John Moore via Getty Images Rikers Island jail complex is dusted by snow in January 2018.

The New York City Council is preparing to consider a trio of bills that would set the stage to convert the infamously violent jail complex on Rikers Island into a solar farm and wastewater treatment facility. The bills mark what Queens Councilman Costa Constantinides, whose district lies just south of the jail complex, described as a bid to not only ensure the 400-acre island remains out of the grasp of luxury developers but also to curtail pollution in working-class neighborhoods and to broaden the scope of the historic Green New Deal legislation he helped pass last month. If completed, the project would transform Rikers Island into a public utility hub that Constantinides said would make it easier to close the two dozen oil- and gas-burning power plants within city limits. The jail is slated to close by 2027, though that timeline could speed up. One bill orders the city to complete a study of how much it would cost to install renewable energy ― most likely solar, though the legislation doesn’t specify the type of technology ― and batteries on Rikers Island. Another bill mandates a similar study for a wastewater treatment plant. The third and most consequential bill transfers the deed to the entire Rikers landmass from the city’s Department of Corrections to the Department of Environmental Protection, giving the environmental agency power to begin converting structures on the island to sustainable uses once the inmate population falls below 5,000. The jail complex houses roughly 10,000 inmates today, the vast majority of whom are black and Latino New Yorkers from poor neighborhoods. “We know all the atrocities that have happened on Rikers Island for close to 100 years,” Constantinides, who authored the bills, told HuffPost on Friday. “It’s important that we start planning for this renewable future now and not wait until the jails are closed.” It’s an announcement sure to stoke excitement in a borough that’s become a political hotbed since electing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and pressuring the world’s most valuable corporate behemoth, Amazon, to abandon plans to build a headquarters many feared would inflame gentrification. Queens is now gripped by a heated election that could propel a socialist public defender to the district attorney’s office.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), whose surprise victory over long-time Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last year made Queens a hotbed of national political issues, backed the plan to build clean utility facilities on Rikers Island.

The new legislation comes two months after the City Council voted 45-2 to approve the Climate Mobilization Act, a historic package of bills that offered what advocates praised as the clearest example yet of a municipal Green New Deal policy. The omnibus legislation set aggressive new energy efficiency standards for big buildings, added new incentives for renewables and ordered the city to study how to shutter its existing fossil-fueled power plants in the five boroughs. The vote in April was hailed as a victory for housing and climate activists, whose coalition and protests added momentum to a legislative package the city’s powerful real estate lobby opposed. The Rikers Island project could become a battle along similar lines. Developers started eyeing the island shortly after efforts to close the jail started gaining serious traction. Among them, according to a 2016 Politico report, were executives at Related Companies, the firm that built the “billionaire’s fantasy city” in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, and Forest City Ratner, the co-developer of Brooklyn megaproject Pacific Park. On Thursday night, about 250 residents from across the country’s most diverse county packed the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights for a nearly two-hour town hall meeting on the proposal. Speaking at the event in her district, Ocasio-Cortez, the face of the Green New Deal movement, called a “renewable Rikers Island exactly the kind of vision we can espouse, create, develop and bring to fruition.” “It’s no secret there are very powerful real estate lobbies in New York City, and every square inch is an opportunity to make a buck,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the event. “We’re really feeling that squeeze with housing, and a lot of folks have 10-year plans for our neighborhoods, so it’s time for us to make 10- or 20-year plans for ourselves.” That statement may come with a whiff of irony for residents in nearby Kew Gardens, who in April protested the city’s plans to reopen a jail in the neighborhood to house inmates from Rikers Island. Similar fights are playing out in other boroughs. Rikers Island’s history of pollution makes it a dangerous place to build housing, Constantinides said.

Alexander C. Kaufman / HuffPost Councilman Costa Constantinides, a Queens Democrat, speaks at a news conference announcing his bill to mandate energy-efficiency retrofits on big buildings.