From the Times Ledger:More than 100 people attended the Station Road Civic Association’s rowdy meeting last week to voice their vehement opposition to a plan to rezone more than 400 square blocks of northeast Queens because it fails to alter a manufacturing district in the middle of a residential Auburndale neighborhood.
The meeting was a chance for the civic members, its supporters and elected officials to state, explain and bellow their views in front of representatives of the Department of City Planning.
The discourse escalated as the evening progressed, with politicians and residents loudly interrupting Deborah Carney, deputy director of the department’s Queens office, throughout and at the end even threatening to sue the city if their demands were not met.
The backlash against the current plan centers on the refusal by the Planning Department to include in the rezoning proposal a change to the zoning of a small section of manufacturing-zoned land at the intersection of 172nd Street and Station Road, where automotive repair businesses, including Star Nissan Toyota and North Flushing Auto Care, currently exist as close as 30 feet from residential areas.
The civic’s members and supporters want the area changed to residential zoning in order to alleviate what they describe as constant noise, pollution and other problems caused by the businesses.
Carney said the city would continue to listen to concerns but did not signal that it would budge on the issue, explaining that department policy and consideration for business owners’ rights and wishes were key reasons for maintaining existing zoning in the area.
“When you have viable businesses on a commercial property, we certainly think twice before rezoning it,” Carney said. She added later that “you don’t always get the answers you want, but we’re coming from two different places. You’re coming from the community and City Planning is coming from a different position.”
That's funny, they will gladly rezone these types of areas when a big developer asks them to or when they want to destroy businesses to make way for luxury condos, a la Willets Point or LIC.
13 comments:
of the Lower Concourse Rezoning PLan in the Bronx that rezoned an industrial/manufacturing jobs area for future wishful condos
BLAME CHUCK APELIAN TOO!
Was the manufacturing zone there before the houses? Before the current residents moved in? If so, then shut the fuck up.
I live across the street from the Mercedes shop on Depot Rd. in Auburndale. The building was there, and obviously commercial/manufacturing, when we bought our house, so I'll be damned if I'm going to complain about it anymore than I"m going to complain about the LIRR 20 feet away from our house.
"Was the manufacturing zone there before the houses? Before the current residents moved in? If so, then shut the fuck up."
Now there's a rocket scientist.
Even if it was, it's no longer appropriate for the area. So they should just put up with it instead of try to fix it?
If it were rezoned for residential, it doesn't mean the dealership has to leave as it would be grandfathered in, it means it can't be replaced with another manufacturing use.
The idiots at city planning could not even plan a birthday party, you expect them to be able to effectively work with the community to plan what would best fit there? Keep on dreaming. They only listen to what bloomie and the developers want.
the rezoning is a "contextual" rezoning. If the M-1 zoning is no longer in context with the area then it should be changed.
Was the manufacturing zone there before the houses? Before the current residents moved in? If so, then shut the fuck up.
You live accross the street from Helms? Must be nice to have such a short commute to work. Good thing you don't need to drive, you'd never have a parking spot when you got home.
Yes, the houses were here first. The M-1 was never in context with the surrounding residential neighborhood. The M-1 was created by bureaucratic slight of hand through the sale of a city street to a private entity. The first occupant, Eutectic, poisoned the neighborhood with the by-products of welding rod manufacturing. The current occupants pollute the environment with auto emissions, noise from power tools, car alarms and excessive traffic from 4:30a.m. until 9:00p.m.
The current incarnation of the M-1 is the result of a subdivision of the original parcel of land into pieces that are on their face unable to comply with the bulk and yard requirements of the Zoning Resolution. If DOB and DEP had ever enforced these requirements and the performance standards of the Zoning Resolution Koufakis would have left years ago.
The only thing MANUFACTURED in this M-1 is 24/7 noise, truck/car traffic & toxic fumes. Industrial Uses within 27 feet of the "proposed", lowest density R2-A rezoning? It's time for NYC to undo their dirty little deal of the 60's. R2-M1 pariings with Industrial uses cannot co-exist in close proximity to each other, especially when Performance Standards are not ENFORCED.
It's been zoned industrial for years. with the contaminants in the ground, it should stay commercial, unless the magic budget fairy is going to clean the soil to the standard necesary for it to be residential.
Face it you bought a house in a nice neighborhood for less than it would have cost a few blocks away.....why? Because there was a factory across the street!
Maybe my property value would go up if they rezoned the houses across the street into a nature preserve.
While I don't think so many auto service centers in one spot was the most brilliant idea, they were legal. I know it would be nice to have the property incactive for 10 years like it was when eutectic closed, but those day are over.
"Magic budget fairy?"
Developers get into programs all the time and get cheap land, grants, tax breaks and incentives in return for cleaning up contaminated property.
And what don't you understand about the houses being there before the auto shops?
The houses were here before Eutectic. The sale of a city street for $6,700 allowed them to take over 172nd Street.
Houses in the area were not below market rate then or now and neither are the property taxes. Your right...let's leave it the way it is instead of holding the city accountable for it's actions. Hope you don't live within a few miles. You may be naive enough to think the toxins stay put in one place. Guess you don't know enough about the area to realize there is a running stream under those buildings. Hope you drink bottled water.
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