Former New York City Council member stands with a current one on Innovation QNS

Is there a growing ULURP solidarity network? Former New York City Council Member Carlos Menchaca showed up at Wednesday morning’s rally opposing the Innovation QNS Uniform Land Use Review Procedure proposal for City Council Member Julie Won’s district in Astoria, Queens. Won is currently standing against the mixed-use development from Kaufman Astoria Studios and Silverstein Properties, holding out for a larger percentage of affordable housing – despite growing pressure from unions like 32BJ SEIU and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who said he already negotiated the best possible deal. “They have a battle that wasn’t unlike the battle we had in Sunset Park,” Menchaca told City & State, referring to his staunch opposition to the 2020 Industry City rezoning that got the project pulled. “I’m here to ensure that Julie has support.” (One Adams administration insider who saw him on the City Hall steps joked Menchaca was “giving ‘how to say no’ lessons.”)

Talk of the council bucking member deference bubbled up with Industry City, just as it is again now, with pro-development forces hoping Council Speaker Adrienne Adams would be willing to whip votes to override Won’s wishes. The council has until Nov. 20 to vote on the proposal. Menchaca said the council needs to stand with Won. These fights over development can create strange bedfellows. Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli wasn’t at the rally, but he said he and his fellow conservatives back the cause. “We’re ride or die member deference.” 

The idea of the City Council approving a rezoning despite the local member’s opposition didn’t come to pass with the Bruckner Sites earlier this month, when Council Member Marjorie Velázquez announced a last-minute deal. And it didn’t happen with One45 in Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan’s district either, since the developers pulled the application. That plot of land in Harlem may now become a parking lot for big rigs – a fate that Richards pointed to in his support of Innovation QNS. “We’re not building no damn truck depots in Queens,” he said. “Perfect cannot be the enemy of progress.”