Development plan for Sunnyside to be crafted this summer

From Crains:

The de Blasio administration and Amtrak will begin crafting a development plan for Sunnyside Yard in Queens this summer, city and Amtrak officials will announce today.

The master planning team will be led by Vishaan Chakrabarti's architecture firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, which was first reported by Crain's in March.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for civic groups, public officials and residents to create a vision for their borough," Alicia Glen, Housing and Urban Development deputy mayor, said in a statement.

The city has carved out a position within the Economic Development Corp. to oversee the process and announced a steering committee composed of roughly two dozen local and citywide stakeholders to provide input. Last year a city study found that about 80% of the 180-acre yard could be decked over and covered with 24,000 apartments, along with schools, parks and other infrastructure, at a cost of $19 billion. The master planning process is expected to take around two years and will come up with a more specific blueprint of what could be constructed.

Here comes the Sunnyside Railyards "study"

From Crains:

The city has tapped a team led by architect Vishaan Chakrabarti to develop a master plan for the 180-acre train yard in Queens that Mayor Bill de Blasio imagines being decked over with parks and tens of thousands of apartments, several sources told Crain’s.

Sunnyside Yard, the canyon of tracks between Long Island City and Sunnyside, has long been eyed as a development site of epic proportions. In February of last year, the de Blasio administration released a study showing that it would be possible to construct a deck over 85% of the pit to support some combination of commercial, retail, cultural and residential buildings and open space. In one scenario outlined in the document, that translated to 24,000 apartments and a price tag of $19 billion, a cost on par with The Related Cos.’ Hudson Yards project on Manhattan’s West Side.

Chakrabarti’s firm, PAU, declined to comment, and the city’s Economic Development Corp. said that it has not officially designated a team. However, several sources with knowledge of the process told Crain’s that PAU has won a request for proposals that the city issued in November.

That means the firm will likely be tasked with building on the city’s preliminary work and drawing up a more specific development scheme, which will also account for required infrastructure and schools, a process officials have estimated will take up to two years. Because of the time needed to hash out a proposal and the daunting logistics of building a deck and columns over an active rail yard, the biggest decisions about acting on the master plan will come after de Blasio’s term ends in 2021. However, the administration has argued that coming up with a set of blueprints now is crucial to ensure that Amtrak, which owns most of the yard, can take the city’s aims into consideration as it upgrades its own facilities.

De Blasio not a developer's dream (but still pretty bad)

From Commercial Observer:

Gone are the grand visions of urban redevelopment that rose Athena-like from the City Hall bullpen under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. De Blasio has retained lofty language to describe his ideas—adding adjectives like “transcendent” and “historic” when presenting proposals. But his attempts to remake swaths of the city in a Bloombergian manner have sputtered.

Sunnyside Yards in Queens, where the mayor hopes to build an 11,000-unit affordable housing complex on top of a platform, is a years-long dream that may never be realized. His transit plans, including a $2.5 billion streetcar project along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront and a new subway line through Utica Avenue, haven’t gotten past preliminary stages. And his administration has equivocated over the future of Willets Point, where the courts blocked plans to build a mall and 2,500 units of housing on the blighted site next to Citi Field.

Instead, de Blasio made affordable housing the centerpiece of his agenda and touted pro-tenant measures, including rent freezes for rent-stabilized units.

“The real estate community, like any other business sector, prefers certainty,” explained Ken Fisher, a Cozen O’Conner attorney and former councilman. “After four years of working with Bill de Blasio and his team, people have a pretty good idea of expectations. He has a strong preference for affordable housing, but the mayor has taken a very clear position that he’s for many different kinds of housing development, not just low-income housing.”

De Blasio made that clear in his 2015 State of the City address when he proclaimed that the other successes of his administration would be at risk if the city and developers didn’t build enough housing for residents of all income levels.

City suggests LIC to Amazon

From LIC Post:

Long Island City has been selected by the city as a proposed site for Amazon’s second headquarters, officials announced last night.

The bid, submitted by the city to Amazon on Oct. 18 in partnership with New York State, and just a day shy from the tech company’s deadline, includes four districts within the five boroughs that meet the “essential criteria” Amazon listed in its request for proposals announced early September.

In describing Long Island City within the proposal, the Economic Development Corporation noted the neighborhood’s legacy as an industrial innovation center and its proximity to transportation networks, including train lines and airports. The neighborhood’s restaurants, bars, cafes, and arts and culture institutions were also listed as attractive components to lure Amazon to the area.

