[chris08876]

A follow up as of 9/29 to the post above:
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City Planning Commission Approves Astoria Cove

The City Planning Commission voted to recommend approval today for the proposed 1,723-unit Astoria Cove mixed-use development slated for an 8.7-acre site overlooking Pot Cove on the Queens waterfront.

A development team called 2030 Astoria Developers that includes Long Island City-based Alma Realty gained a positive vote after earlier thumbs down by Community Board 1 and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, but the vote with 10 commissioners signing on, one granting partial approval and two abstaining reflects commissioners’ support for a new direction for rezonings under Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s Administration, said Carl Weisbrod, the chairman of the commission.

“This development will be the first to be subject to a mandatory inclusionary housing requirement set forth in the zoning resolution,” Mr. Weisbrod said, calling the proposal a “harbinger” of future rezonings. “The Astoria Cove development would add a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, employment, shopping and recreational opportunities to service the needs of current and future residents in this portion of the growing neighborhood of Astoria.”

The proposed 2.2-million-square-foot development, which now moves to the City Council under the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, includes 345 affordable units, a 25,000-square-foot grocery store, a site for a 456-seat school and 1.92 acres of new publicly-accessible open space. The proposed rezoning “heralds the dawn of a new era in equitable development in New York City” and opens a waterfront that’s currently blocked-off by industrial properties, the developers said.

“Astoria Cove will bring significant investment, good-paying jobs, hundreds of units of affordable housing, local stores and shops, and an expansive open space network to a community that has been neglected for too long,” said 2030 Astoria Developers in a prepared statement following the vote. “Astoria Cove also will be one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable projects in the City’s history. All of this will be accomplished without any public subsidy.”

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http://commercialobserver.com/2014/09/city-planning-commission-approves-astoria-cove/