they are looking to develop the land along the waterfront, this is a great opportunity to shine a brighter light on this longstanding problem,” Koo said. “I will continue my work with DEP, the Friends of Flushing Creek, and every stakeholder in the community so that we can ultimately see the day where people can safely swim in these waters again.”

“Do you know how much human waste that is?” said Alex Rosa, a consultant for Friends of Flushing Creek, which is advocating for the city and state to reduce the amount of filth going into the Flushing bodies of water. “I’ve never calculated how many people you need to make that much waste. But I’m sure it’s a whole lot.”

No, you just need Claire Shulman! And what's with Koo saying the word "shit"? This is conduct unbecoming a council member, no?

Western Flushing is the next overdevelopment target

From Crains:

The Department of City Planning will launch a study of western Flushing in Queens to explore the potential for increased residential development there, a city official announced Monday. The largely industrial area, most of which sits along Flushing Creek, has long been eyed by planners, including a group of them who received a $1.5 million grant several years ago to study development opportunities there.

The new study will be part of the administration's citywide effort to identify neighborhoods—such as East New York, Brooklyn or the Cromwell-Jerome neighborhood in the Bronx—that could be rezoned to allow for greater residential development, with the caveat that any new construction would have to include affordable apartments.

The de Blasio administration's move comes three years after the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp. received a $1.5 million grant to study a sweeping redevelopment of part of the area. In 2012, the group presented a study showing what a reimagined, 60-acre swath of land would look like. At the time, the plan reportedly featured nearly 10 redeveloped blocks, a waterfront park and the potential for nearly 1,600 units of housing.

The department will begin by reaching out to the many stakeholders in the area for the possible rezoning, the start of what could prove to be a years-long process.

Claire's project? Expect eminent domain and another lobbying scandal.

Developers want Flushing Creek cleaned up

From the Times Ledger:

A coalition of developers, businesses and environmentalists have launched a bid to clean up Flushing Creek.

More than 800 million gallons of raw sewage flows into the finger-shaped body of water, which separates Willets Point from Flushing, every year, according to researchers.

Sludge seeps into the creek from combined sewage overflows anytime there is even minimal rainfall because the city’s sewer system cannot handle the extra water.

“Our whole mission is to promote projects that clean up the creek and we want to return it to community use,” said Alexandra Rosa, a consultant who presented the group’s plan to Community Board 7 Monday night.

The group, Friends of Flushing Creek, is composed of a number of developers and businesses, some of which own land adjacent to the creek.

Representatives from Skyview Park, Crystal Window and Door Systems and developers F&T Group are stakeholders in the group and sit on the organization’s board of directors.

“We need a creek people will want to come to that meets water standards,” Rosa said. “We are all about restoring the creek so it can be used by the community.”

Rosa said the group’s initiative complements an effort by Claire Shulman’s Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp. to redevelop a 60-acre waterfront property bordered by Flushing Creek, Prince Street, Roosevelt Avenue and Northern Boulevard.

Shulman’s LDC was awarded a $1.5 million Brownfield grant by the state in 2011 to explore the possible development.

Rosa, Shulman’s former chief of staff, stressed in an interview that Friends of Flushing Creek is operating separately from the former borough president’s effort, but added some of the same stakeholders in the LDC are also involved with the group.

So they're about restoring the creek because it will make money for the developers on the board. We aren't dumb.

Big pile of crap on Flushing River is stalled

From the Queens Chronicle:

One of the former owner-developers of the RKO Keith’s Theatre in downtown Flushing has been sitting on a 3.75-acre waterfront site for two years with no immediate plans to build.

Shaya Boymelgreen’s Olympia Heights Management Team of Brooklyn bought the property at 39-08 Janet Place, off Roosevelt Avenue, in 2012 for $33 million and plans to turn it into retail and residential space.

The proposal is as of right, meaning the owner does not need zoning variances to proceed. The area is zoned C4-2, which allows for both residential and commercial space. And thus far, the developers have been tight-lipped about when they might build.

