HUDSON SQUARE — The City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday on the massive development project planned for the St. John's Terminal site across from Pier 40.
The Aug. 24 hearing at the CPC headquarters at 22 Reade St. in lower Manhattan will provide an opportunity for local residents to give their opinions on the plans for the project, as well as the Hudson River Park Trust's plan to sell air rights from Pier 40 to the St. John's Terminal developers.
Late last year, the city, in conjunction with the developers, announced a plan for the site that would help the mayor meet one of his key goals: building 80,000 new units of affordable housing and preserving 120,000 existing ones by 2020.
The plan for St. John's Terminal site at 550 Washington St. in Hudson Square has the developers, Atlas Capital Group and Westbrook Partners, paying $100 million for 200,000 square feet of the air rights attached to Pier 40, which they will use to build a 2-million-square-foot complex of retail, condos, affordable housing and potentially a hotel.
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The developers committed to setting aside 30 percent of their residential units as permanently affordable housing for seniors and low- and middle-income families.
Wednesday's hearing is a routine part of the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) required for developments that necessitate zoning changes — 550 Washington St. is not zoned for residential.
If the developers don't get approval for this project, however, they have said they will build an as-of-right development that would include a 50-story hotel, plus two buildings containing office, retail and event space.
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The developers want to start construction in 2017.
At previous public meetings, wary locals have raised concerns about the impact the development will have on local facilities, and pushed for the developers to fund construction of a new school to accommodate the influx of new families and avoid overcrowding existing local schools.
On the Pier 40 side, stakeholders including youth sports league leaders have worried that the $100 million is not enough to really save the dilapidated pier and its much-used ball fields.
HRPT President and CEO Madelyn Wils has repeatedly insisted that the $100 million is enough to make the most critically needed repairs to the underwater piles that support the pier, and has outlined plans to generate more revenue for the pier, potentially by constructing and leasing office space on the pier itself.