The proposal also identified over 13 million square feet of real estate that could be used to fulfill Amazon’s RFP.

Other districts included in the proposal were Midtown West, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, and Lower Manhattan. The districts were chosen from more than two dozen proposals submitted to the city. Letters of support for Long Island City as a possible site were also sent to de Blasio by Queens Borough president Melinda Katz and Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, with Council member Jimmy Van Bramer also expressing his support. All three signed a letter, along with more than 70 elected officials from the five boroughs, sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, on New York City’s potential as a home for Amazon HQ2.

Amazon looking for space and Sunnyside Yards is in the running

From Queens Tribune:

Amazon has announced that it is looking for a location to develop its second headquarters—which would be known as Amazon HQ2—and Sunnyside Yard is among the spots it is eyeing.

Earlier this year, the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) released its $2.5 million Sunnyside Yard feasibility study, which evaluated the viability of decking over active rail and facilities currently at the site to make way for housing units, retail space, parks and schools. Sunnyside Yard—which currently serves as a storage hub for Amtrak, the New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road—sits on approximately 180 acres of land in western Queens.

Grant Long, a senior economist at Street Easy, an online real estate organization, spoke to the Queens Tribune to discuss the possibility of Amazon HQ2’s being built above Sunnyside Yard.

“Sunnyside Yard is the best fit,” said Long. “Through this project, people within the community can get good jobs.”

Amazon HQ2, which would seek up to eight million square feet of commercial space, is expected to create 50,000 high-paying jobs that offer an average salary of more than $100,000.

Long said that these salaries would enable workers at the new headquarters to afford apartments or condos at the numerous buildings constructed in Court Square, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Williamsburg and Long Island City.

EDC won't give up on Sunnyside Railyards

From the Queens Chronicle:

When the New York City Economic Development Corp. released a feasibility study on building over sections of the Sunnyside Yard railroad facility in February, EDC officials knew they would have a massive public outreach campaign ahead of them.

On Tuesday morning, Nate Bliss, senior vice president at the EDC, was doing just that at a breakfast hosted by the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

The 209-page study lays out the case for erecting apartment buildings, office towers, schools, commercial and open space on platforms that could be constructed above 70 acres of the 180-acre site, which has been a rail yard since 1910.

Portions of the yard are controlled by Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit. All work would be done while allowing a fully operational rail yard to continue, and the EDC back in February estimated the cost at between $16 and $19 billion.

But the EDC, with plenty of support from City Hall, believes such a project is doable both from technical and economic aspects, and worth examining further.

“It isn’t often that you can come across 180 acres to develop in New York City,” Bliss said. He said the potential for job growth and economic development are huge.

Based on priorities, such a project could bring 14,000 to 24,000 residential units to the site over time. Bliss said the study accounts for the space and money needed for the schools, roadways and green space that would be required.

The illustrated 209-page report and a 22-page summary can be read or downloaded online at nycedc.com/project/sunnyside-yards.

Think tank's bright idea for Sunnyside

From Crains:

A Manhattan think tank is pushing a plan to end the misery of Penn Station commuters, who are having an especially horrid month, by recasting the West 34th Street hub as just another stop for New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road, rather than the terminus for both. Having trains pass through the station instead of stopping and turning around, which results in a daily traffic nightmare, would also open up possibilities beyond alleviating congestion.

Part of the idea, named ReThinkNYC, calls for moving rail yards in Sunnyside, Queens, to the Bronx. That way a major new transit hub could be built on the Queens site, connecting the region’s commuter lines and the subway system for a fraction of the cost of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to build a deck over Sunnyside Yards. With that kind of transit access, a business district could sprout up around the station, taking advantage of a 280-acre blank canvas across the East River from the most expensive office towers in the city.

Expensive report released about project that will never happen

From Curbed:

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.

$2.5M Sunnyside Railyard study is "incomplete"

From NY1:

Nearly two years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a grand vision for an affordable housing development.

"It's an opportunity to keep our city affordable for thousands of New Yorkers, particularly in the borough of Queens. I am referring to Sunnyside Yards," de Blasio said in February 2015.

Planners wanted New Yorkers to picture thousands of units of affordable housing above a 200-acre railyard in Sunnyside, Queens.

But since the proposal was first unveiled, we've haven't heard much. So has it gone off track?

