SUNNYSIDE — The City Planning Commission will deliberate Wednesday on a developer's plan to construct more than 200 units of affordable housing on a parking lot in Sunnyside, a project that's been met with opposition from many neighborhood residents since it was first proposed last year.
Phipps Houses, an affordable housing developer, is seeking a zoning change to build the seven- to 10-story development on Barnett Avenue between 50th and 52nd streets, with 209 affordable apartments and a community facility space.
The plan drew concerns from residents who opposed the proposed height of the building and the number of new residents it would bring to the area. Community Board 2 recommended against the project in June for similar reasons.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz also recommended against the plan last month, saying the level of affordability planned for the project — with apartments for households earning 50, 100 and 130 percent of the area median income — would exclude many in the neighborhood who earn less.
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"Sunnyside is a vibrant community, increasingly attractive to new residents and therefore requiring deeper affordable housing," a spokesman for Katz said in a statement.
Katz would like to see the developer include more units for lower income households, as well as lowering the height of the proposed building to make it more in line with the surrounding neighborhood, according to the spokesman.
Phipps Houses has said the project will fill a need in the neighborhood and help achieve Mayor Bill de Blasio's goal of creating more affordable housing in the city.
If City Planning votes in favor of the project, the application will move to the City Council for a vote.
