According to a report in Crains Last week, the Cuomo administration will likely use a controversial planning process to allow the building of Amazon’s potential headquarters in Queens around the normal city review. That would give the state the authority to remake the Anable Basin area of Long Island City without having to secure approval from the City Council, which usually holds power over major development projects in need of a rezoning.
Amazon coming to LIC Queens
The tech giant wants to build a sprawling office and mixed-use campus around Anable Basin on the Long Island City waterfront rezoning the roughly 20-acre site, which today can only accommodate low-rise manufacturing uses.
This same approach was used on controversial development projects such as Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards, which also drew scrutiny for using eminent domain to make way for a large arena—now the Barclays Center—and more than a dozen residential and mixed-use buildings. This process is often used for large projects that involve Albany and City Hall. Besides Atlantic Yards, examples include Brooklyn Bridge Park, Times Square, the World Trade Center and a middle-income housing development originally called Queens West.