"There is a lot of back and forth happening right now, both within the administration and with some of the engineers we are consulting with about different development scenarios, exactly what is feasible," said Wiley Norvell, communications adviser to de Blasio.

According to the project's timeline, the city was supposed to unveil a feasibility study in the summer of 2016. The administration says that study, which cost about $2.5 million, is not complete. It's coming, they promise, within a few months.

The local councilman, Jimmy Van Bramer, questions whether the whole project has just derailed.

"When you make a big important speech and you are the mayor, people listen and they hear it," Van Bramer said. "We've gone through this study phase, and now, I think people are getting a little agitated about where is it, what's happening here, why aren't we hearing back."

MTA says they never promised to mitigate noise in Sunnyside

From PIX11:

They have heard enough.

Sunnyside residents are asking the MTA to add noise mitigation aspects to the East Side Access project bringing the LIRR into Grand Central.

“Yet again, the MTA has failed to keep its promises,” said NYC Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer who lives in the neighborhood and represents the district. “Given the engineering challenges the MTA has faced in the East Side Access project, it’s difficult to believe they can’t build a simple noise barrier.”

The big interlocking and connection point is in Sunnyside, Queens. The $10.8 billion project has faced cost overruns and delays. It's set to be done by the end of 2022.

The MTA says a sound wall was not promised.

A soccer stadium for Sunnyside?

From LIC Talk:

A new article written in a soccer publication, makes a well-thought-out case that Sunnyside Yards could be the optimal location to build a stadium for the NYCFC. That would be the NYC Football Club for the bulk of us not familiar with the acronym, but don’t let this new professional soccer team’s relative obscurity make you relegate the stadium idea as a lark.

That is because, as the author points out, the team is majority-owned by Manchester City, a well-known (and as you’ll see, well-funded) and newly successful team in the English Premier League, and Manchester City is wholly owned by one Sheikh Mansour. Now as it turns out, the Sheikh is also on the board of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which a quick google shows has about three-quarters of a trillion $ in its coffers!$!

Not that there’s any shortage of capital looking to be put to work within spitting distance of midtown, but with that kind of heft, the ADIA may be willing to provide some very generous financing to make this struggling project more palatable. Plus the new stadium angle allows the Mayor to do a major rewrite on what’s turning out to be a very difficult sell. Add the fact that the NY Yankees are the minority owner of the team, and you have another powerful and connected gorilla in the room helping to push it through.

Now the above is just my handicapping the possibility of the stadium happening. I am still very much against the Sunnyside Yards project, and will continue to refer to it as the NYCBD, aka the NYC Big Dig. It will be good for the 5-10 thousand residents who score an affordable apartment, it will be great for the developers, and it will be bad for the 2.3 million other residents of Queens mainly due to the drastic effect of overcrowding at the margins.

MTA won't stick to sound barrier promise

From Sunnyside Post:

The MTA is reneging on its promise to put up noise mitigating plants next to the railroad tracks on Barnett Avenue, according to community leaders.

Two MTA representatives spoke to members of Community Board 2’s Land Use committee Wednesday and said that the plants were no longer part of East Side Access project.

Eric Zaretsky, director of community outreach for the MTA East Side Access Project, said that once the retaining walls were built there was nowhere for any plantings to be rooted.

“There is no soil, it’s all rock,” Zaretsky said. “There’s no irrigation… and there is no budget to maintain it.”

Lisa Deller, chair of the Land Use Committee, said that there are constant complaints about noise stemming from the railway line and that this was promised when the MTA took on the task to build the $10 billion East Side Access, which will connect LIRR riders to Grand Central.

Sunnyside Yards: Katz wants it built

From LIC Post:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has been a strong advocate for decking over the Sunnyside Yard for months—despite the cool reception it has received from western Queens leaders.

Katz began advocating for developing the yards in September, when she announced that they have the “potential for extraordinary development.”

Katz plays an important role in what ultimately happens to the Yards since the area would need to be rezoned before construction could begin. The community board and the borough president would get to weigh in on a rezoning—before it is shuffled along to the City Planning Commission for review and then the city council.

At the council level, Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer would have the ultimate say.

In September, Katz released a 138-page strategic policy statement where she said that the “partial or complete decking of the Sunnyside Rail Yards has the potential for extraordinary development.” She added that it is the largest parcel of ‘vacant’ land remaining in the city.

