Floral Park profile

In other parts of Queens, multiunit homes rise from what were once single-family lots, the result of a teardown fever that over the last few years has gripped borough developers. Yet Floral Park remains uncrowded, partly because developers tied up elsewhere in the borough simply haven’t gotten around to it yet. There are about 13,000 people over a square mile, which works out to about 20 homes per block.

A Town Center at City’s Edge

And that, in turn, is largely why Amar Singh, a software consultant who works in Midtown, moved here last year. “It was getting way crazy with too many people” in Richmond Hill, his address from 2002 to 2006, said Mr. Singh, who sold his house without having another lined up. He first become a renter in Floral Park.

A quarter of all South Asians in New York live in overcrowded homes, with more than one person per room, and often in illegal basement apartments, Ms. Agnani said; these basement units exist in Floral Park and occasionally cause tension with longtime residents, community leaders acknowledge.

Relief probably won’t come in the form of larger houses. To keep growth in check, the City Planning Department may shrink Floral Park’s zoning from R2 to R2A, which stipulates that a house take up no more than 30 percent of a lot, down from 37 percent. Adding attic rooms would also become tougher, as height limits would be 35 feet.

Photo from NY Times