Flushing's Mormon church to become big development

From The Real Deal:

Developer Xin Xiang Lin is looking to building a residential complex on the site of a Flushing Mormon church.

Xin filed a permit application to build an eight-story, 131-unit mixed-used building at 144-27 Sanford Avenue. The 113,000-square-foot property will be built on a 24,000-square-foot lot that sits between 147th Street and Parsons Boulevard.

Plans call for 93,000 square feet of residential space, with apartments having an average size of about 710 square feet. The building will also contain 20,000 square feet for an unspecified community facility.

The site will replace a two-story structure that was built in 1931. Demolition permits have yet to be filed.

BSA grants variance to Mormons

From the Daily News:

The city Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve construction of a church that is more than one-and-a-half times what is permitted under current zoning. The new chapel will be built on land owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 145-13 33rd Ave.

The green-lighted project, a contentious issue among neighbors, calls for a two-story chapel with a spire reaching 92 feet, a height allowed under current zoning.

The church plan, which critics say will stick out in the mostly residential neighborhood, was unanimously rejected by Community Board 7 and by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall earlier this year.

The original plan called for a 23,000-square-foot building, a yard setback variance and a steeper driveway than is permitted under current zoning. The church later scaled back the project, reducing the structure to 21,433 square feet and eliminating the need for the setback and driveway variances.

Mormons head back to the BSA

From the Times Ledger:

The Mormon church and opponents of a chapel it wants to build in Flushing headed back to the city Board of Standards and Appeals Tuesday to give more testimony for the agency to digest before considering newly tweaked plans.

The church has again altered architectural plans for its chapel, this time getting the number of exceptions to the zoning laws it is seeking down to one — which remains the main source of contention with the community surrounding the plot at 145-13 33rd Ave.

The proposed church would have 75 percent more floor space than would normally be allowed by law, according to civic leaders and lawmakers opposed to the project.

Paul Graziano, a zoning expert from the neighborhood, civics and representatives of lawmakers, including state Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), testified at the hearing in Manhattan. Many of the opponents said granting the church the variance for floor area would fly in the face of the 2009 North Flushing Rezoning, which sought to keep the residential character of the neighborhood.

But members of the church argued that the opponents were misinterpreting the zoning laws and that the proposed floor area meets requirements. Representatives from the church further contended that the current proposal would look nearly the same as a building they could build within the zoning laws.

“The church could essentially build an identical building as-of-right — with no visible differences from the outside — if it were to omit the second story inside,” said lawyer Daniel Braff in written testimony to the BSA.

But Graziano said the revised building would still be more than one story taller than the as-of-right version.

Mormons try to build big everywhere

From the Daily News:

A controversial plan to build a large Mormon church in Flushing will get a second hearing before a key city panel on Tuesday.

But a look at the church’s construction plans from around the nation shows that Queens isn’t the only place it is seeking permission to build up to the heavens.

Representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say it needs spacious buildings to accommodate its unique way worshipping, which include separate rooms for bible study groups divided by age and sex. Building them often requires permission from local zoning boards.

The Queens plan needs two variances from the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

“Everywhere they go, they refuse to abide by the rules that are set,” said Paul Graziano, an outspoken Flushing resident and an urban planner.

Church officials say there’s nothing untoward about asking for a variance in Flushing or elsewhere. “The church endeavors to obey the law,” said church spokesman Ahmad Corbitt. “Asking for variances is part of the law.”

Last year, the zoning board in Brookline, Mass., approved a variance to build a 33-foot high building with a 72-foot steeple, though some community members and lawmakers said that church was too big for the one-acre lot. A band of residents there even hired an attorney to fight the variance.

In one of the more well-known cases, in the late 1990s in Harrison, N.Y., the church sought to build an 89,000-square-foot building with a 159-foot spire. That plan, which faced years of resident opposition, was later abandoned when the church built its temple on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan, near Lincoln Center.

Published reports also describe land-use battles over temples proposed for residential neighborhoods in Phoenix, Ariz., Fort Collins, Colo., and in Kent, Wash.

In the Flushing application, which has been reduced in scope, the church argues that concerns over how the church will impact the neighborhood are not valid grounds to deny the application.

Mormon church variance hearing

From WPIX:

Sanford Avenue near Parsons Avenue in Flushing, has submitted an application to move to 33rd avenue, a street that is zoned for single family housing. The zoning changed in 2009. But the church, according to civic leaders, bought three parcels of land and submitted plans to build to the city.

