Willets Point Business Owners Resist Mayor's Plan for Area

By BENJAMIN SARLIN, Special to the Sun
November 29, 2007

The mayor's planned development in Willets Point threatens to spark an eminent domain battle, as business owners in that area of Queens are refusing to sell their properties. The City Council is holding an oversight hearing today to assess the status of the development.

Despite a legacy of neglect spanning many city administrations, Willets Point's business owners have built a thriving economy featuring a sprawl of auto repair shops, scrap yards, and construction supplies stores — all without many paved roads or a sewer system. In May, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to build apartments, a public school, and a convention center in the neighborhood. The approximately 250 business owners, many of whom are running second- and third-generation family-owned operations, are unwilling to leave.

"They say that they can keep them somehow," Peter Vallone Sr., who is lobbying on behalf of the local businesses, said yesterday of efforts to relocate the owners. "But the question is where? How? Northwest Queens is the only place I know of that's left to be able to do this economic activity."

The president of the city's Economic Development Corp., Robert Lieber, said yesterday he is negotiating with the businesses but would not rule out a forced takeover of the site, and is planning on filing a Land Use Review application by the end of the year.

"We'll deal with that when we come to it," Mr. Lieber said of eminent domain in a phone interview. "As the mayor said on May 1st, we're not going to let one person hold up the benefits for a whole community, but we are committed to trying to make deals on a negotiated basis. "

Daniel Feinstein, whose family has owned the neighborhood business Feinstein Ironworks since 1930, says that negotiations have been in bad faith.

"The city says they're looking to relocate and assist. They're doing nothing," Mr. Feinstein said yesterday. "It's not American and it's not right." He said he hoped the City Council would elect to take eminent domain off the table.

Council Member John Liu, whose district includes the area, said yesterday that he was concerned about the use of eminent domain to transfer property to another private owner rather than for a public project. Council Member Melinda Katz sounded similar misgivings, saying she was "concerned about eminent domain in general."

Mr. Liu added that not enough was being done to include business owners in development discussions.

"There's unquestionably a sense that these small guys are being steamrolled, and that's not right," he said.

Willets Point Business Owners Resist Mayor's Plan for Area

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