Nick Roberts, project manager of the Flushing, Willets Point, Corona Local Development Corp., said he calls Olympia Heights every month for updated information, but most recently spoke to someone there last fall.

Claire Shulman, who heads the LDC, said the whole area needs to be rezoned “to make the area harmonious and to open up the waterfront.” Shulman and Roberts believe financing may be holding up the project.

The waterfront property has had several owners. They include the Lev Development Group, the Vintage Organization and Abs Flushing Development.

Would you pay $1.38M to live along the Flushing River?

From The Real Deal:

The final tower at Sky View Parc, the massive mixed-use project looming over Flushing, Queens, has hit the market, representatives for developer Onex Real Estate Partners, confirmed to The Real Deal today.

The tower, known as Tower 2, holds 134 studio, one-, two- and three-bedrooms over 17 floors, including 22 penthouses, according to a spokesperson for Onex. Helen Lee, a director with Onex, said that 32 percent of the available units were in contract within four hours of the soft sales launch. Onex has marketed apartments at Tower 2 by word of mouth for about the last five weeks, but began officially marketing the condominiums this week.

It seems the tides have turned for the mammoth project, which struggled in recent years, as lawsuits and the recession plagued the development, which reportedly cost an estimated $1 billion to build. In tandem with the 800,000-square-foot mall below, called Sky View Center, the project is the largest mixed-use development in Flushing.

Condos at Tower 2 start at $325,000, a statement from the developer said. The most expensive unit listed so far is a 1,653-square-foot three-bedroom, three-bathroom asking $1.38 million, according to Streeteasy.com.

If you build it, it will sink

Save FMCP uncovered this image - on the city's own website - that shows there is a marsh underneath the Pool of Industry, where Major League Soccer wants to build a stadium. If they weren't serious about this proposal, it would be comical. And even more comical/pathetic/embarrassing is the fact that there are actually elected officials that think this is a fantastic idea.

How they'll build a stadium in the middle of a river

From the Times Ledger:

A confidential proposal made by Major League Soccer last year provides insight into the sports group’s closely guarded vision of what a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park might look like, documents showed.

The internal plans, which appear to be a proposal from September 2012, were provided to the TimesLedger on condition that the source not be identified. In several renderings, the plans show that the stadium does not sit at ground level, but will rather be perched on top of a mound of earth that the league calls a “publicly accessible berm.”

Opponents of the park believe this berm is needed to build the foundation of the stadium, since the water table is so high in the park. Flushing Meadows sits in a flood plane, which would make it costly to dig downward.

The league said the proposal from last year does not necessarily reflect its current plans, which may or may not include the berm, since since its vision is constantly evolving. A league spokeswoman reiterated that the stadium would not be taller than the Unisphere, even with the mound.

MLS is staying mum about many details of the project, which is what makes groups like the Fairness Coalition believe there are too many unanswered questions associated with the proposal to make it viable — such as who the owner would be and if the team will even make money, hardly a guarantee for an MLS franchise, according to Will Sweeney, who is involved with the coalition.

Sweeney described the group of civic organizations as pro-park but not necessarily anti-development.

Not necessarily anti-development? I guess this Fairness Coalition is one of those groups that makes deals to get certain groups funded in return for "community support" for alienation of parkland. As if these special interest groups are an actual representation of people in the community. Don't be fooled by another form of tweeding.

Claire still pushing Flushing waterfront plan

From the Times Ledger:

The local development corporation helmed by former Borough President Claire Shulman had a second public hearing last week on its vision to transform the Flushing waterfront east of College Point Boulevard into a coastal parkland and mixed-use development.

The Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corp. received a $1.5 million grant from the state last year to explore a possible transformation of the area between Flushing Creek, Prince Street, Roosevelt Avenue and Northern Boulevard. Members of the corporation detailed their findings in last Thursday’s presentation.