The community board turned down the application.

"Why go into a low density area and upset the community, destroy zoning when you already have a site," said State Senator Tony Avella.

Today, the community went to the Board of Standards and Appeals to make their case about keeping the church out. The church is asking the city for an exemption since it's a religious entity. If the project is given a go, the structure is set to be 21,000 square feet. The average home on the block is 1,500 square feet.

Understanding the Mormon church controversy

The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormons, have proposed to build a 23,000 square-foot house of worship in North Flushing, Queens in New York City and are requesting major variances from the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). Community Board 7 and Borough President Helen Marshall have already voted strongly against the request for variances.

North Flushing, a suburban neighborhood known for its century-old single-family houses, was recently rezoned R2A, the first "anti-MacMansion" zone created in New York City. In 2004, then-Councilman Avella (now Senator) changed the laws governing Community Facilities, which include houses of worship, to limit their size in single-family zones (R1 and R2) in order to make sure that they are more in scale with the low-density detached single-family neighborhoods that they are located in. Should these variances be granted by the BSA, it will set a precedent that will overturn the 2004 zoning reforms, creating an incentive for religious organizations to expand their facilities substantially and altering neighborhoods in the process.

A press conference was held on March 8th, 2012 in front of the proposed LDS site and was attended by about 40 local residents and presidents of a number of civic and homeowner associations, representing thousands of residents, from northeast and central Queens.

Mormon Megachurch heads to BSA with unanimous thumbs down

From the Times Ledger:

Flushing civics were set to hold a rally this week to try to persuade the city Board of Standards and Appeals to deny plans for a Mormon chapel on 33rd Avenue.

The proposal for the two-story church, which exceeds several zoning laws, was most recently recommended for denial Feb. 23 by Borough President Helen Marshall.

The plan was unanimously turned down by Community Board 7 in January.

Both Marshall and CB 7 put in their recommendations before the BSA either grants several variances to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or sends it back to the drawing board.

Church officials said they would push on through the process, according to David Duffy, head of a group of 11 Mormon churches in the surrounding area.

Zoning lawyers for the church have contended that they can already build a chapel with extremely tall ceilings. Doubling the allowable floor space would permit them to have an extra floor inside and would only raise the overall height about 10 feet.

But activist and zoning expert Paul Graziano, who has been a vocal opponent of the church’s plans, said 10 extra feet is considered a standard story on a house, and that the Mormon church has room to build on the Sanford Avenue land it already owns.

The church has contended that the space is too small for its chapel, but the LDS Church recently cut the ribbon on a church in Jamaica that was built on a much smaller area.

According to a TimesLedger Newspapers analysis of blueprints for the Jamaica chapel, it has nearly all the same amenities as the proposed Flushing chapel.

Urgent call for hearing attendees

URGENT: Hearing at Borough Hall, Thursday February 2nd, 2012 at 10:30am
LDS (Mormon) Church Seeks to Overturn City-wide Community Facilities Reforms

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormon) are proposing to build an enormous community facility in North Flushing in an R2A zoning district on property that used to hold three single-family houses (and is now a garbage-strewn lot as the LDS doesn't take care of it). This is despite the fact that they currently own another property in an R7-1 zone where they can, as of right, build over 100,000 square feet of community facility space and don't have the need for any variances whatsoever.

I want to make this absolutely clear: If they receive approval for their proposed variances, all R1 and R2 zones in the city - Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island - are at risk.

The church is looking for numerous variances, including an almost doubling of their as-of-right FAR (.95 instead of .5). This was one of the major changes that was passed City-wide in the Community Facilities zoning reforms of 2004, along with mandatory on-site parking requirements - to make sure that religious facilities in R1 and R2 detached single-family low density zones would be more in scale with their surrounding neighborhoods. While part of North Flushing has been overwhelmed with community facilities over the last 20 years, none of them have ever received variances. If this variance is approved it opens the door for this to happen in every R1 and R2 community in the city. Both existing and new houses of worship will use this case as a precedent should they be successful.

CB7 voted unanimously against the variance proposal, which are reported in the links below.

CB 7 denies LDS church variances

Board 7 rejects variance request for church

CB 7 rejects Mormon plan

If you can, please come to the hearing on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:30am, Borough Hall and make your voice heard. If you cannot come, please write testimony in oppposition to this variance request to Borough President Helen Marshall. The final stop for all of this is at the Board of Standards and Appeals sometime in the spring, which is where the decision will be made.

Thanks,

Paul Graziano