Residents Protest Co-Op Tax Spikes At Hunter's Point Park Opening

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- Citylights residents have the State's attention, but they'll need to catch the City's ear if they hope to save their Long Island City co-op from a tax spike that could oust them from their waterfront apartments.

More than 1,000 residents of the 522-unit Citylights complex face a 60 percent jump in their tax and maintenance bills over the next five years, thanks to an 87 percent spike in property tax assessment this year and the end of a 20-year-tax abatement in July under the building's Payment-In-Lieu Of Taxes agreement.

New York's Empire State Development agreed to work with residents to renegotiate the agreement after residents protested last week, but said they needed the City's written consent to move forward.

With their longtime homes in jeopardy, dozens of Citylights residents traveled a half mile from their state-owned 48th Avenue complex on East River to Hunter's Point South Park on Wednesday, where City officials would be celebrating the opening of its new 11-acre waterfront park.

As City and State officials celebrated the completion of the $10o million, 3-year project, a crowd of the co-op's residents across the street chanted "Save Citylights" and waved signs that read, "No Longer Affordable" and "Help Us! We are on fixed incomes!"

Paul Burrows, a retired priest who has lived in Citylights for six years, told Patch he and other residents weren't there to protest the park, but to get the City's attention. After decades of living in a developing Long Island City, they want to be able to enjoy the neighborhood's new amenities, he said.

"We we want the mayor to hear us," he said. "We really want to be here because of things like this. This park is fabulous. We want to be able to live here and use it."

Phase Two of Hunter's Point South Park added acres of wetlands, pedestrian paths and bike lanes to the waterfront, according to to NYC Parks. It also features a linear green space that holds playground equipment, adult fitness equipment, a public art piece and a kayak lunch.

Hunter's Point South is a proposed mixed-use affordable housing development that, once complete, is slated to create 5,000 new housing units over 30 acres of waterfront property in Long Island City. Of those, 60 percent will be affordable housing, according to the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Shelley Cohen, a 20-year Citylights resident and treasurer of the co-op, called it unfair of the City to draw new residents to Long Island City with affordable housing while making the neighborhood unaffordable for its longtime residents.

"The people moving into the neighborhood are going to benefit from the park, and we're getting pushed out after 20 years," she said.

Cohen told Patch she was among Citylights' first residents when it opened in 1996, and her daughter was the first baby born in the building. Now as she nears retirement, the spike in maintenance costs she'll incur over the next five years have her worried about whether she can even afford to stay.

"I'm really worried about having to pay another $1,500 a month," she said. "Each January our maintenance is going to go up by 9 percent until 2022."

Most Citylights residents are on a fixed income, she said. About 20 percent of them are retirees.

"They're people who have been here since the beginning and paid in all these years to the development," she said. "We just want to be treated fairly."

To Cohen, that means extending their soon-to-expire 20-year tax abatement by 15 years so it's equal to the 35-year-tax abatement she claims most of the neighborhood's new developers get.

She and her fellow residents received a warm welcome from city officials, who each shouted out their support for Citylights out in the press conference for the park's opening.

"We have to make sure the Governor holds through to his promise for the residents of Citylights, and make sure the people can afford to live in this amazing neighborhood with these great parks," said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer.

But State Sen. Michael Gianaris shifted the spotlight back onto the City when he spoke at the opening, calling on Van Bramer to "do what you can on behalf of the City to solve the problem."

"The State needs to step up, but the City needs to step up, too," Gianaris said.

Cohen said she appreciated the support from both elected officials, noting CityLights residents desperately needed it to save their homes.

"For 3 years we've been working behind the scenes and nobody was listening," she said. "We've gotten to the point where we have to make this public so they'll realize that we are real people."

Representatives from Mayor Bill de Blasio's office did not immediately return Patch's request for comment.

(Lead photos by Danielle Woodward/Patch)