Queens President To Back Willets Point Redevelopment Plan

The president of Queens, Helen Marshall, will vote to approve the city's plan to redevelop Willets Point, after the local community board backed the proposal early yesterday morning.

Community Board 7 voted 20-15 to approve the rezoning of the 61-acre site near Shea Stadium. In accordance with the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, the plan will now pass to the borough president, who will hold a public hearing on July 10 and vote shortly thereafter.

The votes of both the community board and Ms. Marshall are advisory and nonbinding.

Her chief of staff, Alexandra Rosa, said the Queens president would vote to approve the proposal. "We're pleased that board 7 took this bold step in supporting the project," she said. "We think the Willets Point revitalization is the right way to go."

The redevelopment of the area, which is marked by a strip of auto repair shops, will provide better-paying jobs and more affordable housing, Ms. Rosa said.

The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, a group of 10 business owners who oppose the rezoning, called yesterday's 1 a.m. vote "tantamount to a rejection," based on the long list of conditions the community board said would have to be met for it to agree to the plan.

The community board "said we're going to say yes, but we're going to put so many restrictions on the plan, that we're not approving it," the owner of Feinstein Iron Works Inc., David Feinstein, said.

Mr. Feinstein said he was confident that City Council members would reject the plan.

Council Members John Liu, Hiram Monserrate, and Tony Avella, who represent the Willets Point area, oppose the city's proposal, as do 26 others who signed a letter in April saying the plan had "no chance of surviving the public review process."