A civic meeting on the most romantic night of the year turned into a heated shouting match as furious Dutch Kills denizens blasted city planners for dragging their feet on a proposed rezoning of the area.Rezoning delay in Dutch Kills draws ire
The more than 50 residents who packed the Dutch Kills Civic Association meeting — many holding heart-shaped signs that read: "Don't Kill Dutch Kills" — accused the city Planning Department of needlessly delaying the rezoning by performing a painstaking environmental review.
The additional time required to compile the environmental impact statement — which began late last year and has yet to be completed — has allowed at least 11 high-rise hotels to begin as-of-right construction ahead of the planned rezoning. Under the proposed changes, massive hotels would be banned in most parts of the neighborhood.
Queens Planning Commissioner John Young said an initial environmental assessment of the project showed that a more thorough environmental impact study was necessary to gauge how anticipated population growth would affect the area.
Young said the rezoning plans should be certified in May, a step that triggers a public review process that can take up to seven months. But rezoning will likely not arrive in time to help Vienna Schettino, 48. The basement of her two-story home on 27th St. floods with mud because of construction of a nine-story hotel next door.
Graphic from Daily News
7 comments:
would be interesting to see a day to day break down of exactly what this so called "environemntal review" consists of. Probably something that could've been done within a month.
DO NOT believe city planning's chief go-fer
John Young or his feigned interest in your nabe!
His shoes must be made of lead.....
because he always seems to be dragging his feet
on implementing most of the down zoning measures
that were supposed to already have been in place
throughout Queens.
Amanda Burden and company are only
buying some more time so they can properly
kill off Dutch Kills!
It's funny how mighty John Young
is quick to accommodate northeast Queens
but gives curb service to the western environs
of that same borough!
The fix is in....
and neighborhoods like Dutch Kills, Astoria, Maspeth, etc. are slated to be put down!
That's the real plot that's hatching at city planning,
in a nutshell!
a moratorium on hotel construction while the rezoning is under consideration, but Young said the city can't "arbitrarily" deny people their property rights.
Good idea - to be fair any property bought to grandfather in zoning prior to changes should be an owner of the property for at least 5 years. Otherwise all others must bear consequences of new zoning rules. The local resident are prisoners of Pols whom are beholden to developers and are not interested in the residents issues. Thank Avella for his activism across Queens to slow down development and help residents determine the correct zoning for their areas.
Yea, lets get upzoned fast! fast! fast!
I do not want an 8 story hotel in my back yard.
I would rather sell out to an 11 story luxory co-op (read barracks)
Get more money for my personal little goldmine.
Where are the polticians?
Just like the Con Ed fiasco.
They are hiding until they can find an excuse.
Thank Avella?
For what? Helping to push development out of eastern Queens into western Queens.
Did he not vote infavor of that monster Suna Silvercup project.
I am tired of 'experts' from eastern Queens showing up in western Queens ready to 'help' us.
Afterall, was not Dutch Kills Civic part of QCC, which prided in helping them in their efforts to upzone (and of course, never bothered to tell them that in doing so, their community was committing suicide.
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