“It’s remarkable that a city as diverse as New York doesn’t do more to honor that diversity by planting a wider variety of public fruit trees that reflect the people who live there.”
The latest version of the Innovation Qns plan features 1,436 income-restricted apartments, around 45 percent of the total. “We have set a new precedent for building affordable housing on private land,” the neighborhood’s Councilmember Julie Won said in prepared remarks ahead of the vote.
Innovation QNS has emerged as the latest flashpoint in a debate over housing production, with supporters saying the plan will provide much-needed units for New Yorkers of all income levels, while opponents say it includes too few income-restricted units for low- and middle-income residents.
The question soon facing the City Council—and in particular, local member Julie Won—is how much affordable housing is enough to replace the Queens industrial scene with a complex three times bigger than One45, another Harlem development proposal recently squashed over affordability concerns.
Councilmember Julie Won issued a list of “land use principles” she said she will apply to new projects in her district that require Council-approved changes to the city’s zoning code—including a controversial proposal to build a 3,000-unit complex in southern Astoria.
The vote marks the first major milestone in the city land use process for the proposed $2 billion project, known as “Innovation QNS,” which would erect at least a dozen towers containing offices, retail space and 2,845 apartments.
The news sets up a competitive primary for Assembly District 37, which includes Astoria, Sunnyside, Ridgewood, and Queensbridge, and iterates an increasingly familiar dynamic in Queens politics: a seasoned incumbent facing off against a relative political newcomer.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) says the controversial plan to build a new gas-fracked power facility in Queens would interfere with the state’s greenhouse gas emissions limits, set by passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act two years ago.
The Department of Environmental Conservation won’t make a decision for several months, but says that as it stands, the project would interfere with limits on greenhouse gas emissions set by the CLCPA.
In Western Queens, some residents are concerned that the city’s plans to build affordable housing, improve transit access and increase development will instead be a recipe for displacement.
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