“The Flushing waterfront is an area of grossly untapped potential,” said Nick Roberts, project manager for the LDC, who along with his colleagues projected that the 60-acre area mainly comprised of industrial or unused lots could eventually handle an additional 2 million square feet or 1,600 units of housing, 140,000 square feet of entertainment space and 95,000 square feet of retail, among other potential uses.

It is designed to complement another proposed development at Willets Point across the river. Shulman’s vision even includes a footbridge between the two.

The area is part of a program to redevelop brownfields under the auspices of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. In this case, the area is “underutilized,” which meant it was eligible for the grant money doled out to Shulman’s LDC last year.

The group called Willets Point United, which was formed to combat eminent domain abuse and has long dogged Shulman’s development efforts in the Willets Point and Flushing sections of the borough, released a cautionary statement about the seizure of property.

“It is the position of Willets Point United that the LDC’s brownfield project is actually a thinly disguised land grab,” the group said in a statement.

Its members said the LDC could use eminent domain to seize property in the area on the premise that it is underdeveloped, and then dole that property out to some of the big-name developers who support the corporation.

Shulman flatly denied her group would be seizing anyone’s property.

“Read my lips: There’s no eminent domain,” she said in an interview following the meeting. “I’m not in the business of taking people’s property.”

Willets Point United also lashed out at Shulman after she received the grant in the wake of an investigation by the state attorney general for lobbying city lawmakers without a license.

Every person I sent this article to wrote back and asked why the Manes girl isn't in prison yet.

Another massive project headed to Flushing - someday

From the Times Ledger:

River Park Place, a five-tower, mixed-use development project, has long been planned for the Flushing River waterfront, but Community Board 7 Vice Chairman Chuck Apelian has never heard of the project.

The plan by Manhattan’s LEV Development would bring more than 1 million square feet of residential and commercial space to 39-08 Janet Place, the neglected vacant area between Assi Plaza and Sky View Parc, according to LEV President and Chief Executive Officer Eddie Shapiro.

“It was going to be towers.” Shapiro said. “We’re still involved with it. It’s going to be 1 million square feet, but right now we can’t get financing for it .... we won’t be getting financing for it in the near future.”

The plan, as laid out on LEV’s website, is for 450 condominiums as well as hotel, office and retail space on the lot, also identified as 131-35 Roosevelt Ave.

But there are no current permits for construction at the site, and one that would have allowed for construction of a residential building there expired in March, according to city records.

Chuck Apelian, vice president of CB 7, said he had never heard mention of the project until last week and it had never come before the board in any form.

“It’s not a variance or a rezoning application. Every piece of land has the opportunity to build — that’s what as-of-right is — but it has not come before us,” he said.

But he added that the project, which he called “huge,” may face significant hurdles because the water table is high in that area right next to the Flushing River, meaning parking would most likely have to be built above ground there.

Photography exhibit focuses on Flushing River

From Urban Omnibus:

Spanish-born, Rotterdam-based artist Lara Almarcegui’s Guide to the Wastelands of Flushing River — at Ludlow38 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — carves an interdisciplinary niche at the intersection of photography, urban studies, and performance — a terrain every bit as ambiguous and enticing as the urban spaces documented in her work.

Guide to the Wastelands is the main attraction here, but taken in context with the other works on display...the selection reveals a broader interest in the physical stuff that composes the built environment, and the voids that remain when it is removed. Mostly, this interest is communicated through photographic documentation. But the inclusion of a portable brochure reveals a hint of the political in Almarcegui’s didactic intent, as if to say “take a guide, get out of your apartment and go see the site for yourself — before developers drop cheap condos on it.”

This gesture places places the work in a lineage of conceptual artists who engage audiences by prompting behavior; Almarcegui’s approach is simply re-tooled for the soft-power, facebook era. The more we know about the Flushing River (or the Gowanus Canal or Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill), the more likely we are to advocate for its sensitive reweaving into the urban fabric of New York. Compared to the work of other international artists, Almarcegui’s work is not glamorous. But by exposing the forgotten spaces in our midst, it’s just might be more important.