Concerns over displacement of businesses dominated hearing. On June 13, 2007, the City Council’s Land Use Committee and its Economic Development Committee held a joint oversight hearing on the proposal by New York City’s Economic Development Corporation to redevelop 61 acres of Willets Point in Queens. The site, located directly east of Shea Stadium, is mostly privately owned and currently home to a mix of automobile related, light industrial and manufacturing businesses. EDC estimates that … <Read More>
Search Results for: Willets Point, Queens
Breakfast Archive: Adrian Benepe and City Parks
On July 6, 2015 the Appellate Division, First Department voted unanimously to enjoin construction of a shopping mall and movie theater on the site of the former Shea Stadium in Willets Point, Queens. The suit was brought in part by advocates of New York City’s parks, the latest in a long history of actions by New Yorkers to represent their valued open spaces. On October 21, 2005 Adrian Benepe, then Commissioner of the Department of … <Read More>
NY Elections, Census and Redistricting Update 07/08/24
By Jeff Wice and Alexis Marking
VOTING RIGHTS
Attorney General To Intervene in Cheektowaga Voting Rights Act Challenge
New York State Attorney General Letitia James has informed the Erie County State Supreme Court that her office will intervene in the state voting rights act challenge filed against the Town of Cheektowaga over town board vote dilution. In that case, the town is challenging the constitutionality of the New York … <Read More>
City Planning Holds Public Hearing for Casino Text Amendment
On February 7, 2024, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for the proposed Gaming Facility Text Amendment. The text amendment would create a framework within the Zoning Text that would allow for the possible creation of up to three casinos citywide.
Billboard Law Challenge Fails
Advertising companies sought to erect outdoor billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. Mucho Media and other property owners in Queens’ Willets Point neighborhood sought to construct large advertising billboards on their property. For safety and aesthetic reasons, the City denied or ordered the removal of billboards in the Willets Point neighborhood. These actions were pursuant to the City’s zoning law that prohibits commercial billboards within two hundred feet of an arterial highway.
City Planning Wrapping Up Brownfield Recommendations in Flushing
City Planning presented to community board draft findings and recommendations for brownfield improvements in Queen’s Flushing neighborhood. In 2011, under the New York State Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, the Flushing-Willets Point-Corona Local Development Corporation received a $1.5 million state grant to plan for the clean-up and rezoning of the Flushing waterfront. The Program was created to transform brownfields—vacant or underutilized properties—from liabilities to community assets. This is the second phase of the Brownfield Opportunity Area … <Read More>