« B'klyn Bridge Park bldg. booed | Main | More on the Atlantic Center mall towers: hints but no details »
May 17, 2006
A Redevelopment Scuffle in Queens
The NY Times
By Terry Pristin
An article about development in Queens gives Brooklynites a lot to think about.
NY City has ignored the Willets Point section of Queens for decades, but small businesses, primarily auto-parts and auto-repair shops, have made a go of it. Now Willets Point is the latest frontier for the Bloomberg-Doctoroff Doctrine, and those businesses must try to figure out how to respond to the threat of eminent domain.
Apart from the streets and 13.5 acres owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the remaining 46 acres of Willets Point are privately owned and home to 250 businesses employing at least 1,200 people, by the city's count. Not all these businesses are expected to go quietly.
[A fraction of the land belongs to the MTA, the rest is privately owned — sounds very familiar.]
Undaunted by the nationwide furor over eminent domain resulting from a Supreme Court ruling last July — which upheld a decision by officials in New London, Conn., to force property sales to foster economic development — city officials say they are prepared to use their condemnation powers at Willets Point. Citing various environmental violations, including illegal dumping and open petroleum spills, they say the area is a public health hazard.
"In some ways, this is the most compelling case for eminent domain," said Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor who oversees economic development. "It has nothing to do with the uses. It has to do with intolerable conditions."
And what would an NYC eminent domain fight be without Bruce Ratner chomping at the bit?
In February, the city invited eight development teams, including some of the most active companies in the city — like Forest City Ratner (which is the partner of The New York Times Company in its new headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan), Vornado Realty Trust and the Related Companies — to submit proposals for the "creation of an experience unique to the New York metropolitan region" at Willets Point.
Here's an example of how the city planning process is supposed to work:
Developers' submissions are due in mid-June, with the rezoning process set to begin in January. A development partner will be selected once the plans are approved by the City Council.
In the case of Atlantic Yards, Bruce Ratner proposed the plan, the state is circumventing the rezoning, and the City Council has no say.
A local city planning activist who has been vocal in his concerns over Atlantic Yards, Brad Lander of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, makes some good points on the planning process and the use of eminent domain:
[Lander] said the city should have led "a public process, informed by data" before asking developers to submit detailed proposals.
"This seems to me to fly in the face of one of the few things that Kelo says you have to do," he said, referring to the majority decision in the Supreme Court eminent domain case, Kelo vs. New London. "You have to have a planning process to determine if there's a public good to the thing you're doing."
We'd like to hear Lander's views on the use of eminent domain in cases in which there has been NO planning process, like Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at May 17, 2006 7:03 AM