Massive Queens MXD Clears Hurdle

NEW YORK CITY-The City Planning Commission on Wednesday voted 10-1 to approve the $900-million Flushing Commons mixed-use project, along with an adjacent affordable housing development known as Macedonia Plaza. This marks the next-to-last hurdle in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure; the City Council must give its approval before the project can proceed.

In a statement, city planning commissioner Amanda Burden says the concept for the project arose from “a community visioning and planning process that was initiated early in the Bloomberg administration, which noted the void in the center of Flushing created by the large municipal parking lot. This proposal is a prime example of the Administration’s commitment to create economic opportunities throughout the five boroughs, and it exemplifies sustainable, transit-oriented development that capitalizes on Flushing’s exceptional subway, bus and commuter rail access.”

Prior to the commission’s vote, a neighborhood alliance calling itself the Flushing Coalition for Responsible Development held a rally to protest what it called the “overbuilding” and overcrowding that the project would entail. Concerns over the project’s impact on local merchants contributed to its belated entry into the ULURP process this past January.

“This has been a long process; we’re five years into it since we were designated” as the development team, Michael Meyer, president of TDC Development and Construction Corp., told GlobeSt.com in April. The city selected a joint venture of TDC and the Rockefeller Group Development Corp. in 2005 to develop a five-acre site currently occupied by Municipal Parking Lot 1 in Flushing.

Scheduled to start construction sometime in 2011, Flushing Commons will contain a 1.5-acre town square, a 500-unit condominium, 35,000 square feet of retail, a new YMCA, a hotel and a 1,600-space underground parking facility. The adjacent 140-unit affordable housing development, Macedonia Plaza, is being sponsored by the Macedonian African Methodist Episcopal Church.