Hudson Rail Yards forum draws plenty of critics

Volume 1, Number 34 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 11 - 17, 2007

By Al Amateau

Advocates for affordable housing and supporters of the High Line packed a public presentation on Tuesday concerning the city’s and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s guidelines for a mega mixed-use development over the West Side rail yards.

Affordable housing advocates were disappointed and angry at what they considered a paltry suggestion by the city’s Hudson Yards Development Corp. that 20 percent of rental units would be affordable on the site that extends between 10th and 12th Aves. from 30th to 33rd Sts.

Advocates for preserving the northern segment of the High Line viaduct, which loops around the yard at 30th St. from 10th to 12th Aves. and back to 33rd St., were not quite satisfied when the M.T.A. executive Bill Wheeler said, “The city and the M.T.A. support retaining the High Line.” Wheeler went on to say there are pros and cons on whether to preserve that segment of the historic structure or replace it with a new one. A decision will have to be based on an assessment of the High Line’s impact on the site’s developer, Wheeler said.

The 1.1-million-sq.-ft. rail yards are really two sites: The Eastern Yards between 10th and 11th Aves. were rezoned two years ago to accommodate the project to be built on a proposed platform over the M.T.A. tracks. The Western Yards between 11th and 12th Aves. is where the city failed to get a football stadium because of intense opposition from West Side residents and elected officials.

Housing advocates who spoke at the May 8 presentation reminded officials that they helped sink the stadium proposal, and they promised to fight anything that does not provide for enough affordable housing.

“We need permanent affordable housing,” said Sarah Desmond, executive director of Housing Conservation Coordinators, a not-for-profit West Side organization. The conventional 80 percent market rate and 20 percent affordable program that the city proposes for rental apartments is time-limited and lasts 20 to 30 years, Desmond noted. “That means we’ll be left with all market-rate housing,” she said. “We need 30 percent, and it has to be permanently affordable.”

“The only way we’re going to get affordable housing is if the city mandates it in the Request for Proposals and makes it permanent,” said Miguel Acevedo, a member of Community Board 4, referring to a formal Request for Proposals on the rail yards project that H.Y.D.C. hopes to complete and send to developers by the end of May.

Neighbors contended that 20 percent of rental housing would not yield much, because they assumed that most residential development on the platforms would be condos rather than rental. “We need housing for all the people—for working people and artists—not just Wall St. investment bankers,” said Tony Simone, a C.B.4 member. “We want a West Side renaissance, not a real estate dream.”

During the technical presentation, project engineers noted that the platforms would have to be built without interrupting rail operations below and would have to support 60-story buildings. “It’s very much a balancing act,” said Wheeler.

However, Joe Restuccia, a C.B. 4 member, said the presentation failed to indicate “the gargantuan scale” of development.

“There will be 60-story buildings on 11th Ave., and 90 stories could be built on part of the site,” Restuccia said. “The value created will be enormous, and we should capture part of it for affordable housing—and there is still no commitment to keep the High Line,” Restuccia said.

Regina Meyer, who outlined the 80/20 affordable housing possibilities over the rail yards, said the city is exploring two off-site locations for middle- and lower-income apartments, one on W. 54th St. and the other on W. 48th St. She also said the project would include a public elementary/intermediate school and would provide space for not-for-profit and arts organizations.

However, J.D. Noland, a Clinton resident and C.B.4 member, said the neighborhood had been promised a park on the 48th St. site where a shaft for the city’s third water tunnel is under construction. “Aren’t they setting up [48th St.] for affordable housing because they don’t want it over the rail yards?” Noland asked.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said he believed the city would continue to heed a community that successfully fought the stadium. “The plan must include permanent affordable housing, and it must keep the High Line,” he said.

John Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, the group that convinced the Bloomberg Administration to convert the derelict rail viaduct into an elevated park, thanked the M.T.A. for its expression of support but added that the Friends would continue to press for keeping the historic structure.

Hammond pointed to a placard in the audience with a quotation by the late critic Ada Louise Huxtable. It read: “We will probably be judged not by the monuments that we build but by the monuments we destroy.”