FAR ROCKAWAY — More than two thirds of the new affordable housing planned for Queens will be built on the Rockaway peninsula, a flood zone still trying to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.
Of the 500 units proposed in seven construction projects in Queens, 64 percent — 319 — will be in Rockaway.
The three projects include a 154-unit apartment for seniors in Bayswater, a 101-unit building in Edgemere and a 64-unit apartment building in Rockaway Beach.
Other borough projects are in Jamaica, Rochdale and South Jamaica.
Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to build or save 200,000 units of affordable housing in a decade, and the city is currently embarking on a massive rezoning to help meet its goal.
But so much construction on the Rockaway peninsula — a mandatory evacuation zone — could be shortsighted, according to Dr. Klaus Jacob, a climate expert who works at Columbia University.
During Hurricane Sandy, high-rise buildings throughout the peninsula were left powerless. Many elderly residents were stranded in apartments on higher floors.
While 16 new building codes and regulations have pushed utilities out from basements and worked to make buildings more durable, it eventually won't be enough, Jacob said.
"The access to the [apartment] units will become intermittent as time progresses and oceans rise, and eventually, the lowest units will be jeopardized, at latest by the latter part of this century, if not earlier during severe storms," he said.
The mayor contends he's not giving up on the peninsula, and is still working to protect it.
“Every community — the Rockaways included — deserves affordable housing to meet its needs," mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell said in a statement.
"We are determined to invest in our coastal neighborhoods to keep them vibrant, diverse and affordable, and ensure the seniors who built those communities can continue to call them home."
