Disputed Luxury Building To Include More Deeply Affordable Units

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A controversial development could now bring more deeply affordable housing to Forest Hills and Rego Park.

City Council Member Lynn Schulman announced on Wednesday that she reached a deal with Trylon LLC for the developer to bring lower income affordable housing to its disputed project at 98-81 Queens Boulevard.

"The zoning application... has been modified to allow for deeply affordable housing that will enable more families to be able to live in the Forest Hills community," Schulman said in the statement, where she announced that the developer plans to set aside most of its 40-something affordable units for families making 60 or 40 percent of the area's median income on average.

Seven percent of the units will still be designated for "moderate income" earners making 100 percent of the area's median income.

This announcement marks a change from the developer's initial proposal, under which affordable housing would have been made available for higher income households earning 80 percent of the area's median income on average.

The cost of housing has been one of the sources of conflict between community members and developer regarding the proposed 15-story, 144-unit building.

While the developer has pointed out that they can, as of right, build a slightly smaller building with no affordable units, Community Board 6, which represents the neighborhood, rejected the developer's initial proposal in part because board members wanted to see income-restricted units set aside for lower income households, the Queens Post reported.

A couple of weeks later, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards echoed a similar sentiment; he rejected the proposal on the basis that it "falls short of providing deeply affordable housing to many Queens residents."

Both the Community Board and Borough President's recommendations are advisory as part of the city's land-use review process, with the City Council making the final decision.

That vote, which isn't scheduled to come for a couple of months, typically falls in line with the vote of the member who represents the district; this week, Schulman didn't go as far as saying that she supports the project, but she did speak about it favorably.

"There are a lot of steps before the Council votes on this, but the developer is certainly moving in the right direction and is showing their commitment to work with the community," she told Patch in a written statement.

Some of those steps might be related to the other major source of neighborhood opposition to the development: preservation.

Thousands of neighbors have advocated against the apartment building because it necessitates the demolition of three buildings, a historic theater-turned-synagogue and several businesses among them.

Though none of these buildings are landmarked, Community Board 6 asked that the developer incorporates some of the buildings' distinct architecture into its new apartment tower.

This and "other conditions" expressed by the board, like asks that the developer gets environmental building certifications and uses union workers, are "still being explored" with the Trylon LLC, Schulman wrote in her statement.

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