Community Board 7 gave the NYPD its blessing Monday night to sign a 20-year lease on a tow pound previously under a temporary agreement to operate at 31-22 College Point Blvd.
After hearing both sides of the debate, the board voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the tow pound stay, with 29 votes supporting the long-term arrangement and 14 votes against.
The tow pound appeared on the lot in 2013 to the chagrin of College Point residents, who feared that the facility would increase traffic and weaken streets already riddled with potholes and deteriorating roads. The area also hosts a new police training academy which opened in January.
With an average of 40 to 50 cars towed into the facility daily, the tow pound is estimated to generate additional traffic of around 60 cars per day including cars towed and employee vehicles. The location has on-site parking for employees, and can accommodate 157 cars.
Despite area residents’ initial reservations, police say they have not received any complaints in the two years of the tow pound’s operation in College Point.
Owners Jerry and George Filippidis, brothers who are both residents of the area, assured board members that they were trying to consider the good of the neighborhood by choosing the relatively lower traffic tow pound than a big box retailer.
9 comments:
The thing I don't understand is why they constructed that big building and now have a tow pound. Wouldn't it have made sense not to construct the building, save the money, and use the space the building sits on for space to put the cars?
Wasn't this site supposed top be a commercial building with retail stores space on the ground floor and professional space upstairs?
It's was empty for a couple of years before it was a tow pound. Wasn't there some sort of DOB problem?
Those brothers intended to move their printing business to College Point from Brooklyn.
They lost part of their shirt building the CP structure. A lot of the building costs went into driving a lot of extra piles into the swamp that
comprises a lot of College Point land. Their resulting building was built smaller than anticipated because of the cost over runs.
To get out of a bad self imposed business move, they now have a sweetheart deal with the NYPD to lease their property for twenty years.
Smart move. A steady city rent roll beats on and off leases to several renters over the years.
The Chinese "architect" who was responsible for their building did not do his homework. Everybody knows that College Point is marsh land and that you have to estimate quadruple the amount of piles that need to be driven to support any foundation.
The police academy is already seeing cracks in their walls. The New York Times building is gradually sinking.
Hmmmmm...an architect's lowball bid is not always the best one to go with, especially in College Point.
Yeah...even "follow the buck" Chuck Apelian told them that they were warned about the marsh they were going to build upon.
I attended that meeting at CB7. It was warm as Hell in that room. People were fanning themselves with their copies of the evening's agenda.
That is one way to speed up the process or lose attenders to heat stroke. If these are the conditions that business is conducted at Union Plaza by CB7, one has to ask if they will ask for a cooler room for the next public hearing?
The applicant's argument was that there would be much more vehicular traffic if the site was rented to retail. The College Point Board of Trade endorsed the tow pound. They were afraid that big retail would kill small businesses. Small businesses? They are almost as dead as the College Point Board of Trade. Big box store are in. Smal business gets the leftover shaft to the hilt!
This Queens Courier article neglects to report that both CB7 Chair, Gene Kelty, and CB7 Land Use Chair, Chuck Apelian, voted to DENY the tow pound application. The majority of the CB7 membership voted against the Chair and Land Use Chair, which is significant. Among the reasons cited by Kelty and Apelian for their votes were that CB7 was promised that in exchange for its prior approval of the Police Academy, the tow pound would be permanently removed from College Point; that the environmental review of the Police Academy did not take into account the continued operation of any tow pound at College Point (since it was promised to be permanently removed); and that siting the tow pound at College Point may violate the city's "Fair Share" criteria, because many other city operations exist within a short distance of the proposed tow pound site. The majority of CB7's membership chose to ignore all of that, including the city's prior promise to CB7 that the tow pound would be permanently eliminated. This only demonstrates to the city's powers-that-be that CB7 is willing to overlook promises made by the city -- an unwise precedent to set.
Owners Jerry and George Filippidis, brothers who are both residents of the area, assured board members that they were trying to consider the good of the neighborhood by choosing the relatively lower traffic tow pound than a big box retailer.
Walmart, Home Depot and other big boxers would not build on that swamp. These two brothers are connected. Follow their campaign donations.
Connected? Absolutely! Just because these brothers live in CP doesn't mean that they weren't willing to shit in their own backyard. The big printing plant they had intended to open would have caused a ton of vehicular traffic, not to mention the pollution.
They just fucked themselves into a corner with their greed and now have the NYPD, and we taxpayers, to bail them out.
I would love to walk away from one of my business mistakes and get a free ride from NYC.
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