Council Member Lee asks about infrastructure standards and community input

Council Member Lee?

All right, so now moving over to Eastern Queens.

I'm almost visualizing hearing everyone's questions, what their districts are like, but I have a very interesting and challenging district in the sense that I think we're only one of two that has no subways and no railroads within my district.

We're like, it's outside, north and south, but, you know, so when folks say, hey, we'll come meet you in your district office, I'm like, I think you might want to rethink that one, but, because it is quite far.

And so it's interesting.

I just want to emphasize, I know I sound like a broken record at this point when I talk about infrastructure, but, you know, I have parts of my district.

I have four community districts, actually.

I have 8, 11, 12, and 13 in my council district.

And so myself, you know, Deputy Speaker Williams, as well as Sylvina Brooks-Powers, we share CB13.

And there have been some significant infrastructure challenges there.

One thing I will say is that, you know, for CB12,

That's where Hollis is.

That's where the flooding happened, where, as you know, we recently had to vacate two homes because one of them was literally falling off its foundation from all the flooding damage and had to be demolished, right?

And so there are really significant challenges where, and the city, by the way, put in $20 million underneath the ground.

To sort of help with the water, and it did nothing to alleviate the flooding that's happening.

So in all honesty, it probably would have been better in a buyout program, but that's just, you know, I think what some of the residents have been asking about.

But, you know, when it comes to infrastructure, I guess I'm just wondering, and I'll ask my questions first and go through it.

What standards, I know a lot of folks have been asking, but what specific standards or metrics are you going to use to evaluate sewer capacity, drainage, transportation, and other needs?

And what happens if those systems cannot support the proposed housing.

So that's the first part of my question.

And then sort of piggybacking off Councilmember Santos-Oso with the community input piece and now that being taken away.

When it comes to accountability, who will secure and follow through on infrastructure and community commitments, and how will residents

know whether those commitments are being met.

Like, how is that going to actually play out?

And also, lastly, I just want to really emphasize the community input piece of it, because Creedmoor, you know, if you look at my district, I think it's about over 90% is homeownership, right?

And the question I've always been asking is, we're not against building housing, but number one, it has to make sense.

And number two, it has to be in places where, you know, like we don't have that much land available because it's either parks or one or two family homes.

I rarely have any zoning that's above R3 in my district, right?

I think the place that could be looked at are the corridors where you could maybe build some units on top, but then there are challenges there because it's literally block and lot versus looking at how do we change maybe some of those areas.

But, you know, the community input piece, when it came to Creedmoor, we got the community there with the civics.

The community boards, our borough president, state senate, you know, assembly, as well as myself, because the Creedmoor, we successfully got the community on board with 50 acres.

So there's more than 50 acres.

That is one place that's state-owned, so I know it's not city.

That project is going to bring about 2,000 units as well as veterans housing, senior affordable housing, a school, firehouse, all of those things, right?

And that was done and was so successful because of the community input.

And so I just lastly wanted to ensure how, you know, we're going to make sure that their voices are still part of that process, because I do ultimately think that will lead to a successful project.