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March 21 - 27, 2013
Politicians want to be filled in more on infill plan Continued from page 1 outs — which would provide hot water, limited elevator use, security and hallway lighting. The new affordable units would be permanently affordable. The city’s plan is to lease sites for development within existing public housing complexes, including Baruch Houses, at East Houston St.; Campos Plaza, at E. 12th St.; LaGuardia Houses, at Madison and Rutgers Sts.; Smith Houses, at South St. and Robert Wagner Place; and Meltzer Tower, at E. First St.
‘This represents the single, best way to raise the money — and the time to act is now.’ John Rhea
The Baruch site — now a parking lot on Baruch Drive — would allow one new building of 375,000 square feet with 405 apartments. The Campos property — currently a parking lot and a basketball and handball courts — would allow a 90,000-square-foot building with 97 apartments. The LaGuardia Houses parcels — which is right now two parking lots — is earmarked to become two new buildings with a total of 255,000 square foot and 276 new apartments. At Meltzer Tower, an outdoor seating area now used by the complex’s senior residents would be replaced by a 90,000-square-foot, 97-unit building. At the Smith Houses, there would be two new developments — to be located on the current sites of a paved baseball field and basketball court, parking lot and garbage-compactor lot — comprising more than 1 million square feet
Photo by Peter Mikoleski/NYCHA
NYCHA General Manager Cecil House, at podium, and Fred Harris, right, outlined the infill plan and fielded questions at an informational meeting for Baruch Houses residents Monday night, as a woman translated their remarks into sign language.
and 1,150 new units. At an Assembly hearing on the plan last Friday, assemblymembers pushed John Rhea, the Housing Authority’s chairperson, and Harris for more information about the plan. Brian Kavanagh, whose East Side district includes two of the affected housing complexes, accused the authority of “hiding the ball” on details about the infill plan. Rhea said the idea is simply for NYCHA to “leverage one of our most valuable assets — our land.” Based on current zoning law, many NYCHA developments, he said, “have the ability to grow, and the ability to enhance their neighborhoods.” Added Harris, “These areas are all located in areas that are dense, but we think could be a little denser.” “Why are we rushing this?” asked Keith Wright, chairperson of the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Housing. The authority is struggling financially, Rhea explained, having lost $2.3 billion in government funding since 2001, and is
carrying an operating debt of $60 million. A substantial part of the money from the new infill buildings will go toward fixing roofs, elevators, lobbies and boilers and upgrading security in the complexes where the new projects are sited. “Every penny will go to the capital needs of NYCHA,” Rhea stated. “This represents the single, best way to raise the money — and the time to act is now.” These capital repairs are separate from the agency’s backlog of apartment repairs, though this number is dropping, Rhea assured. “This plan is specific to meet these [capital] needs — not the backlog,” he clarified. The Housing chairperson said NYCHA has been talking about the idea of capitalizing on its land for more than a decade. He added that the new construction projects “will bring $3 billion in economic activity and money to neighborhoods in need.” Rhea said NYCHA residents would be given jobs in connection with the conFINANCIAL
struction of the new buildings and then permanently, staffing them. Rhea said it’s incorrect to dub the infill buildings “luxury housing,” rather, that they would be “mixed-income, 80 percent market rate.” But Carmen Quinones, a Douglass Houses tenant activist who is running for City Council, who was in the audience at the hearing, didn’t agree. “Eighty percent luxury housing!” she shouted out. Douglass Houses, on the Upper West Side, is also slated for the infill scheme. In response to questioning about why the new infill buildings couldn’t have more affordable units, Harris said, NYCHA would “receive significantly less” if it went up from the 20 percent affordable figure. As for eligibility for the affordable units, Rhea said NYCHA residents would receive priority and that applicants would have to earn less than 60 percent of area median income — $36,000 for a single person and $54,000 for a family of four. NYCHA does have middle-income residents, but they won’t be eligible for these new affordable units. In response to accusations that NYCHA hasn’t done an adequate job informing its residents, politicians and the wider community about the plan, Rhea said the authority has been doing outreach, and is currently completing a round of tenantoutreach meetings, and that the plan will also go to local community boards for review. There will also be a second round of community outreach later on, he said. A Web site on the infill plan is now live at http://on.nyc.gov/landlease , and will eventually let people post comments, though they can’t now. However, Wright asked, “Will the horse be out of the barn [once the R.F.P is released]?” “Absolutely not,” Rhea countered, saying, “What we’re trying to do is put down a track [for the horse].” The Assembly panel — which also included Linda Rosenthal from the Upper
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