Tall & Urban News

In the summer of 2019, four developers who own land on Long Island City's Anable Basin launched a public engagement initiative called Your LIC to "collectively develop an inclusive, equitable plan" for the area once promised to Amazon, as the project's website puts it.

As the public weighs in on the future of those 28 acres (11.3 hectares) at a series of public workshops and online, the developers are privately hatching plans for a series of mega towers lining the Long Island City waterfront, according to internal documents obtained by Patch.

The developers—TF Cornerstone, Simon Baron Development, L&L MAG and Plaxall—have sketched plans for buildings as tall as 76 stories, according to a source. 
A grayscale rendering obtained by Patch shows multiple skyscrapers on the waterfront site, the tallest of which would range from 70 to 76 stories, the source said.

TF Cornerstone, which won the rights to develop two city-owned sites on Anable Basin back in 2017, is planning a million-square-foot (92,903-square-meter) office building, co-founder Tom Elghanayan said at a conference last month.

Another planning document, which was obtained through a public records request shows that the developers are considering a proposal to de-map two streets in the area, which, historically, has been done to make room for increased development. (Much of the site is zoned for manufacturing, city records show.)

Jovana Rizzo, a spokesperson for the Your LIC coalition, told Patch those drawings are several months old and that "no plans have been completed or proposed."

"During the planning process, we look at many different scenarios and options, including ranges of height and densities and the trade-offs between open space, low rise buildings, heights, and uses—this is a normal part of the process that will allow us to respond to what we have heard throughout the community visioning process with an eventual proposal," Rizzo said in an e-mailed statement.

"Our goal is to present a proposed plan following the completion of the public engagement process for the community to weigh in on, even before we enter the formal public review (ULURP) process," she said, using an acronym for the city's land-use review process.

The Your LIC project was born after Amazon canceled plans for a massive Long Island City campus, one of two HQ2 sites the e-retailer announced in 2018 after a purported nationwide search.

The developer-led coalition, brought together by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, started hosting a series of public workshops in November to discuss the future of the site, with themes like economic empowerment, resiliency, public open space, and community resources.

All the while, TF Cornerstone, Simon Baron Development, L&L MAG and Plaxall were mocking up plans for waterfront office buildings reaching hundreds of feet into the sky.

A Your LIC spokesperson told Patch that the planning documents are only possible scenarios and that the public will get to weigh in on the developers' final proposal, which they will release after the final public workshop on March 23, 2020.

Asked why the developers are hatching plans before the community engagement process has finished, the spokesperson said the team has been developing plans based on community feedback and refining them after every workshop.

The Your LIC spokesperson cited as an example TF Cornerstone, which the city's Economic Development Corporation awarded the rights to develop two public plots of land before Amazon HQ2 was on the table—an agreement that still holds, according to the agency.

TF Cornerstone is committing to not pursue any market-rate homes on the two city-owned sites it is developing and will focus on creating "significant" open space, a school, and uses that "will bring good jobs," Jovana Rizzo, a Your LIC spokesperson said.

"One thing we have heard loud and clear and will be worked into our eventual proposal is that the public land must be used for public good, and we agree," she said.

Still, the developer-led setup worries some residents and stakeholders. Memo Salazar, who co-founded the Western Queens Community Land Trust, refers to the coalition as "not-really-your-LIC" and says the public workshops include little discussion, though the public can also submit feedback using an online portal.

The penultimate public workshop, on mobility and sustainable infrastructure, will be held as a webinar, following official recommendations against large public gatherings to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus in New York City. Your LIC will wrap up its public engagement on March 23 2020 with a workshop on density.

Rizzo, the coalition's spokesperson, referred to the workshop series as an "intensive voluntary engagement process" and insisted that the developers are continuing to factor community feedback into their plans.

"To be clear: no plans have been completed or proposed," she said. "We look forward to proposing a plan that responds to what we've heard when we complete the public engagement process."
For more on this story, go to Patch.