Some Richmond Hill residents are not as open as some Woodhaven neighbors are to new zoning rules that were put into effect a few weeks ago. The critics say that the new regulations do not accommodate the growing population in the area.
Vishnu Mahadeo, president and executive director of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council, said he and other Richmond Hill residents and business owners lobbied against some of the downzoning in the neighborhood.
“This zoning is now going to destroy the fabric of family in the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean community,” he said.
Religious institutions have been, or will be, hit by the new zoning rules, Madaheo said. One instance was a Hindu mandir (temple) on which construction was suspended because of insufficient parking available.
The majority of residents, however, were behind the rezoning, said Andrea Crawford, chair of Community Board 9.
“The people who actually lived there, not the businesses, supported the zoning,” she said. “The community applauded us for the downzoning.”
Should everything be upzoned across the neighborhoods, there would be expansion and overpopulation that the neighborhood’s infrastructure could not support, Crawford added.
