Casting aside objections from Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio is plowing ahead with a plan to redevelop the Sunnyside rail yards in Queens as an affordable-housing mecca.
On Friday — 17 days after Cuomo said the yards were off-limits — the city’s Economic Development Corporation issued a public notice seeking a yearlong feasibility study of the nearly 200-acre site.
De Blasio proposed building 11,250 units of affordable apartments over the rail yards as a major initiative in his State of the City speech — only to be shot down within hours by Cuomo, who insisted the MTA needs the property for other uses.
“It is not available for any other use in the near term,” Cuomo’s spokeswoman, Melissa DeRosa, said at the time.
But the mayor on Friday said it’s full speed ahead.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to deliver on our vision of a more affordable city and smart development that responds to the needs of surrounding neighborhoods,” he said, calling the pending study only a “first step.”
City Hall officials said the study will focus on the 113 acres owned by Amtrak — which is cooperating with the city — and another 44 acres where the land is owned by the MTA but the air rights belong to the city.
It’s not clear how much cooperation the city would need from the MTA, which is overseen by Cuomo, to develop on top of state-owned property.
But the governor is not alone among elected officials expressing concern over Hizzoner’s grand development plans.
“Where the mayor is right is that we need a lot more affordable housing in New York,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), whose district includes the rail yards. “But this is a very big project he’s talking about.”
The cost and logistics of building a deck over operating rail yards are also significant hurdles, some of which were detailed in a recent report by the Department of City Planning.
The October 2014 report cautions that a flat deck wouldn’t line up with bridges over the property and wouldn’t allow sufficient clearance for passing trains in some parts.
Cuomo and the MTA have expressed concerns about how development of the property would impact ongoing construction of a tunnel connecting the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal.