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Old Posted May 3, 2007, 10:27 PM
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=574902&rfi=6

More Details Disclosed Of Willets Point Overhaul



This artist’s rendering shows how Willets Point could look when redeveloped.


by Liz Rhoades, Managing Editor
05/03/2007


Promising a school, affordable housing and plenty of green space, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday unveiled plans for the Willets Point redevelopment project at the Queens Museum of Art.

The 60-acre site — also known as the Iron Triangle — has been eyed for years as a prime area for renewal. Long considered an eyesore, it is situated across the street from Shea Stadium and across the Flushing River from downtown Flushing. The roads are unpaved and there are no sewers. It is occupied primarily by car junkyards and repair garages.

“It is one of the bleakest parts of the borough, but has the most promise,” the mayor said. “It will be the next great neighborhood.”


Promising environmentally sensitive building technology, he said Willets Point would be a model for sustainable development. But first, the contaminated land must be cleaned up, which will only be undertaken once all businesses and establishments there have left.

The city is currently considering seven proposals by developers, but will not select the winner until after the formal land use review is concluded, probably in the summer or fall of 2008. An environmental review began on Tuesday.


The mayor’s plan calls for 5,500 residential units affordable to a variety of income levels; a 650-seat school; eight acres of open space; 11,000 parking spaces and room for office space and retail. A convention center, geared for mid-size trade shows, would be the only one in the city outside Manhattan.

Bloomberg emphasized that it is critical for the city to relocate the 250 businesses located in Willets Point. To that end, the city is setting up a business relocation and workforce assistance plan this summer that will help find new locations and assist workers, many of whom are illegal immigrants.

According to the city’s Economic Development Corp., Willets Point has 1,300 workers, with 400 of them undocumented. The city will provide job training and placement service, legal immigration services, English as a Second Language and General Educational Development test preparation for them.


The redevelopment plan is meeting with resistance from Willets Point business owners, who say they want to remain. Daniel Sambucci attended the mayor’s announcement and said afterward that he’s had an auto salvage business for 50 years. “I want to stay, but it looks like it’s impossible,” he said. “Where are they going to move us in Queens?”

Those sentiments were echoed later during an environmental review of the project held at the Flushing Library. Workers picketed outside the building, saying they don’t want eminent domain.

The mayor, however, said in his speech he does not want to use eminent domain, which is the seizing of property for public use without the owner’s consent. “Willets Point is a blight,” he said. “We have to move ahead and not stay in the Stone Age. We are cognizant of their (businesses’) rights, but we have to build for the future and we will do that.”

It is expected that the environmental cleanup at Willets Point could begin in 2010 and construction completed in 2017.
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