Sunnyside Designation Hearing Approaching
From the Queens Chronicle
Landmarks Will Hear Case For Sunnyside
by Jennifer Manley, Assistant Editor
04/05/2007
After several contentious meetings, residents divided over the proposed landmarking of Sunnyside Gardens will get to argue their case before the commission who will decide their fate. A public hearing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled for Tuesday April 17, at 2 p.m. in the commission offices at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan.
Opponents of the designation have objected to the time and place of the hearing on several occasions, noting that it is inconvenient for working Queens residents. The landmarks group has consistently rejected their calls for a change of venue, citing the commission’s voluntary nature and several other items on the agenda. It would also be nearly unprecedented, as the commission hasn’t held a public hearing — even on a controversial district — outside its offices in over a decade. Opponents are also unlikely to convince the commission to delay the meeting as they have asked.
“The public hearing is going to be held on the seventeenth. Notifications have already gone out” said commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon. While Borough President Helen Marshal reportedly asked the commission to consider a delay after she met with opponents, she has already sent a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of the designation.
Opponents of landmarking, a once informal group of residents now organized as the Sunnyside Gardens Coalition, are also hoping to assemble a working group of residents on both sides of the issue to seek common ground on how to preserve the neighborhood without necessarily getting the designation.
Pro-landmarking resident and member of the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance Jeffrey Kroessler is not interested in finding new options. “It should be clear by now that for anyone interested in the preservation of Sunnyside Gardens, there is no alterative to designation as a historic district. Anyone who keeps talking about other options … is just mistaken,” he said.
While the process leading up to designation requires public hearings, it does not require a vote by residents. There have been four public meetings in Sunnyside and the commission says it has been open to questions and criticism. “We’ve been very accessible to anyone who has a position on this issue,” de Bourbon said. She added that commission Chairman Robert Tierney has accepted an invitation to meet with opponents the day prior to the hearing. The vote on designation, which must be won by a simple majority of the 11 commissioners, could come within weeks of the public hearing.
For those unable to make it to the hearing, testimony can be submitted in writing either by mail to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1 Centre St., 9th Floor, New York, NY 10007, or via e-mail to [email protected]. All comments will become part of the record and will be seen by the commissioners prior to the hearing.
©Queens Chronicle 2007
From the Daily News
Some don’t see Sunnyside to rezoning
BY WARREN WOODBERRY JR.
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Posted Thursday, April 5th 2007, 4:00 AM
Forty years ago, John and Sandra Fitzgibbon immigrated from Ireland and achieved the American dream when they bought their Sunnyside Gardens home.
John, 67, worked three jobs so his wife Sandra and their seven children could live in the two-family house off 48th St.
“We were looking to buy a house and no place would take us because we had children. It was affordable at the time,” said Sandra, 68.
Today the senior couple help raise seven grandchildren where three generations have called Sunnyside Gardens home. But a City Landmarks Preservation Commission proposal to turn their neighborhood into a historical district, has the Fitzgibbon family worried they could lose their home.
“We don’t want this thing,” said John. “I don’t need anybody banging on my door telling me what to do to my house.”
Area homeowners say they don’t want to become custodians in their own homes, and they worry that a rise in property taxes and strict regulations for maintaining their properties will force them out.
If approved by the commission, Sunnyside Gardens would become the largest historic district in Queens.
“We do our best to listen to everyone’s comments and respond to their questions prior to a vote by the commission,” said spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon. “The next step of the process is a public hearing, which will be held before the full, 11-member Commission on April 17.”
The proposal has pitted neighbor against neighbor, with some wanting the prestigious designation, while others fear they’ll be slapped with building code violations by the city Department of Buildings.
New homeowner Jimmy Van Bramer said he’s for landmarking. Three years after Van Bramer and his partner rented a home in Sunnyside Gardens, the two decided to purchase one in January.
“I am for it,” said Van Bramer, 37, who works in governmental affairs for a nonprofit. “I believe that Sunnyside Gardens is a beautiful historic neighborhood that is worthy of landmark status. I think the vast majority of people are in favor of it.”
Sunnyside Gardens is situated between Queens Blvd. and the Sunnyside rail yard, and homes in the area range in price from $600,000 to $900,000. In 1984, the neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The community was built between 1924 and 1928 with 1,202 homes on 55 acres just 15 minutes from Manhattan. Each block forms a common garden or landscaped court.
It is already designated a special planned community preservation district, a status that was conferred in 1974 and does not allow for new development, demolition or substantial alteration to a property without permission.
Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) said his office will mail questionnaires to homeowners asking what they want the neighborhood to look like in 10 years, and what is the best way to get there.
“My goal is to build a consensus and to build common ground between the two sides,” said Gioia.