Some 15,000 new homes are slated to be built in Long Island City after the City Council passed the Adams administration’s ambitious “OneLIC” rezoning plan during a final vote on Wednesday — the largest such neighborhood plan in decades.
“OneLIC” rezones a roughly 54-block waterfront swath to allow for the development of nearly 15,000 new apartments, 4,350 of which are supposed to be affordable, plus approximately 4 million square feet of commercial and community space.
Local Councilmember Julie Won got behind the project last month after securing almost $2 billion in funding for parks, infrastructure, NYCHA and 1,300 new school seats during negotiations, an infusion of cash she described as “long overdue” Wednesday.
“Today’s vote passing the OneLIC Plan brings us closer to an integrated Long Island City,” she said in a statement. “Over the last three decades, the city has allowed developers to dictate what is built in our neighborhood. These past two years, thousands of residents came together to envision our future. … Finally, we will be one Long Island City, for current and future residents.”
The mostly industrial rezoned area falls within mayoral-elect Zohran Mamdani’s Assembly district, and he formally endorsed the plan for the first time on Wednesday after speaking favorably about it in the past.
“The OneLIC Neighborhood Plan is a victory for Long Island City residents, delivering new affordable housing and bringing nearly $1 billion of new investments to the community that will go toward NYCHA, schools, open space, and waterfront access,” he said in a statement to the Daily News.
As an Assembly member, Mamdani did not have a formal role in the rezoning process but as mayor he will be charged with taking over from the Adams administration in tackling the city’s ongoing housing crisis.
Long Island City is already in the midst of a massive population and development boom following a series of smaller rezonings and aborted plans under past administrations seen as having fallen short on the affordable housing front.
Several senior Adams administration officials attended a press conference on the City Hall steps with Won before Wednesday’s vote to celebrate the passage of the rezoning.
But Mayor Adams himself, who’s leaving office Dec. 31, didn’t attend even though his administration spearheaded OneLIC, the fifth and final neighborhood rezoning during his tenure.
While those, plus the larger City of Yes zoning overhaul, helped “create, preserve, or plan over 433,000 homes,” it’s still short of the 500,000 “moonshot” goal Adams pledged.
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro declined to say why Adams was not present at the news conference, but told reporters he hopes the Mamdani administration continues to push for more neighborhood-wide rezonings.
“It’s hard work, it takes collaboration and teamwork, working with the City Council, so we have to continue to work,” Mastro said. “I think there’s a commitment to do that in the future, and I will always root for the city to be successful.”
