State tries to sneak in asphalt plant

From the Daily News:

Local leaders are calling on the state to revoke permits it issued to a new asphalt plant poised to open in Long Island City.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris and others said the community was never properly notified that Green Asphalt Co. LLC was applying for permits from the Department of Environmental Conservation to operate the plant on Railroad Ave.

"Not only is this plant ill-conceived based on its merits and location, but the process through which it came to fruition was utterly flawed," Gianaris (D-Astoria) wrote in a letter fired off to DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens on Friday.

In addition, Gianaris said, the public was not given a chance to publicly comment on the proposal. The company applied for - and received - air and tidal wetland permits. City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood) also have called on the state DEC to revoke the permit.

The plant will produce 75,000 to 150,000 tons a year of hot mix asphalt for local paving projects, according to the permit.

"The state is not telling the city what's going on," said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2.

He said the state should have realized something was amiss when it received no public comments on the permit application.

On today's agenda...

11 a.m. Michael Bloomberg and Janette Sadik-Khan attend the opening of a new asphalt plant, at 30-01 Harper Street, in Queens. [Courtesy of the Politicker]

They are cutting a ribbon on a city-owned asphalt plant in Willets Point.

That's right - as long as it's city-owned, industrial uses are okay.

I hope to own a condo there some day so I can blog about black lung.

Prediction: Not one reporter asks why they think it will be a good idea to have 5500 housing units, schools and retail shops near an asphalt plant and not one asks why this site wasn't included in the rezoning of Willets Point.

Photo from SI Live

Willets Point Headscratcher series, part 7

From the Daily News:

New York City, which repairs about 250,000 potholes a year, inked a deal with Cofire last year and began using Green Patch in October, officials confirmed.

Shapiro noted Cofire won the city contract as low bidder.

Cofire, which has been in business for some 50 years, hopes to build a new plant on its city-owned property in the College Point Corporate Park.

"We are in a great place and we want to stay here," Shapiro said.

The Cofire property is being enlarged as part of a pending rezoning of the corporate park, and Shapiro said the company has been working with the city on the possibility of the company sharing its space with a business relocated from Willets Point.

Why would Cofire have to share land with relocated Willets Point businesses when it isn't even close to any of them, according to the City's own map (pictured, courtesy of Iron Triangle Tracker)?

The City also just purchased the Grace Asphalt plant in Willets Point for continued DOT use. Combined with the highways the triangle is surrounded by, that should make for some great air quality for residents moving into the "new" Willets Point.