On May 3, local civic leaders and state Senator Avella held a press conference to call attention to the trend — observed in areas including Bayside, College Point and Bellerose — where semi-attached houses are being re-built by developers to tower over the adjacent home.
The group called on the city to establish new building and zoning codes that protect semi-attached and row houses from this “inappropriate construction.”
“There’s nothing to stop this,” Avella said, referencing a photo of new home built up against a smaller residence in Queens. A firewall was built to separate the two structures.
This construction causes the property value of the attached home to plummet, Avella claimed, and opens adjacent homeowners up to ventilation and quality-of-life concerns.
“The only thing [the homeowner] can do is then sell to somebody else who’s going to do something like this on the other end,” Avella said. “We have to come up with some sort of proposal where at least the adjacent homeowner has some rights.”
12 comments:
Does anyone listen to Avella anymore?
These fucking developers have their way and try to screw Tony at every turn.
We are living in crooked times.
I have seen this happen many times before. We can thank the chinese/Koreans for these monstrosities. They will do anything to build a huge house just so they can fit as many people into a house as possible. It needs to stop but the government doesn't care about the people who have lived in these areas for years. Meanwhile, if we call them out on their crap, we are considered racists for wanting them to follow building permit laws. Of course the claim to be "minorities" always win in nyc. Meanwhile the "minorities" are actually becoming the majorities in this city. So now that I'm technically a "minority" in this city, I am going to start crying racial discrimination for everything and see how many people take me seriously.....which will probably be none.
Perhaps the smaller property is actually out of character. Just because it was built first does not take away the rights of the newer property. The older, smaller property can expand in the future, utilizing the full density it is allowed, and then it will not be out of character anymore. This is just politicking on people's emotions, but G-d forbid someone wants to build a bigger home for themselves on their private property. Yeah the prominent fire wall looks terrible, but should the owner voluntarily build smaller than what is allowed just to make other people happy. Avella, and his sympathizers, needs to get off their high horse and start discussing real problems in this state and city.
Again, Avella had an opportunity to broaden the effort to engage the public via cyberspace, and he walked.
Its nice to make these declarations to the faithful, but, as the definition of madness is to do the same thing over and over again and never change with the same (non)results, his story is getting a bit tired.
(These wasted opportunities at running for borough hall did not help his image either.)
Time to come up with a new game book Tony. Its starting to look like the public's faith in you is your personal plaything. We demand real results, not the same tired BS!
Has anyone established a ratio between Avella press conferences and successful results?
Just curious.
There is a way to stop it. The problem is that lazy electeds dont want to spend time thinking of a solution. The solution is new legislation and better enforcement.
Never understood why buildings are permitted to be built within a few feet of another building. What if repointing or other repairs need to be done on the obstructed sides?
The second picture has a house that's the same height as the neighboring house?
Didn't Anthony Como do this once upon a time in Middle Village when the residents voiced their concerns about overdevelopment in the area? People wanted to complain, but were afraid of the "tough guys" in Middle Village. What a warm and friendly neighborhood!
The solution is called zoning and code enforcement. Barely exists in NYC, so you can put up anything you want that looks like anything you want. Cross the border into Nassau County, and there is none of this.
Where is your city council?
Where in the F#$&#& are the civics?
Has anyone established a ratio between Avella press conferences and successful results?
Just curious.
(snicker) Ask Queens Civic Congress - don't they represent us?
Or are they, like the average civic in Queens, the politicians' post office?
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