New rezoning plan for Long Island City envisions “future growth”

Long Island City is the latest neighborhood primed for rezoning, the city announced Tuesday, kickstarting the early stages of a process that’s expected to result in new housing and infrastructure upgrades for a swath of Western Queens.

The proposal, dubbed “One Long Island City,” includes LIC’s Industrial Business Zone and an area extending from the East River to Court Square and 23rd Street; and from Gantry Plaza State Park in the southwest to include Queensbridge Houses in the north.

While the proposal it still in its infancy, the rezoning shares the same goals of as other plans across the city, including the creation of new affordable housing and greenspace, enhanced transit, improved infrastructure, and greater economic development. The city also seeks to make these areas more climate resilient.

The rezoning effort seeks to create a more unified vision for an area that has been rapidly developing — and gentrifying — in recent years. Local Councilmember Julie Won described it as a more “holistic” approach than the individual site rezonings “that have been hurtful and divisive for so long in our community.”

The proliferation of such neighborhood-wide rezonings under Mayor Adams reflects the larger shift away from a “project by project” approach in favor of bigger-picture planning.

Tuesday’s announcement by Won and members of the Adams administration jumpstarts the preliminary community planning process. The months-long study period will include proposed land use changes to guide new development across Long Island City and solicit public input on issues such as transit, infrastructure, capital investments and open spaces.

“This comprehensive community plan invites the whole community to participate in identifying, defining and protecting important existing resources, while also developing a blueprint for future growth that ensures equity and resilience for all,” Won said at a press conference in Queensbridge Park. “Under our current developer-led process, we’ve seen-record high rents and have said goodbye to too many of our longtime neighbors who could no longer afford to live here. If we continue this route, we will continue to be exhausted, remain on the defense and battle this affordability crisis one luxury tower at a time.”

The process is being spearheaded by the Department of City Planning and will culminate in a final neighborhood plan, including zoning changes, to be voted on by the City Council by the end of 2025.

It’s the fifth neighborhood-wide rezoning under Mayor Adams and the second in Queens, after one was announced for Jamaica in May. The Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan each have their own local rezoning plans at various stages of the public review process.

A separate neighborhood study was also announced Tuesday that will encompass parts of Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside. The “Heart of District 26” plan stretches from Queens Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, respectively, to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Unlike the “One Long Island City” plan, the Astoria plan will not lead directly to a rezoning. Instead, its findings “can be considered at a later time” and will serve as guidance for future development, Won said. It will be funded by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and led by the urban planning nonprofit Hester Street, which is expected to complete its plan by next June.

Long Island City’s population has grown by 78% in the past 30 years, per Won, and rents have soared with it: last year, one-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood went for an average of $4,114 a month, according to Zumper.

At one time it was poised to become home to a new Amazon headquarters, though that plan famously imploded following community pushback.

The 2001 rezoning of 34 blocks of the neighborhood kicked off the ongoing development boom that has transformed its skyline. But more recent attempts to rezone Long Island City have fallen through, including a proposal by the de Blasio administration.

The city admitted at the time that the 2001 plan had fallen short.

Won said the plan announced Tuesday included areas such as Queensbridge that were left out of the initial rezoning 22 years ago.

Corinne Hayes, president of the Resident Association for Queensbridge Houses, told the Daily News she was optimistic about the plan.

“To be a part of the planning [process] is not the tradition,” she said. “Usually, we’re given what was planned and we live with it.”

Public town halls for both proposals and planned for next month.