Stephen Stirling » Michael Bloomberg

Waste tranfers station riles interests, both public and private

Stephen Stirling — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:21:06 +0000

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 7:32 PM EDT
TimesLedger Newspapers

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D−Bayside) has mounted a vocal effort to halt city plans for a waste transfer station in College Point during the last two years, but an even more aggressive, privately led campaign against the project has unfolded over the course of the last several months.

A group of Queens waste transfer businesses has been lobbying state officials to come out against the plan after funding a study to analyze the potential for the marine transfer facility to attract birds, according to a state legislator who met with the group.

The city hopes to revamp an existing waste transfer depot on College Point’s western shore to move upwards of 3,000 tons of trash a day by barge out of the city — part of a citywide effort led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to make the city’s sanitation operations cleaner and more efficient.

But the plan has come under increasing scrutiny because it is located 2,000 feet from one of LaGuardia International Airport’s main runways.

The transfer station’s placement has fostered fears that a 100−foot smokestack would interfere with flight paths and that trash being hauled and in and out of the facility would attract birds that could pose a danger to aircraft. The issue of birds has gained steam since a US Airways flight ditched in the Hudson River after suffering a birdstrike in January.

A study commissioned by the Queens group through Long Island attorney Mac Gutman and completed by a Pace University biologist earlier this year concluded that the transfer station would be “a bird magnet,” according to state Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (D−Corona), who was presented with the study by the group in March.

Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the story May 24, said the businesses have remained anonymous because they have contracts with the city and would not want to upset relations.

Willets Point−based waste transfer company Tully Environmental Inc., which Crain’s reported could stand to lose $27 million in city contracts with the implementation of the transfer station, had no comment.

Aubry said he thought the waste transfer group had its own financial interests at heart when it presented the study to him and several of his colleagues.

“Quite frankly, it took some investigation to find that out, too. That’s not how it was presented to us,” Aubry said. “But I’ve stated in meetings that I wasn’t going to be a tool of any private interest or anything other than the interest of public safety.”

Since January’s crash, the Air Line Pilots Association, an industry trade group, has also come out against the city plan, contending it presents an unnecessary danger to aircraft at LaGuardia. Since 2007, the Air Line Pilots Association has also contributed more than $20,000 in total to the campaigns of Ackerman and U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D−Jackson Heights), who have led vocal opposition to the plan. The group has contributed $11,500 to both Ackerman and Crowley during the last two years, according to Federal Elections Commission records.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation authored by Ackerman and Crowley that would alter federal guidelines for placing a waste transfer station near an airport — a move that could present problems for Bloomberg’s plan.

“They’d be hard−pressed building it if the [U.S.] Senate passes it and [President Barack] Obama signs it,” Ackerman said Monday.

The plan has received approval from both the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which manages LaGuardia Airport. Multiple public hearings were held on the project between 2006 and 2008, and Community Board 7 Chairman Gene Kelty said issues surrounding birds and the smoke stack were both reviewed at length before the board signed off on it.

“The FAA reviewed it, the Port Authority reviewed it and they didn’t find any problems, so I question where this criticism is coming from,” Kelty said. “It seems like somebody in the background is trying to prevent this from going through and we’re not too happy about that.”

City Sanitation Department Commissioner John Doherty has also rejected criticism of the plan, contending a similar marine transfer station in Staten Island has not attracted any birds.

In a letter to Ackerman, Crowley and other Queens leaders in March, Doherty said the Sanitation Department consulted extensively with the Port Authority and the FAA, which gave the project a “no hazard determination” in September to insure the transfer station would have no adverse impact on air travel in the region.

“Once constructed, the MTS will be a three−level, over−water facility explicitly designed for the indoor transfer of solid waste from collection vehicles into sealed, leak−proof containers that will be placed on barges for transport directly to a disposal site or to an inter−modal facility,” Doherty wrote.

Jeremy Walsh contributed to this story.

Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at sstirling@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.

Selling Willets Point plan no easy task for Bloomberg

Stephen Stirling — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:50:32 +0000

TimesLedger Newspapers
Friday, November 21, 2008 10:24 AM EST

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration spent hours in recent weeks convincing members of the City Council that the redevelopment of Willets Point would an essential part of the city’s economic future. With the Council approval now in the rearview mirror, the city now faces a far more daunting task: Turning its elaborate sales pitch into a reality.

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Don’t sweep us under rug: Tenant businesses

By a nearly unanimous vote the Council moved 42−2 to approve the project last Thursday, giving the city the green light to begin soliciting bids for its envisioned mixed−use neighborhood expected to feature 5,500 housing units, more than 2 million square feet of retail and office space, an 850−seat school and a 400,000 square−foot convention center.

Bloomberg and the EDC are banking on the project to create more than 18,000 construction jobs, 5,000 permanent jobs, more than $1.3 billion in city tax revenue and an economic impact of $25 billion to $30 billion over the next 30 years.

