One LIC Focus Area Meeting Round 1: Housing
Reflecting on the meeting and why we just need to see the draft plan ASAP
Yesterday was the One LIC focus area meeting on housing. The meeting, facilitated by Bahij Chancey from WXY, began with a review of the One LIC kickoff event, in which feedback from the community was collected. More than 220 attendees and 15 city agencies participated, providing more than 1,000 comments across various topics. The themes that emerged for housing and land use were the need for permanent and deeply affordable housing, preventing residential displacement, and investing in public housing.
Overall, Chancey’s presentation aimed to inform the community about existing conditions, tools, and strategies related to housing and zoning to foster a shared understanding for collaborative planning in Long Island City's future development. He spoke at length on land use and zoning, acknowledging concerns about increasing density but also highlighting the positive reception of density for providing more housing. He explained the role of zoning in regulating building size, height, and use and presented zoning maps, showing manufacturing, residential, and mixed-use zones in Long Island City. He emphasized that zoning changes don't require existing buildings to change but may influence new developments. He also spoke a bit about Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which ensures affordable units in new buildings, with different options tied to Area Median Income.
The meeting was a good overview of the current state of community concerns around housing and land use in Long Island City, but it didn’t provide any new information. I would go so far as to say that there’s nothing new that the leadership group of One LIC is going to learn from additional focus area meetings and town halls. This area has been long studied and discussed ad nauseum. Everyone knows what the needs of this neighborhood are. At this point, what we really need to see is the draft plan and zoning framework itself so we can provide feedback on the actual plan.