Thursday, March 3, 2011

Crap in the yard requires variance

From Bayside Patch:

A plan to build a two-bedroom house on a “side yard” in Bayside Hills could be shaping up as a battle royal between Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council – and there hasn’t been an official meeting about it yet.

The budding brouhaha centers around 50-20 216th Street, at the corner of 51st Ave. A house sits on the wide end of what is basically a triangular lot and the owner has split the property into two tax lots, with the idea of building another house on the land.

But there’s a catch. The planned construction falls short of zoning requirements, so a “variance” is needed from the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), with an advisory vote from CB11.

Bonfilio [the owner] said that he feels that BSA will issue the variance anyway, based on “case law.”

So does City Councilmember Dan Halloran, and he has a problem with it. After meeting with residents who were at the meeting, he explained.

The problem as Halloran sees it is that the Mayor appoints the BSA and because of a loophole created by an earlier Charter revision, its decisions can only be challenged in court.

To close the loophole would require either another Charter Revision, or a state law, Halloran said. “The Mayor can knock out the former and exercise considerable influence on the latter,” he conceded.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to DOF record, the lot area is 7244 square feet. In order to be devided into 2 lots, it is 356 square feet short (it needs to be 7600 square feet).

JOE said...

Anon. WRONG!! A 7244 square foot lot is allowed roughly 3622 square feet of living space. Look at COndos. THose are in essence 1 building lot and multiple tax lots. Besides the FACT, it's amazing that Dan halloran is opposed to this but fully agrees with a deep pockets Joe Franco to put in a 122 car parking lot in a residential neighborhood. COME ON!!!!

Anonymous said...

HALLORAN IS SAYING THE MAYOR COULD EXCERCISE CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE WHEN HE HIMSELF REFUSES TO DO SO WHEN IT COMES TO CPB 7? CAN YOU SPELL HYPOCRITE?

Anonymous said...

Despite there being two tax lots, there is ONE ZONING LOT. On that one zoning lot in R2A, the owner is allowed only 30% lot coverage and a .50 FAR.

Anonymous said...

it's amazing that Dan halloran is opposed to this but fully agrees with a deep pockets Joe Franco to put in a 122 car parking lot in a residential neighborhood. COME ON

DAN DAN HES OUR MAN, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE MONEY ITS RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPEMENT.

YAY DAN.

Anonymous said...

Oh my god. He's not Asian?!!!!

Anonymous said...

there is much squeezing of commercial/as of right development in n.queens. all of the previous politicians turned their backs on it ,if the donations and votes came their way.

be honest in your comments. the white house section is mostly commercial and always has been.

as with ozanam hall nursing home and kon wah owned daycare center at 196-29 42 avenue , has always been strictly one and two family homes.

the politicians took the donations and ran.g.o.p. and democrat.

JOE FOR CITY COUNCIL said...

OH. LOOKA HEAR.
Looks like Joe Franco Donated $300 to Dan Halorran:

FRANCO, JOSEPH
20110 CROSS ISLAND PKWY (same address to the old Caffee on the green)
BAYSIDE, NY 11360 300.00

**this came right off the ny state campaign financial disclosure website.

That's a great deal. I must say.
$300 and I the councilman will support any parking lot anywhere!
Homeowner must have declined the offer to donate....Now Danny is up in arms over a single family home.

Steve Behar said...

We fought hard to downzone Bayside just to stop this type of over-development by splitting lots.

All you need to do is drive by this property and you can see that another house does not belong on that lot.

Anonymous said...

THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS STEVE BEHAR "WE WORKED HARD" WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU? DIAPERS? LAW SCHOOL?

STEVE , YOU AND HALLORAN SHOULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT , TWO PEAS IN A POD. DOOF AND DUH,

I REMEMBER IANNECCE AND AVELLA "WORKING HARD" , NEVER SAW YOU THERE????

AS FOR THE WHITEHOUSE PROPERTY WHY A VARIANCE FOR THE ENTIRE AREA? IT IS A SMALL COMMERCIAL STRIP SURROUNDED BY RESIDENTIAL. I FOR ONE DONT WANT THE TRAFFIC AND THE DRUNK DRIVERS COMING OUT OF THE CATERING HALL A NIGHT DRIVING THRU MY NEIGHBORHOOD.

Steve Behar said...

Here we go again! Another gutless "Anonymous" post attacking me because he or she doesn't have the guts, or is just plain too scared, to say it to my face!

For the record, Tony Avella was a warrior when it came to downzoning Northeast Queens. When the first rezoning was happening in Bayside, Tony tirelessly visited the local civic, community and political organizations. He laid out the plans and took input from the community. I remember him coming to the political club I run with maps seeking our thoughts on the process.

I'm sorry that you didn't understand the meaning of "we." "We" means the community. "We" are the people who live in Northeast Queens. While I certainly have had input at various levels in the downzonings from Bayside to the more recent Oakland Gardens/Hollis Hills/Auburndale rezonings, when I stated "we" I meant "we" as in the community.

"Anonymous", perhaps you should have paid more attention in your remedial reading class.

JOE said...

Steve,
Take it easy man.
If the person does'nt want to post his name that's his right. No need to attach an anonymous person? Does'nt that make you as much as a chicken the anon poster?

Politicians are disappointing.

Steve Behar said...

@Joe:

I just thought attacking me for using the word "we" was such a nonsensical thing to do.

Hiding behind an "anonymous" post just seemed to make it worse.

Steve

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous", perhaps you should have paid more attention in your remedial reading class.
-----------------------------------
Here we go again! Another gutless "Anonymous" post attacking me because he or she doesn't have the guts, or is just plain too scared, to say it to my face!

-----------------------------------

Aww another sensative Politicin who can't handle criticism. Say it to your face? so you can "uh,um and duh" before you think of an asnwer?

What a putz,

I SWEAR THESE IDIOTS COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK ELECTION TIME TALKING ABOUT ALL THE WODERFUL THINGS THEY DO FOR THE COMMUNITY AND WHEN THEY LOSE, THEY CRAWL BACK UNDER THEIR ROCK UNTIL THE NEXT ROUND.

PUTZ,

YOU AND HALLORAN REALLY DO HAVE A LOT IN COMMON.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
HEY PUTZ, CAN I WRITE?

Anonymous said...

Steve, as professional adults and potential politician (in your case) we need to act in a more civil manner. There is a time and a place to attack when being attacked, but to resort to name calling and insulting people is wrong.

You are a nice enough guy that I had the pleasure of meeting at PS 193 during a debate. You are young enough to make a difference in our community. However I must say this outburst is a little disappointing.

Alfredo

Steve Behar said...

@Alfredo:

What upset me was that this post is about over-development which is an important issue that plagues our community. I live and grew up a few blocks from this property. I am not currently running for any office and I simply made a comment about how important fighting this type of over-development is to our community.

What also upset me was that one person that I see as a coward turned the important focus of the post into a personal attack on me.

We need to continue the fight against over-development in our community. I understand that people are going to make personal attacks and that's fine. However, in this case, the Anonymous poster was turning the focus away from the real issue at hand and making it about me. It makes it much harder to fight against over-development when we lose sight of the actual goal.

Anonymous said...

Let's stay on topic here, folks. This is about a zoning lot of 7244 square feet. 30 % lot coverage means that the builder can cover just 2,173 square feet.

In order to build two houses in an R2A zoning, one must have two 3,800 foot lots at minimum.

Floor Area Ratio on that single Zoning Lot can be just 0.5 or about 3622 square feet.

This builder wants two houses--one with 2167 square feet and the other with 2320 square feet.

This community fought hard for R2A zoning and can thank Tony Avella for making it possible.