At the October community board meeting, Queens residents became more aware of Katz’ position when former CB2 chairman Joe Conley said that he had been in discussions with her about building over the Yards. He then called on the board to write a letter to Katz calling for a feasibility study.

While many members of the board were caught off guard by Conley’s request, they were eventually swayed by him and voted in favor of sending Katz the letter.

Conley was then subject to heavy criticism for requesting the letter.

Nolan hires lawyer for Sunnyside Yards project

From the Times Ledger:

As Mayor de Blasio pushes his Sunnyside Yards affordable housing megaproject forward, one elected official is warning that “this is a critical time for our neighborhoods in western Queens.” State Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Ridgewood) announced Feb. 19 that Ira Greenberg, an attorney from Sunnyside Gardens, has joined her staff to work on transportation, housing and zoning issues related to the threat of over-development in western Queens.

“I look forward to having Ira Greenberg as a part-time counsel in my office as we face the challenges in preserving our communities,” Nolan said. “Keeping our neighborhoods strong in the face of ongoing development pressures is a priority of mine. Having someone with Ira Greenberg’s skills and experience will help my office and our community.”

Nolan said Greenberg would work with agencies, residents and all parties to make sure our local voice is heard. She pointed out Greenberg will be in the office to respond to any new proposals while she is at work in Albany.

Greenberg, who has lived in Sunnyside or Woodside his whole life, and currently lives in Sunnyside Gardens with his wife and two children, is keenly aware of the rising level of anxiety in the neighborhood. One community activist, Patricia Dorfman of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, is planning to make T-shirts that say “Queens Lives Matter” to capture the sense of unease that is coarsing through the neighborhood. “It may seem insensitive to those with life and death grievances, but “Queens Lives Matter’ sums up the problem for me,” Dorfman said.

Greenberg, who was president of the chamber for three years, said, “People are nervous despite the fact that construction would be many years away. One thing I do know is if they spend an exorbitant amount of money just to build a deck over the yards, they’re going to have to get their money back and that means thousands more units in much bigger buildings. And let’s remember, Amtrak and the MTA aren’t just going to give that land away for free.”

City seeks consultant for Sunnyside Railyard study

Photo from the Real Deal

From the Daily News:

Despite opposition from Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio is going full steam ahead with his plan to convert a Queens rail yard into affordable housing.

The city on Friday asked for consultants to bid on conducting a “feasibility study” on the Sunnyside Yards project.

De Blasio — who has vowed to create 200,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years — wants to build a Stuyvesant Town-style affordable housing complex on the roughly 200-acre site. It would be a mix of city, state and Amtrak-owned land, with 11,250 units.

Hours after the mayor announced the proposal last month, Cuomo said the state land wasn’t up for grabs because it’s used by the MTA.

The feasibility study the city plans will initially examine only the city and Amtrak-owned sections, but the document is written to include the state-owned parts of the land if Cuomo changes his mind.

At the moment, it doesn’t appear he will.

Folks, these projects are always about getting consultants paid and nothing more. I suspect that's the case here as well.

Sunnyside Railyard plan a disaster

(with permission from the Woodside Herald)
Please Don't Build Over Sunnyside Yards
Op Ed By Patricia Dorfman

The Mayor has discarded the wishes of the electorate in his enthusiastic speech about his Yards development plan, which seems to favor giant real estate interests and construction workers who do not live here (East Side Access workers live in onsite dormitories). This disconnect from actual human beings who have chosen our lives in Western Queens, who believe we live in a democracy, look to him as our Mayor, not the Mayor of only people who live elsewhere or who have not yet moved to NYC, is a shock.

A "Sunnyside Starrett City" being featured so lavishly as a centerpiece of his February 2 speech, when one has yet to find one resident in favor not connected to current government or special interests, gives the appearance that the entire project is one crafted by rich, powerful people that Mayor deBlasio has accepted dutifully. He gets to let giant financial firms make millions, gets to please the unions and others giving huge donations to the party, and can call it “affordable housing,” as though it is a kindness to the needy.

If affordable housing, whatever that means, is wanted, why not immediately buy five vacant small lots in Sunnyside Woodside here, and get started, for a fraction of the billions this will cost us taxpayers? In two years, something real can happen. The hole in the ground at Sunnyside center where Dae Dong burned down has been ready for 14 years.

