Monday, March 18, 2013

"Commitments are 'iron-clad' until we break them."

176 Starr Street is located where the cars are in middle of photo
From the Queens Chronicle:

A 90,000-square-foot residential building that was presented at last week’s Citizens for a Better Ridgewood meeting to be built at 176 Woodward Ave. is currently located in an Industrial Business Zone.

IBZs, established by the Bloomberg administration, were designed to promote industrial growth by setting aside specific real estate in the city for businesses.

Though the planned Ridgewood building was well received at last week’s meeting, some are questioning the legitimacy of what City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burdern described as an “iron-clad commitment.”

City Planning confirmed that the lot is technically within the IBZ but because the area is mainly residential, the city is considering removing it from the zone.
The Economic Development Corporation supported City Planning’s claim.

“EDC remains committed to strengthening our Industrial Business Zones,” an EDC spokesperson said. “In this particular case, after reviewing the existing land use we proposed a minor change of the boundary to the Industrial Zone Commission due to the predominantly residential character of this part of the neighborhood.”


If the existing land use in the area was residential to begin with, then why was this property made part of the industrial business zone? See photo above. I would say the land use is mixed.

Seems like this is yet another example of the Bloomberg policy to make rules that you have no intention of following.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boiler plate ain't bullet proof these days!
Contracts and promises are there to be broken.

It happens all too often, though, in Queens!

Jerry Rotondi said...

Please--let's rename this low down department--
The Department of City Plotting!

There now--doesn't that suit them far better?

And how about the Economic Diddly Corporation for the EDC?

Of course there's always the Department of Bribery for the DOB.

Any other suggestions out there?

It's time we had some truth in naming!