Just because we are in the midst of an economic downturn and we have to learn to do more with less doesn’t mean that we can afford to walk away from our long−term obligations,” Bloomberg said last week. “Our city made that mistake during the tough times in the ‘70s and it was a near disaster. And we’re simply not going to make that mistake again.”

But the project still faces significant obstacles.

Parcels owned by more than 60 property owners still need to be acquired by the city, and some are already pondering a lengthy court battle to protect their land.

“I ain’t going nowhere, that’s all you need to write,” said Jake Bono of Bono Sawdust and Supply Co.

The EDC warded off one potentially devastating issue in the 11th hour of negotiations ahead of the Council vote, when it negotiated a deal that will allow Tully Construction, House of Spices and Fodera Foods — the three largest property owners at the 62−acre site — to remain at Willets Point for up to 15 years.

The accord, struck the morning of the vote, was viewed as a winning situation for all involved.

For the city, it alleviated the need to spend a large portion of its more than $200 million property acquisition budget on buying up the more than 17 acres of land occupied by the businesses.

The trio of businesses, meanwhile, will be able to continue to operate for up to 15 years at their current sites, taking the pressure off the search for a relocation site and allowing them to sell the land they own directly to a developer once one is chosen by the city.

The EDC said that because the properties are all located on the easternmost portion of the 62−acre site slated for redevelopment, the city will be able to conduct a multimillion−dollar environmental remediation and implement much of the infrastructure improvements — such as a sewer system — needed to sustain the planned development.

The EDC said the deal alleviates the need to conduct costly and perhaps contentious negotiations for agreements itself. How fruitful the city’s negotiations with the remaining 60 property owners at the site, who do not have such an accord in place, remains to be seen.

“Bottom line is, we’re going to continue negotiations,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber. “But we can’t negotiate with ourselves. I have land owners that won’t return my phone calls. We have land owners that won’t return our letters. One way or another, though, we’re going to try to get these people to sign.”

Even less certain is the fate of the more than 200 tenant businesses currently at Willets Point today. With the approval, the EDC said three separate workforce retraining programs — offered by LaGuardia Community College, the Greater New York Auto Dealer’s Association and the Hotel and Motel Trades Council — will begin as early as January while Cornerstone Realty Group has been hired to begin no−fee relocation assistance with the renting businesses.

The workforce retraining programs have received a bristly reception from many of the 1,700 workers in the business community. One worker said he is hopeful he will continue to have his a job in the auto industry he is reluctant to take the city at its word.

“It’s scary, you know?” said Javier Herreras. “I get a job here, I provide for my family and now someone comes and tells me you might not have that in a year or two years or whatever. That doesn’t sound fair to me. That doesn’t seem right.”

Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.

Council approves Willets Point plan

Stephen Stirling — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:45:52 +0000

The City Council’s nearly unanimous vote last Thursday to approve the redevelopment of Willets Point has paved the way for a massive mixed−use neighborhood featuring more than 1,900 units of affordable housing.

The Council voted shortly before 4 p.m. 42−2 in favor of the project with the only dissenters being Councilmen Tony Avella (D−Bayside) and Charles Barron (D−Brooklyn), who cited the potential use of eminent domain as their primary reasons for opposing the plan.

In the end, much of the anticipated drama surrounding the vote was swept away when Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D−East Elmhurst) reached an accord with the city Nov. 12 and rallied the support of most of his colleagues behind him.

The agreement on the affordable housing element, struck in the days before the vote, stipulates that 35 percent of the 5,500 housing units proposed for the Willets Point redevelopment will be available to families earning less than $60,000 per year.

In addition, 800 of the affordable housing units will be set aside for families earning between $23,000 and $46,000 per year, the most at that income level to have been included in a city project.

Although there was a heavy police presence in the balcony of City Hall, where dozens of Willets Point business owners and workers watched as the votes were counted, the mood was more reminiscent of a funeral as they saw their future decided for them.

On the Council floor, the atmosphere was decidedly different. Monserrate and members of the city Economic Development Corp. were showered with praise by fellow city officials, affordable housing advocates and labor leaders, congratulating them on pushing through one of the largest and most complex projects in recent memory.

Though several Council members said they were uncomfortable with the inclusion of eminent domain in the project, with the exception of Avella and Barron, each of them ultimately declared that the positive benefits for the city and Queens outweighed the specter of invoking the controversial practice and voted to approve the plan.

“While I would agree it isn’t perfect, this is the best possible plan as we move forward,” Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D−Forest Hills) said. “This is a great day for Queens.”

Following the vote, Crown Container co−owner Jerry Antonacci left the chambers and solemnly peered over the railing surrounding a grand stairwell at the center of City Hall.

“We hope [the city] will do the right thing,” he said. “We hope they’re going to stay true to their word.”

Crown Container still does not have a deal with the city.

Altagracia Perez of Queens Congregations United for Action, who fought hard for affordable housing in the project, said the approval, coupled with an agreement to bolster low−income housing, was a testament to community activism’s merits.

“I’m definitely satisfied. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but 35 percent affordable housing is great,” Perez said. “If we hadn’t been after them, they wouldn’t have taken us into account.”