In the city's development process, Tuesday's double-session meeting is the first in a series of meetings that will define the parameters of the city's environmental impact statement, which is required before any development can begin. Once the parameters are set, the city will then perform the study, whose release is followed by a further comment period. But local business leaders have said they will do what they can to make the city's proposed invocation of eminent domain the main topic of Tuesday's meeting.
"The city is continuing to forge ahead and hand over privately owned property to private development," says Neil Soni, president of House of Spices, whose factory is on Willets Point. "How American is that?" Mr.
Soni and other business owners plan to protest and be heard, he says. The EDC has said it will do its best to address the concerns of the community, in this case, the business community of Willets Point.
