Council Letter: 'Absolute Opposition' to Willets Plan

Queens Crap scored a copy of the letter Council members opposed to the Willets Point redevelopment plan sent to City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden yesterday afternoon. The missive says, in part:

We write to share with you our absolute opposition to the current Willets Point Development Plan. The project that comes before the Department of City Planning on August 13th is far from the best our city can offer for a long-term plan that will affect hundreds of thousands of residents for decades to come…Since the first community meetings of the Flushing redevelopment process, when community residents expressed a desire to include the Iron Triangle in any long-term development plans, the details of this plan have been determined not by residents, but by the Economic Development Corporation.

The letter was signed by 30 of 51 Council members and sent in advance of the Planning Commission's hearing today on the area's proposed redevelopment. Council members say the city needs to ID a developer for the project, not allow the use of eminent domain, and guarantee that 50 percent of housing created by the redevelopment is affordable.