What: Community Board 7 full board meeting
Date: Monday, May 13th
Meeting Time: 7:00pm
Place: Union Plaza Care Center, 33-23 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354
Sign up to speak upon entering.
The application is being portrayed as a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project" -- but it obviously is not. The effect of the amendment is to nearly double the size of the project from 62 acres to 108.9 acres, and to prioritize the construction of a previously undisclosed 1.4 million square foot mall on public parkland that is presently a Citi Field parking lot. If you thought the original Willets Point development was a monstrosity, this is no comparison ...
The Queens Borough President and Community Board were promised a hand in selecting the developer for the project, but they were not consulted before Sterling/Related was chosen by the Bloomberg administration. If they had been involved, perhaps a proposal that did not take public parkland would have been selected.
It also is not likely that the City Council will call up the project, hear testimony and publicly debate it. Again, the project is being framed as just a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project," but the previously approved plan did not involve a mall, the Mets parking lot, or mapped parkland.
Here is an article from this week's Times Ledger newspaper, which reveals that the City and the developers are aware that parkland alienation is involved in this proposal: First Willets plan called for parkland swap. Here also is a list of alternate proposals rejected by the City that would have spared parkland.