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Plans to redevelop Willets Point continue to follow the pathway to reality, after Borough President Helen Marshall held a public hearing July 10 on the project.

Marshall has yet to issue a recommendation, though she has previously pushed for the design. Dan Andrews, press officer for the president, said Marshall will likely issue a statement on Willets Point next week.

The City wants to transform the 62 acres of commercial property – mostly made up of junkyards and streets full of potholes – into a thriving, mixed-use neighborhood with 5,500 residential units, a school for 850 students, a convention center, a hotel, office space and retail space.

But the opposition to the project is strong and includes Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona), the representative for this area.

“This plan the president is having a hearing on is a bad plan,” Monserrate told a crowd outside Marshall’s office in Kew Gardens. He said the City is taking the land to give to “fat cats” and the average Queens resident would not benefit from the project. He said the City needed to “ensure working class and poor New Yorkers can continue to live here and get a fair shake,” and that New York shouldn’t be a “city for the rich.”

Monserrate was joined by advocates of low income housing who want to see more than 25 percent of the residential units in the project set aside for such housing. He was also joined by Willets Point property owners in opposing the project. The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, a group consisting of the largest Willets Point businesses, recently hired former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer to lobby against the project.

But the City Economic Development Corporation is also moving forward and announced last week it had negotiated a property acquisition for another business in Willets Point, the third to date. Met Metals agreed to let the EDC acquire 17,000 square feet, contingent on the project’s approval.

Community Board 7 approved the project in a tight vote last month. However, the board made its approval contingent on a number of factors, including increasing the amount of lower-income housing and exhausting all options before using eminent domain.