Upcoming “Collision” over BQX Overlooks Existing Manufacturing Land Use Challenges

As Crain’s yesterday noted, the proposed Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX) poses serious challenges to the industrial and manufacturing businesses along its potential route. However, the lack of zoning protections for manufacturing-zoned (M-zone) land leaves the future of the sector in jeopardy, regardless of whether or not the BQX moves forward. As a field that has historically provided strong wages with low barriers to entry, it is crucial to ensure that industrial and manufacturing businesses are key parts of the city’s broader vision for a more equitable city.

Last November, after successful advocacy from industrial advocates, the Administration promised to create to a special permit process to limit hotels and self-storage facilities. While a number of provisions in the Administration’s Industrial Action Plan have seen progress, zoning protections for Industrial Business Zones, to say nothing about broader use group reform, have failed to move forward.

Both along the proposed BQX route and elsewhere, manufacturing land is being sold and rented at high rates, driven up by the possibility of lucrative uses like hotels, nightclubs, and self-storage. This creates a challenging environment for the city’s remaining manufacturers. The lack of progress on overarching use group reform only exacerbates this citywide problem.

While the BQX will be a significant policy debate, the issues facing the industrial and manufacturing sector, and the high-quality, good paying jobs they create, should be addressed in their own right.