The Controversy and Complications Surrounding Queens’ Next Big Thing
There’s something new in the neighborhood—and this time it’s a whole new neighborhood. Sunnyside Yards in Queens was picked as a tentative up-and-comer in the NYC real estate scene all the way back in 2015 after Mayor de Blasio announced that 11,250 new affordable apartments were to be built in the area. Governor Cuomo retaliated with his own lofty ambitions for the area, supporting a different proposal that called for a new convention center.
Of course, this conjecture did have one pretty notable issue: Sunnyside Yards is, after all, a rail yard. About two miles long, the yard serves as a storage and maintenance hub for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. The area is surrounded by fences and bridges, with the LIRR, NJ Transit, Amtrak, and MTA all buzzing beneath its surface. The budding neighborhood is bordered by Long Island City, the warehouses of Sunnyside, and the residential Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.
So in order to build, engineers have to create a platform above Sunnyside Yards. This isn’t new for Manhattan, as such projects have taken shape in Hudson Yards, the subway depot next to Lehman College, and at the Willis Avenue Bridge in Mott Haven, to name a few. However, it is incredibly expensive, to say nothing of the negative environmental impact. And since almost every transportation provider in the tri-state has a stake in Sunnyside, there is an issue of ownership that will need to be resolved.
These concerns kept the project on New York’s backburner for months as local opposition to the project persisted. State Senator Michael Gianaris, whose district includes Sunnyside, even wrote to his constituents regarding his concerns in 2015.
“I want you to know that I am very concerned about this proposal and will oppose any development at Sunnyside Yards that does not have the support of community members like you,” Gianaris said. “As a lifelong resident of western Queens, nothing is more important to me than preserving the character of our community.”
And as plans for the district continued to take shape, more politicians threw in their two cents.
“I remain concerned that any attempt by Mayor de Blasio’s administration to develop Sunnyside Yards faces environmental, developmental, and density issues that has the potential to tremendously damage the middle class quality of life,” said Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan in a statement.
The City tasked FXFowle Architects, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and HR&A Advisors with conducting a feasibility study on the potentially billion-dollar project. But conflict and controversy kept the study delayed, and the megaproject’s sunny future seemed to drift further and further away. As delays persisted, doubts emerged that the project would ever get off the ground.
Finally, in February of 2017, Mayor de Blasio announced the results of the feasibility study. Three scenarios were presented: a “residential” scenario, a “live, work, play” scenario, and a “destination” scenario. The study claimed to minimize impacts on railroad operations, improve financial feasibility, support integrated mixed-use urban design, and achieve public policy objectives.
The study targeted 70 acres of the 180-acre development as the most viable (the Core Yard), with 15 to 20 percent infeasible. The City ultimately decided to create 11,000-15,000 new housing units, 15-20 acres of open space, new schools, and retail amenities. The price tag came out to a hefty $10 billion.
Recently, the City has made moves to make this a reality, despite the turbulent political atmosphere. In March, Crain’s reported that Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) was named as the master planner for the project. PAU was founded by Vishaan Chakrabarti, and has proposed reimaginings for the likes of Brooklyn’s Domingo Sugar Refinery and Penn Station.
The 35-member steering committee for Sunnyside has also been announced. Comprised of local stakeholders and experts, members include Felix Ciampa, the executive director of the Urban Land Institute of New York; Gail Mellow, the president of LaGuardia Community College; and Denise Keehan-Smith, the chair of Queens Community Board 2, to name a few. The committee will be co-chaired by LIC Partnership and YMCA of Greater New York, and led by Alicia Glen of the City of New York and Tony Coscia of Amtrak.
Cali Williams, the newly-appointed director of Sunnyside Yard, claimed that the development will address the City’s population growth problem. “Sunnyside Yards is part of the solution,” Williams told Sunnyside Post.
Master planning will begin this summer. The steering committee and PAU will organize meetings with local residents throughout the 18-month process. Whether or not Sunnyside Yards will be part of the solution—or just another of NYC’s developmental headaches—remains to be seen.
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