Long before the cement trucks begin lining up on Tom Seaver Way and shovels hit the ground on the ambitious Willets Point project across from Citi Field, touted as a transformational endeavor that will bring a 25,000-seat soccer stadium and 2,500 affordable homes to the Iron Triangle, it must first go through the city’s arduous public review process known as Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).
The largest 100% affordable, new construction housing project in four decades will be scrutinized by the Department of City Planning, local community boards, the borough president and Borough Board and the City Council before it ever lands on the desk of Mayor Eric Adams.
The Willets Point project will generate $6.1 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, creating 1,550 permanent jobs and 14,200 construction jobs, according to the Adams administration.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a brand-new neighborhood, a Willets Point that offers a real opportunity for working people and all New Yorkers,” Adams said when presenting his vision at the Queens Museum last November. “With a fully privately financed soccer stadium, a hotel, and local retail, we will create not only homes but also quality jobs, $6 billion in economic activity, and a true pathway to the middle class. This is what it means to build a ‘City of Yes.’”
But the ULURP process will take a year to 18 months before it can be given the green light in the summer of 2024, at the earliest, while Queens faces a chronic affordability crisis. After the Innovation QNS project in Astoria was subjected to the tortuous public review process that divided the community, the Mayor introduced his “City of Yes” effort to streamline the procedure.
“City of Yes is an opportunity to tackle some of New York City’s biggest challenges — the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and our economic recovery from COVID,” Department of City Planning Queens Borough Director…
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