If the Yards are built over as he projects, that would mean that there seems to be a frightening marriage of political, economic, and organized labor at a national, state and local level which is not by the consent or in the interest of local voters, taxpayers and residents. The words used by his aides, that the Yards are an “ugly scar,” and we residents are clamoring for decking, sounds like heartless people looking down upon us from on high.

Many in the Queens are shocked at the mayor's lack of interest in the welfare and wishes of actual residents and small businesses. Mitch Waxman, Astoria resident who reports and photographs for NewtownPentacle.com and Brownstoner.com, says, "I find it surprising that the self-proclaimed progressive mayor of New York City has so thoroughly embraced the plan of Michael Bloomberg's former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. (Doctoroff was CEO of Bloomberg LLC.)

We live in a one party system out here, with so much power in the hands of elected officials to dispense patronage favors, that sometimes the party itself has become a kind of company, which runs for itself. That might be occurring in the larger picture now. We ask the Mayor and City Hall to care about us above all and not read the “party memo” which will forever change our lives for the worse.

And for those who want to have an open “discussion” about how to use some of the Sunnyside Yards for anything other than a giant park (hey, billionaires Bloomberg and Doctoroff, buy us a park, that will change all of our lives instantly and make you our heroes) means that once any building is done, the rest is up for grabs. We cannot build on just part of it.

Please do not build over Sunnyside Yards. If "Sunnyside Starrett City" comes to pass, it means we no longer have any say about our city. It means that all rezoning of the past 20 years of Queens is calculated to line the pockets of the rich, displace the working class and small businesses who would not be afford the new rents, is paid for by the taxpayer, and is now described as “affordable housing,” as though it is a noble goal, to crush our lifestyles, wishes, hopes and dreams. Developing over the Yards will extend Manhattan over us like serfs on their land.

(The author is a registered Democrat, union member, and lives in Sunnyside.)
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/124/232/303/please-do-not-build-over-the-sunnyside-yards/

How feasible is the Sunnyside Railyard plan?

From Crains:

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, whose district encompasses the entirety of the rail yard, has vowed to block any proposal for a convention center or high-rise housing in the portion of the yard adjacent to landmarked neighborhood Sunnyside Gardens.

"There have been lots of proposals on developing the yard over the years," he said. "And every time it comes up, folks in the neighborhood get frightened about the prospect of massive development."

And then there's the small matter of timing. In his State of the City speech last week, the mayor talked of putting 11,250 below-market apartments at Sunnyside Yards, the same number built in 1947 at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan. But experts doubt that Mr. de Blasio will even be around to count those units toward his ultimate goal of building or preserving 200,000 affordable apartments during the next decade. Decking over the rail yard, even a small portion of it, is expected to be a multidecade project—one with financially unfortunate timing.

"It's a 30-year project where probably 50% of the costs will be incurred in the first five years," said Seth Pinsky, a former CEO of the city's Economic Development Corp., now an executive vice president at developer RXR Realty. "It's decking, it's sewers, it's electricity. There's nothing there. You're building from scratch."

No wonder the mayor's office acknowledges that any housing built at Sunnyside Yards will likely become available after the conclusion of Mr. de Blasio's affordable-housing plan. Nonetheless, it now looks likely that at some point, with the city's blessing — if not cash — housing will blossom on the site. It's a possibility rich in irony.

Hey folks, as we recall, Mr. Van Bramer thinks that warehousing homeless people is a great idea. He's also agreed with every major "affordable housing" overdevelopment push except this one. Why? Only because he lives there. Anyway, I wouldn't be too worried about this silly folly happening during the lifetime of anyone alive today.

Many not on board with Sunnyside Railyard plan

From NY Mag:

About two hours after de Blasio exited the stage to the strains of Peter, Paul and Mary’s “If I Had a Hammer,” Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statement declaring that the yards are important to the MTA and “not available for any other use in the near term.”

Maybe Cuomo is miffed that de Blasio didn’t play the Pete Seeger version of “Hammer.” More likely this is just the beginning of a protracted negotiation, with some fascinating political ripples. Cuomo, back in his 2012 State of the State address, floated the notion of replacing the Javits Center with a new $4 billion convention facility at Aqueduct racetrack. That plan collapsed within six months, when a Malaysian gambling company balked at paying for a major share of the project.

The scheme was revived in November, however, on the op-ed page of the Times, in a new form: Replace Javits with a convention center at Sunnyside Yards, plus 14,000 residential units, 50 percent of them “affordable.” Even more intriguing was the essay’s author — Dan Doctoroff, who’d been Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s forceful deputy mayor for economic development. Sunnyside has been on Doctoroff’s mind for a long time. It was a key location in his pitch to bring the 2024 Olympics to New York.

