An extremely important policy and planning issue may soon be coming to our community...
Queens leaders hope to bring some livability back to Queens' 'gold coast' with new affordable housing pushCommunity Board 2 chair Joseph Conley is proposing a plan to create four small zones within the district where developers will be allowed to build denser and higher if they create below market housing. Mayor de Blasio has said that potentially allowing larger buildings is an important component of his ambitious plan for 200,000 affordable apartments in the city.
BY ELI ROSENBERG NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 9:36 PM
Hey Mr. Mayor! Build it here!
Leaders in Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside are inviting the city to look their way to put up some of the 200,000 affordable apartments the de Blasio administration has promised to create or preserve.
“The neighborhood has become too pricey," said Community Board 2 chair Joseph Conley. “In Hunters Point and Long Island City, the rents are astronomical and people are being priced out.”
Conley penned a letter to city officials proposing four swaths of land that could be rezoned to allow for taller buildings and potentially denser developments with affordable housing set aside.
They include part of Queens Plaza in Long Island City, a triangle in Woodside — bound by Broadway, Northern Blvd. and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — and an area in Sunnyside near Northern Blvd. between 43rd to 48th Sts.
Conley also proposed building on top of the Long Island Rail Road tracks on Woodside Ave. between 63rd and 65th Sts.
Developers taking advantage of the new zoning would have to make at least 30% of their buildings’ units affordable, Conley said.
“No requirement for affordable housing will have our district continue to gentrify unchecked,” he wrote to Department of City Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod, referring to Long Island City as a "new Queens 'Gold Coast.'"
Rents continue to climb in much of the district.
In Long Island City, one-bedroom apartments can rent for between $2,800 and $3,200 a month.
Two-bedrooms go up to $4,000 a month, according to real estate expert Rick Rosa, the executive vice president of Douglas Elliman's outpost in the neighborhood.
“New York has become so unaffordable that it’s hard for people to live in good neighborhoods,” Rosa said.
Rents in Sunnyside are generally more affordable due to the area’s concentration of rent-stabilized units, according to broker Harvey Heit, who noted a one-bedroom averages between $1,500 and $1,700.
Officials were receptive to the proposal.
“We appreciate [the community board’s] willingness to discuss the important goals of expanding housing that will be affordable to a range of incomes,” a Department of City Planning spokeswoman said.
“We continue to evaluate the appropriateness of areas that can meet the goals of the mayor’s housing plan,” she added.
Development advocates also cheered the effort.
“This speaks to a new paradigm,” said Moses Gates, a planning director at the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development.
“Communities and the administration are working together for the best way to figure out affordable housing.”
erosenberg@nydailynews.com