A second house is about to spring up on a Flushing block where neighbors have been raging over another recently constructed, two-story dwelling which they said dwarfs the size of their own homes.
The new house, at 146-21 56th Road, like its predecessor three doors down, will replace a one-story dwelling that was built in 1935 in a row of attached houses, according to city Department of Buildings records.
“I’m gonna fight like hell to stop what they’re doing up there,” said Mildred Higgins, who has lived on the block for 38 years with her husband John. “I was so upset when they put up the crane to rip out the front of that first house, I almost had a heart attack.”
Neighbors have said the new houses will completely change the character of their Queensboro Hill block and have caused a number of residents to sell their longtime homes.
City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) has called for a moratorium on any more houses being built on the block before the Department of City Planning conducts a zoning study of his district, which he has requested but the department has not committed to.
Koo’s office is set to meet with Planning officials in August over the issue.
28 comments:
What a disgusting POS!
This kind of shit is happening all over Flooshing!
NYC needs an Aesthetics Police Force! Our new neighbors bring their shitty Third World architectural ideas with them!
Tony Avella saved our community from exactly that with his anti-McMansion bill. Vote for Tony Avella he'll fight for oue neighborhoods.
I might be a slow adult, but how do they slice a house out of a row without damaging the houses on either sides?
DISGRACEFUL!!! And the poor long- time homeowners adjacent to this eyesore are now literally in the dark.
Koo needs a study? Typical politician. Maybe the community needs a new politician.
Yet another in a series of hollowing out the fabric of a community making it ripe for development.
Maybe the civics of Queens could ask Koo to look into that idea.
so she is jealous someone is building a bigger house than she has?
i've been in some of these old houses and they are pretty small compared to modern standards
The intellect will buy the worst house in the best neighborhood they can afford. The sub-intellect will buy (now build) the best (as they perceive)house in the worst neighborhood they can afford.
Very ostentatious. Will make great neighbors I'm sure.
"so she is jealous someone is building a bigger house than she has?
i've been in some of these old houses and they are pretty small compared to modern standards"
Methinks you're missing the point!!!
Those row houses may have been "small compared to modern standards" but they were well built and had style and class, and housed one family just fine The new Asian crap is shoddy and ugly and has 4 families illegally stuffed inside. Welcome to the third world, folks.
Asians of course!
That thing is HIDEOUS! I can imagine a house going 2 stories without destroying the look of the block but this type of builder probably takes pride in standing out, with his mini-McMansion with its ugly colored brick and general hideousness. YUCK!!!!!
Oh gross!!!! It's a two-family, with those horrible side-by-side doors which should be OUTLAWED immediately.
I just looked this POS up on BIS and it's supposed to be zoned for a 1-family but the doors make it obviously a 2-family now. And there are complaints that are obviously not being followed up on by the DOB. And the builder is Chinese, what a surprise, with that wonderful aesthetic of chrome balconies, etc. YUCK!!!!
The side walls were built to be ready for the next crap to be
placed on either side.
It will not end because "We're Queens - We Can't Have Nice Things !"
Hold your elected officials accountable! They have the power and influence to do right by their communities. Let them know how important this is. Power in numbers.
Don't worry. In the not too distant future every house other than the new big ones is a tear-down, and the smaller houses will be the ones out of character.
This is awful and it seems to be spreading all over Queens. It's not about someone new having a bigger (uglier) house. There's the issue of structural integrity for the remaining houses, and the fact that the new thing blocks out the sunlight for the neighbors. Someone shouldn't be able to move next door to you and plunge your living room/bedroom into darkness for all eternity (without compensating you) just because they want something bigger. It happens all the time in Manhattan construction, but this isn't Manhattan.
What can we do to stop this cancer of overdevelopment or poor planning spreading through Queens?
looks like a two family home too - is this allowed in that area?
What can we do to stop this cancer of overdevelopment or poor planning spreading through Queens?
-------------------------
Deportations and tighter immigration laws?
This isnt 6th generation residents doing this.
you will never stop this . when all is said and done you will have only a hand full of old homes left.
I was born in flushing in 59 and I KNOW the score.
Get ready the Elmhurst Chinese destroyed Elmhurst and the once beautiful blocks and houses there, now they are coming to Northeast Queens (which is more beautiful and spacious than Elmhurst) and if nothing is done the same will happen here. Down zoning and building according to neighborhood aesthetics need to come into play!
It's all quite simple, I wouldn't want a change on my block like this, but there's nothing I could do about it.
All plots have a zoning, zoning determines how many square feet of living space can be built on a given footprint.
If x amount of living space can be built, more than what was there, then a larger house can go up.
Almost every architect has a planner that determines how to get the most out of a building given the zoning. Construction and development has come a long way since these little row houses were built.
Things have changed, but the old zoning laws remain.
If you had an opportunity to buy a little house and the money to knock it down and build something nice, most would.
No, I think most would buy a house that is already built to their specs, not buy one nothing like what they are looking for and then alter the hell out of it. Where's the savings in that?
Obviously, it's an additional cost, a large one.
Very, very few brand spanking new homes for sale. Nothing beats a brand new home built to spec if you have the bucks.
I think a lot of non-American buyers (and perhaps Americans, too) see anything that doesn't turn into rentable (or usable) square footage as waste.
They are likely truly mystified as to why anyone would choose to build a smaller house than the law allows on a lot.
Very few new homes? That's all I see. Construction fences and new crap everywhere.
I think we need more of these houses. They are beautiful and grand which is the way I wish all of Queens would be perceived. These old people are too poor to buy new houses and they make Queens seem poor like some kind of ghetto with their crappy 100 year old houses. So those people are fine living like they are in the projects by squeezing entire families into a one story house, when someone with the money for a higher quality of living comes along to spruce up the old crap you should be very thankful.
Post a Comment