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Queens Hospital Land Plan Hit
The city plan for long-term leasing or sale of property that will be left over after the redevelopment of Queens Hospital Center may be woefully shortsighted, the local community board charges. But the city Economic Development Corp. says such protests are premature. Members of Community Board 8 say the development corporation should slow the process and avoid relinquishing its hold on land surrounding the new $147-million hospital center that the city might need later. Some board members and neighbors of the hospital met with Borough President Claire Shulman last week. "They're just concerned that once the city engages in a commitment of that sort, they're sort of locked into something that may not be as appropriate then as it is now," said Paola Micheli, director of health and senior services for Shulman. "What Claire basically said to them was there will be clauses and ways of getting around that legally, that can prevent having dinosaurs sitting on a property that we don't need." Shulman also is talking about medical-related uses for the excess property, Micheli said, adding, "That has been the focus of this all along. We're not talking about selling the property off to Home Depot." The three sites up for redevelopment include the hospital site, the former Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis and the parking area between the two locations. Possible uses, Economic Development Corp. President Michael Carey said, include health- or child-care centers, biomedical research facilities and staff housing. Bernie Diamond, treasurer of Community Board 8 and one of the leaders in its fight against long-term leases, said, "We're not opposed to those concepts, but we don't think it should go into private hands for someone's profit." Diamond and Seymour Schwartz, a member of Board 8 and co-chairman of its hospital land use committee, testified against the long-term plans at an Oct. 12 public meeting of the city Health and Hospitals Corp. "In this age of rapidly increasing biomedical changes," Schwartz testified, the need for new health-care spaces "cannot be predicted even 10 years ahead, let alone 99 years." Yesterday, Health and Hospitals Corp. deferred comment on the issue to the Economic Development Corp. The community board, which wants more input in the proposal process and final outcome of the redevelopment, also has passed a resolution urging the city to hang onto the public property. Neighboring Community Board 7 supports the resolution. Diamond said residents fear that if private developers take over, important services will cost the local elderly population more than they can afford. But Economic Development Corp. spokesman Bruce Brodoff said proposals aren't due back until Oct. 31, and he called the protests premature. "We're ecstatic that we're getting a state-of-the-art hospital here," said Board 8 Chairman Alvin Warshaviak, crediting Shulman with helping drive the construction. "But [that] doesn't mean that they can have carte blanche to do whatever they want with the remaining property." 
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