A middle-class-housing enclave at Sunnyside would be an indirect de Blasio answer to a more successful Doctoroff deal — the luxe Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side. It would also be a nifty jab at the pals of Bloomberg who have been encouraging Doctoroff to run against de Blasio in 2017.

From Sunnyside Post:

Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan issued a statement that questioned his plan.

Nolan’s viewpoint follows Governor Andrew Cuomo’s statement yesterday that made it clear that such development was not imminent. Cuomo said the ‘state and the MTA are studying several potential uses of the site from a long-term planning perspective.”

“I am extremely supportive of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s concerns that long term planning must be considered in any development of Sunnyside yards,” Nolan’s statement read.

“I have grave concerns about Mayor de Blasio’s plans as expressed in [Tuesday’s] state of the city address. There are many questions that must be asked."

From Capital New York:

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents Sunnyside, did not immediately embrace the idea of building 11,250 units of affordable housing at the 200-acre site.

A left-leaning Democrat, Van Bramer stressed that he supports an expansion of affordable housing in New York City, which was the focus of de Blasio's State of the City speech Tuesday morning. He said his concern stems from the needs that arise with the additional population in his already-crowded district. He also said he is wary of the possible height of the apartment buildings in a predominantly residential area.

"I'm down with the vision and I truly do applaud the mayor for making this a priority," he said. "[But] if you're going to seriously look at the Sunnyside Yards, though density works in some places it doesn't work in others."

For instance, he said he would oppose high-rise buildings that may be out of character in the neighborhood, which is home to a mix of long-time residents and young families attracted to the proximity to midtown Manhattan.

"The truth is we just don't know" what the mayor's specific blueprint is, he said. "We're just not going to build 30, 40, 50 residential towers in Sunnyside—that's just not going to happen. That level of density would be wildly out of character with the very low-rise nature of Sunnyside."

He also said, as local officials skeptical of major housing projects in their districts often do, that the city and state should provide adequate resources to accompany the growth—a school and a new train line, for instance.

"When the 7 train goes down, then all hell breaks loose," he added, referencing the only subway that serves that area.

It's not exactly fun when it's running well, either.

State of City speech: DeBlasio pushing forward with Sunnyside Railyard housing plans

From DNA Info:

The city is planning to develop thousands of units of affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

In his State of the City address, the mayor said the city wants to build 11,250 affordable apartments at the 200-acre rail yard, comparing the proposal to the original mission of housing developments like Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

"That's enough housing for over 30,000 hardworking New Yorkers," de Blasio said during his speech. "It will be a game changer."

Doctoroff has really pissed Van Bramer off

From LIC Post:

The drum beat to develop the Sunnyside Yards continues with the latest call to build on it coming from the former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff.

Doctoroff, in a New York Times op-ed piece that ran Sunday, said that the city needs to build a 3.1 million square foot convention center and that Sunnyside Yards would be the ideal place for it. The center could also be accompanied, he wrote, by nearly 14,000 residential units of which 50 percent would be affordable.

The op-ed stated that Long Island City is a great location for this development since it is “one of the most convenient, transit-friendly areas in the city, served by eight subway lines.” The idea is that the new convention center would replace the Javits Center, which he deemed too small.

However, residents and local officials argue that the concept just doesn’t make sense and that the neighborhood’s infrastructure in terms of schools, parks and subways are already stretched. Many are unsure how the neighborhood will absorb all the new residents coming to the area, with 5,000-10,000 units coming online in the next few years.

“I found some of [Doctoroff’s op-ed] patronizing,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer who opposes decking over the yards. “It revealed to me somewhat of a Manhattan elitist view of Queens.”

Van Bramer said that Doctoroff might find the neighborhood transit friendly when he looks at the area on a map. However, he said, people who live here know that the No. 7 train is not reliable and there are a lot of delays. During morning rush hour, people often struggle to get on at the Jackson Ave/Vernon Blvd. Station, he said.

At the October Community Board 2 meeting, when the idea of studying the yards was raised, several board members wanted to know how the area will cope with all the Court Square/Queens Plaza development coming online—let alone the yards.

Meanwhile, a petition has just been formed, calling on the city not to allow the site to be developed.