If you look at the subway map, the area around Maspeth that's south of the 7, north of the L, east of the G, and west of the M. LIC itself has tons of transportation as you mentioned, I'm just saying that that area is only an 8 minute commute from LIC but is itself a transportation desert.
Well, as someone who use to live in that area. It sucked, I think “transportation desert” is very applicable. There are buses, but you only take them to transfer for trains into the city.
Maspeth is pretty far out from LIC though. I'm not really sure how it comes into play here. Yeah, it's the driving-dependent suburbs. Barely even has any bike lanes yet.
Not just Maspeth. Look on Google Maps satellite view along Newton Creek and east of Sunnyside Yard. There is a ton of stuff that can either be relocated or built on top of. (If you drive through that area at ground level, it feels like you're in some post-apocalyptic horror movie.) It's not far at all, especially if you build a new road or light rail line connecting that area to LIC, which is reasonably feasible if the southern part of Sunnyside Yards gets decked over.
http://web.mta.info/maps/submap.html