NEWS: Community Fights Jamaica Upzoning
From the Queens Tribune
Project’s North Neighbors Reject Plan
By LEE LANDOR
Rezoning appears to be the current theme in Queens, as the Department of City Planning has heard, reviewed and approved dozens of rezoning proposals over the last several years. Now, the DCP’s is proposing its own rezoning idea – one of largest in Queens’ history.
The DCP proposed that five zones (368 blocks) in downtown Jamaica, including Hollis and St. Albans, be rezoned as a “lure for business investment,” according to Rachaele Raynoff of the DCP.
The DCP is “putting in place zoning that encourages reinvestment,” said Raynoff. “The private sector will want to build, which can create more employment opportunities.”
The expansion of business districts and creation of incentives for economic development in Jamaica are the DCP’s goals, said Raynoff. She added that an area filled with both residential structures and businesses will be safer and more attractive.
But some local residents and officials, including Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) and State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellrose), disagree.
The new zoning districts would cause density increases that would have a “concomitant negative impact” on surrounding communities, wrote Padavan to DCP Director Amanda Burden.
The rezoning would cause overcrowding in local elementary schools PS 35 and PS 95, which are already filled to capacity, wrote Padavan. Additionally, it would worsen the parking problem in the area, which is currently the result of subway commuters at the 179th Street subway station, and increase taxes on the sewers, water lines and sanitation services that are already “taxed to the limit.”
The Jamaica Estates Civic Association also wrote a letter to Burden citing the same issues, ending with a request for the development of a plan that will “ensure the long-term vitality and stability of our neighborhood, not one that will serve as a financial bonanza for real estate developers.”
The opposition’s level of concern is so high that Gennaro has hired Urban Planner Paul Graziano of Associated Cultural Resource Consultants to draft a “reasonable counter-proposal” once the DCP releases its Environmental Impact Statement. Graziano will work with the local civics, as well as with the DCP, toward a compromise that fulfills both the DCP’s mission as well as finds support from residents.
The DCP, with support for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, has been anticipating the transformation of downtown Jamaica for several years. The 2003 completion of the $350 million Air Train terminal that sits near the Jamaica LIRR station on Sutphin Boulevard, along with several other factors, inspired the DCP to take a comprehensive look at the area to determine its potential for development.
What the DCP found is that it could help improve downtown Jamaica by creating opportunities for new and affordable housing and forming a district that would “strengthen and revitalize” the area. The way to do that, according to the DCP, is by supporting business, industrial and institutional developments, positioning the highest densities at the transit hubs and enhancing retail opportunities.
Locals on the north side of the project are opposing this, despite the DCP’s insistence that the rezoning will protect lower-density neighborhoods and that the parking question is being studied as part of the Environmental Review process.
The DCP is listening, said Raynoff, and will continue to do so when the time comes for the public review, where people will have opportunities to voice their comments on the proposal. The DCP will submit a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in the coming months, and in the meantime is preparing for a series of public meetings on the proposal in the spring. It is expecting final recommendations by the summer of 2007.