From the Queens Chronicle:Plans for a 12-story hotel with 148 rooms and a 14-story office tower in downtown Flushing are one step closer to reality with approval of a variance Monday night by Community Board 7.
Attorney Richard Lobel asked that a reduction in parking be permitted because of the high water table at the site, 36-18 Main St. It is the former location of Peck’s office supply company. The board approved the request in a 28 to 2 vote, allowing 305 spots instead of the required 344.
The board asked the developer to seek a Department of Transportation traffic study and the placement of a light on 36th Avenue and Prince Street because of traffic concerns. The Board of Standards and Appeals will make the final decision on the zoning change.
Plans call for the office building to front on Main Street and an Intercontinental hotel and underground parking on Prince. There will also be a two-level spa between the buildings as well as shops and a restaurant.
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CB7's consideration of this variance was held over from a prior meeting in November 2013. At the original November CB7 meeting when this variance was discussed, CB7 Chair Eugene Kelty made the point that the high water table discovered at this property is not "unique" to that site, but common to all sites in that area, and that the variance therefore fails to satisfy the first required criteria: "that there are unique physical conditions …. inherent in the particular zoning lot; and that, as a result of such unique physical conditions, practical difficulties or unnecessary hardship arise". (See http://www.nyc.gov/html/bsa/html/mission/mission.shtml)
When CB7 reconvened last Monday to resume consideration of this variance, there was no mention of the non-uniqueness of the high water table, or of the failure of the proposed variance to satisfy mandatory BSA criteria. If that was an issue back in November, it should have remained so, now.
The rendering shows only white folks in downtown Flushing?
What's the current utilization of all nearby parking lots/garages? If there is capacity why not let buildings like this lease some of that parking? 344 spots for this project is a lot for an area with good transit connections.
This will probably be a hotel that caters to all those prostitutes in flushing so they don't have to give "services" in their "spas".
The rendering considers the shift in Asian population out of Flushing over the next 5 years. East Euro immigrants will transition in to pick up the pieces.
"The board approved the request in a 28 to 2 vote.."
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There are 50 board members at CB7. Why only 30 members voted?
"In New York City you can only build upwards".
If this statement held true anywhere and/or anytime in the last 15 years, it definitely holds true in Flushing.
that is why this rezoning is a sham.
2 story building in 6 story zone
rezone to 5 story zone
smiling politician with a local Queens civic group all beaming and happy.
tear down 2 story for 6 story with variance.
does anyone wonder why Queens gets no respect?
The rendering considers the shift in Asian population out of Flushing over the next 5 years. East Euro immigrants will transition in to pick up the pieces.
European countries are now in the craphole, most of those countries are now broke.
I remember going to Pecks, when the area was accessible to humans.
good news in flushing. amazing.
The crapification of Queens continues unabated.
Good news. My electricity was out after the snow storm, so I have to live in a hotel for 2 nights. Very few choice in flushing, and the price is even more expensive than Manhattan. One was totally sold out.
More ugly useless crap to look forward to in the future of Queens.
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