The Kew Gardens community board voted unanimously against the plan for a new local jail advancing to the next stage. Queens
Community Board 9 voted unanimously Tuesday night to urge the City
Planning Commission not to green light the plan for a new jail in Kew
Gardens, which would allow the plan to advance to the city's land use
review process.
The planning commission must decide by March 25 whether to certify the jail plan as complete and send the plan through the city's land use review process, known as ULURP. The vote Tuesday is largely symbolic, but city rules say the planning commission must explain any decision that goes against community board recommendations.
The planning commission must decide by March 25 whether to certify the jail plan as complete and send the plan through the city's land use review process, known as ULURP. The vote Tuesday is largely symbolic, but city rules say the planning commission must explain any decision that goes against community board recommendations.
"The
City Planning Commission does irreparable harm by starting the ULURP
clock," the community board's resolution states. "This proposal,
designed without any communication with the affected communities, will
quite simply overwhelm and destroy the small historic residential
neighborhood of Kew Gardens, and also adversely affect the adjacent
community of Briarwood."
A spokesperson for City Council Member Karen Koslowitz, who represents Kew Gardens, declined to comment on the vote.
Queens BP Melinda Katz finally chimed in:
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Bronx Borough President
Ruben Diaz Jr. sharply rebuked the mayor's office last week for what
they said was a failure to collaborate with the local communities that
would house the new jails.
"We are deeply disturbed by the lack of meaningful local engagement on the borough-based jails project to date," Katz and Diaz Jr. wrote in a letter dated March 8. "The process of developing the borough-based jails system must start anew."
"We are deeply disturbed by the lack of meaningful local engagement on the borough-based jails project to date," Katz and Diaz Jr. wrote in a letter dated March 8. "The process of developing the borough-based jails system must start anew."
"The irony ... of unveiling a citywide plan for 'modern community-based jails' in the absence of community input is not lost on the boroughs," Katz and Diaz Jr. wrote.
Admin note: The woman who wrote these articles (and the one on Meeks) is Mara Kaufman, the one who got repressed from reporting on this crucial meeting by the mayor's arbitrarily opaque rules
