From the Queens Gazette:Firefighters responded to a nine-story hotel construction site in the Dutch Kills community on February 6 after strong winds caused debris to fall to the street.
Firefighters who arrived at the site at 38-30 28th St. at about 10:30 a.m. quickly determined that the wind had loosened a piece of sheet metal attached to a deck on the ninth floor of the project.
“The wind caused the sheet metal, measuring approximately 4 feet wide by 20 feet long to bend, pushing some construction debris to the street,” a fire spokesperson said. There were no injuries reported as a result of the falling debris.
A DOB inspector checked the repairs on Saturday afternoon to “temporarily clear the site”, an agency spokesperson said.
According to a DOB Web site, an inspector who visited the project site on February 8 issued two Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations to developer Costas Katsifas, d/b/a Katfka Construction, for failure to safeguard the construction debris and for a faulty elevator at the site.
Fire officials told the Gazette the developer must have a working elevator at the nine-story job site in case of required emergency response.
The Department of Buildings also issued a Stop Work Order for the project on February 8 for the non-working elevator. A DOB spokesperson said the agency “would like to make it very clear to the community that the Stop Work Order has nothing to do with falling debris reported on February 6”.
In an unrelated incident, area residents also reported finding cinderblocks in their back yards that they allege fell from a sidewall at the same project. Residents alerted DOB to the condition, providing photos as proof of the incident, sources said.
2 comments:
If the city need teeth to hold Developer accountable, then they should implement a new law;
Define violation by 3 categories.
A B & C. If a developer is issued violation of an combination of level A-C and exceed it it with a 4th. his project is halted for 1 year or unless 100 equity is sold to another entity. This would include 2 instances of an A rated violation - most serious and etc.
Violations exceeding beyond the standard above is then exposed to eminent domain (public good) and will require the value of the land to be valued at 50% of market.
With a developer with this knowledge in hand prior to development/construction - he/she will pay attention to the safety laws with great interest rather than viewing paying fines as a cost of doing buisness.
Watch out...Dutch Kills can really kill!
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