CB9 says no way to basement apartments

From the Queens Chronicle:

Community Board 9 members have a message for Mayor de Blasio: not in our basements.

Members of the board passed a resolution affirming the board’s opposition to a plan by the mayor to legalize basement dwellings as part of his plan to place or preserve an additional 200,000 units of affordable housing throughout the city.

“We’re not sitting ducks for this,” community board member and Land Use Committee member Sherman Kane said of people moving into basement dwellings.

The resolution also includes an amendment that asks the Mayor’s Office to keep Community Board 9 included in any discussions of where affordable housing would be placed in its communities.

The mayor in May said he is seeking to add and/or maintain 200,000 units of affordable housing across the city.

Close to 80,000 of those units would be new developments and the remaining 120,000 would come from existing space, including some basement apartments.

But Community Board 9 members believe the possible addition of basement dwellings could lead to unforseen problems.

Kane referenced a Dec. 4 Queens Chronicle article that detailed a number of illegal conversions made in a South Ozone Park home that spontaneously exploded in the early afternoon hours of Thanksgiving Day.

“This is one of many examples of what happens when you have illegal conversions,” he said.