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The pro-congestion caucus, I guess? What nobody seems to be getting about this rezoning is that it’s mostly just the developer asking to drop 1,735 (!!!) required parking spaces from the commercial part of the project https://twitter.com/FranciscoMoyaNY/status/1328837689513271298
If you look at the difference between what they're allowed to build under current zoning and what they want to build with the rezoning, something stands out: it's actually not that much different. With one exception: a LOT less parking. Ten acres' worth! https://twitter.com/MarketUrbanism/status/1326327715646103552
This is the result of one very easy to miss but very consequential line buried halfway through the proposed rezoning text: C4-4's parking requirements, not C4-2's, would apply https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/about/cpc/200034
C4-2 is the zoning that downtown Flushing west of Main St. already has. C4-4 parking requirements are lower. The rezoning would mean one parking space per 1,000 sq. ft. of retail, vs. five spaces for grocery stores under C4-2 or three and some change spaces for most other uses
I suspect the reason that the developers are not emphasizing this is that Peter Koo (the local council member) LOVES parking. He thinks Flushing's biggest problem is a lack of parking – this is a core belief of his
The reason all of these council members are turning out against this rezoning isn't affordable housing or the leftist organizing of MinKwon, etc. It's the hotel union. They don't want any new non-union hotels. Ironically, this rezoning is actually not necessary to build hotels
So we have this very bizarre situation where, if the rezoning is voted down, the hotels will still be built, the luxury condos will still be built, but the rentals and affordable housing will not, and we'll get a ton more parking
The folks agitating against this project have a pretty poor understanding of what's going on. You have a MinKwon organizer telling people that the developers will get the 421-a tax break on the condos, when that is no longer allowed. You've got pro-biking/transit/pedestrian...
...activists arguing that this project will dump a ton of cars on Flushing's streets, when the truth is that the as-of-right option will dump thousands more. And you've got the hotel union organizing against hotels that can be built as-of-right anyway. It's all very strange.
My guess is just that everybody is kind of bored and looking for a target of their anti-developer ire. The NIMBYism in this city has been so successful that there isn't a ton of development to organize against anymore. The hotel union and opposition by AOC and other socialists...
...has signaled that this is the hottest club in the city, so everybody's rushing over to fight. But again, the details of the rezoning are boring and arcane, and nobody seems all that interested. It's more about what it signals
By the way – people saying the developers can't build by-right, that they need this rezoning, and that the by-right plans are a bluff should explain how that's true when Sky View Parc and the Parc Hotel were built under the same C4-2 zoning on similar lots just down the street
Is it less profitable to build when you need 1,735 extra parking spaces and to maybe work around thorny waterfront rules? Sure. But still WAY more profitable than accepting opposition's demands for MIH for the whole site and union hotel wages (which is likely fully unprofitable)
