The Willets Point plan approved in 2008 was clear and unambiguous. The city would acquire 62 acres in Willets Point through the voluntary sale by property owners or, if need be, through eminent domain. A private developer would construct on the site upscale retail stores, office buildings, a convention center, a school and luxury housing with a portion set aside for affordable housing.
The developer would be required to remove whatever contamination existed on a 23-acre portion of the site. There was no mention of a 1.4-million-square-foot shopping mall at Citi Field or any connection to Citi Field.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg reneged on his promise that the community would have input in the developer selection process and selected the New York Mets’ Related Cos. as the developer. The city now seeks what it describes as a minor change to the 2008 plan. The change sought is to allow for the construction on the 23-acre site a parking area, a change that would under normal circumstances be considered minor.
Like the elephant in the room, the change is major. The reason for the parking lot is to enable the city to move the Citi Field parking lot to Willets Point and on the vacated lot construct a 1.4-million-square-foot shopping mall, which has nothing at all to do with Willets Point and the plan adopted in 2008.
Since a land use change requires a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure proceeding, the Mets and Related Cos. made the necessary application, but in a sleight of hand the ULURP merely seeks permission for the parking area at Willets Point. In other words, there has been no ULURP for the shopping mall, the intention being to slip the mall in through the back door. A typical political ploy.
Furthermore, the Citi Field parking area is in fact on Flushing Meadows Corona Park land and, by bypassing ULURP, the city is ignoring the fact that a huge shopping mall on parkland is a radical change from a parking lot and would require replacing parkland. Bloomberg, a master in the lack of government transparency and ostensibly in deference to his billionaire friend Fred Wilpon, owner of the Mets, is going along with this charade and will not litigate the issue.
Borough President Helen Marshall and the City Planning Commission were informed of the above as well as of the fact that while Community Board 7 approved the application by a 23-18 vote, CB 3 rejected it by a 30-1 vote with 1 abstention, resulting in 48 against and 24 in favor.
Ignoring this vote and making a mockery of ULURP by not requiring its use for the shopping mall and the time-honored concept of replacing parkland and ignoring the fact that the affordable housing required under the 2008 plan has now been placed on the back burner until 2025 and may never get built, Marshall and the CPC in a 10-1 vote approved the application.
Several of the CPC members who voted yes issued written statements. Those statements were so lacking in substance, in understanding of the issues and so unprofessional as to be an embarrassment. A sixth-grade civic student could have articulated a more coherent statement. The vote of Marshall and the CPC can only be described as political hack jobs.
Until the public wakes up and drives hack politicians and their appointees out of office, we can expect the same old, same old.
Benjamin Haber
Flushing
