In mid-September, Seth Pinsky walked into Councilman Tony Avella’s Lower Manhattan office to talk about the proposed Willets Point redevelopment, flanked by a set of aides. The wiry young president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation made his pitch to the Queens Democrat, hailing the benefits of his agency’s largest development project, and leaving Mr. Avella with a presentation in the form of a colorful booklet.

Mr. Avella, one of the Council’s most outspoken voices on the subject of overdevelopment, laid out conditions for his support, ones he thought the city would be unlikely to meet. And, from his perspective, that was that.

Or so he thought.

“Now, just this past week, they called again,” Mr. Avella said. “They want to do a follow-up meeting.

“It’s one of the few times that the administration has lobbied me after I’ve made my position public,” he added. “Usually … they don’t lobby me—so they must be worried.”

With less than five weeks until the Council must vote on the Bloomberg administration’s Willets Point plan, administration officials are going retail to win support, rushing to sway council members through individual meetings and to mitigate concerns about housing and the use of eminent domain.

City officials say they have met individually or in small groups with at least 10 to 20 council members over the past two weeks alone; the city-funded Flushing/Willets Point/Corona Local Development Corporation plans to meet one by one with the Queens delegation between this week and last; and labor unions are adding pressure in support of the plan, with a rally slated for City Hall on Friday.

The rush comes as council members and others involved in the process say that the fate of the Willets Point proposal is marked by far more uncertainty than almost any other rezoning plan that has made it to this late stage of the city’s seven-month approval process in recent years. The Bloomberg administration often boasts that every one of its 87 rezoning plans have made it through the Council thus far, and city officials have little desire to see their Willets Point plan, as a priority and legacy project, suffer an almost unprecedented defeat in the Council.

And while controversial land-use projects often see deals brokered at the last minute, there’s legitimate reason to doubt such a smooth landing for Willets Point, a proposed $3 billion redo of the 61-acre industrial site by Shea Stadium that has been targeted for redevelopment for decades. The local councilman, Hiram Monserrate, has been vocal in expressing significant, specific reservations with the proposal, and a Council majority has already signed onto a letter opposing the project as currently planned.

Now the project enters its final, most political stage of public review at the very time that New York City’s entire political class is preoccupied with a term-limits debate that may decide the next four years for the majority on the Council (a term-limits bill will have its first and second hearings before the Council on Thursday and Friday; the Willets project will have its first hearing on Friday, with a final vote expected by Nov. 18).

The resistance of much of the Council has project supporters concerned.

“I’m worried that so many of the Council people seem to be: first reaction is negative, and not do it,” said Assemblyman Mark Weprin, a Democrat of Queens. “If it doesn’t go this time, it may never happen.”

The Bloomberg administration has had far better luck winning the support of the Queens-area state legislators like Mr. Weprin than it has with the Council. In a letter sent to council members last week, seven local members of the Assembly and State Senate signed an endorsement of the plan, but ultimately it is the Council that casts the make-or-break vote on the rezoning next month, and the project’s backers are aiming their efforts at them.

The mechanics of winning enough Council support for the rezoning are quite complex, as the project has a long cast of characters and interest groups, often with competing needs. Advocates want more subsidy going into affordable housing, and the landowners want higher prices and good relocations, for instance. Buying out landowners would win goodwill from many on the Council, as did an earlier deal with the Central Labor Council to put in labor restrictions, but then economics on the project would change, potentially jeopardizing other components, such as affordable housing.

The major target of the city’s efforts of late has been the six dozen or so landowners who compose Willets Point, particularly the larger owners that have banded together in a group that has provided the bulk of the opposition to the plan, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association. Deals with the WPIRA members, who declined to comment for this article, would undoubtedly ease pressures on the administration, as the landowners’ group has proved a formidable foe, spending tens of thousands of dollars on lobbyists, consultants and lawyers.

The landowners have also been prolific donors to council members from Queens, spreading, according to campaign filings, more than $111,000 between just eight candidates for city office in 2009: Comptroller Bill Thompson and council members David Weprin, Peter Vallone Jr., Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz, Helen Sears, Tony Avella, and Mr. Liu. The local councilman, Mr. Monserrate, has received more than $50,000 from Willets Point business owners in his bid for a State Senate seat next month.

“We are making extraordinary efforts” to reach deals with landowners, Mr. Pinsky, the city’s EDC president, said. “As we’ve been approaching the conclusion of the [public approval] process, I think more and more businesses are viewing this as a real possibility.”

City officials say they are talking with numerous landowners, and in the past year have counted more than 500 e-mails, phone calls or meetings with land and business owners on the site.

The prospect of widespread eminent domain has caused significant consternation on the Council, as many members say its use is becoming far too common.

“I think eminent domain has factored into this far more prominently,” said Councilman John Liu, comparing the Willets Point plan with other controversial projects that have come before the Council.

At this point in the public approval process with other projects, the Council and the administration typically disagree over proposed density, height limits, schools and levels of affordable housing, with a deal often made at the last minute. But Mr. Liu seems to view the issue of widespread eminent domain use as a more forbidding obstacle than the concerns typical of other rezonings.

“Most of the other concerns are about political priorities and different constituencies scrambling for as much as they can get,” he said. “The eminent domain issue is not one about constituency—it’s really one about fundamental fairness.”

Beyond eminent domain, the other major issue the Council wants resolved is a boost in the amount of below-market-rate housing, an issue on which advocacy groups and the city have begun to work out an agreeable plan. But advocates say they are ambivalent about the project, as the financial crisis has brought new uncertainty, and while new affordable housing is welcome, the plan would displace over 1,700 existing workers.

At the center of all of the efforts is Mr. Monserrate, the former Marine whose vote is likely to sway a significant portion—if not a majority—of the Council, as legislators typically defer to the local member. Without his support, the city would surely face a steep uphill climb to gain approval.

In recent months, Mr. Monserrate has staked out strong positions critical of the current plan that would be difficult to backtrack on without appearing hypocritical, proclaiming strong opposition to the widespread use of eminent domain and saying that the amount of affordable housing needs to be “dramatically higher” than the 20 percent already committed by the city.

Key to winning Council support, multiple people familiar with discussions said, is the fate of the largest landowner at the site, Tully Environmental. Relocation would likely be difficult for a property owner of Tully’s size, and the firm has been the most active campaign contributor of any of the landowners to local elected officials. The firm, along with other companies listed with the same address, has targeted Mr. Monserrate above the other elected officials, putting at least $22,500 toward his Senate campaign, according to campaign filings.

ebrown@observer.com