By Brian Lockhart
Residents of a Flushing neighborhood are bracing for the wrecking ball and expect the Salvation Army to demolish two of three adjacent homes in the coming weeks to build parking for a worship center.
A spokesman for the Salvation Army, however, could not provide a specific date for demolition, although he confirmed neighbors had been notified the houses were to be razed in letters sent out a few weeks ago.
“I'm getting the brunt of it. I'm just surrounded by churches,” said Jenny Tkach, who along with her husband has lived on 32nd Avenue next to the three homes now belonging to the Salvation Army, for 30 years.
Tkach said she and her husband received notification from the Salvation Army that the homes at 32-08 and 32-14 Parsons Blvd. would come down within the coming weeks to make way for the new facility, which will have religious services, classes and men's and women's groups.
“You don't mind a church, you don't mind two,” Tkach said. “We have five within this square block.”
The Salvation Army purchased the houses, at the intersection of 32nd Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, last summer and its plans to tear build a worship center in their place are well known. In an area which residents say has been saturated with similar community facilities where old homes once stood, the Salvation Army's project has sparked a movement to change the city's zoning laws and preserve the residential character of similar Queens neighborhoods.
Opponents of the Salvation Army's project and other community facilities have said they are not against their individual missions, but they contend each building attracts added traffic and decreases property values and there should be a limit as to how many are in one area.
“It looks like we're being forced out,” Tkach said. “I certainly don't mind churches, but I think they just have overdone the whole thing.”
Tkach was hoping her neighborhood organization, the North Flushing Civic Association, might find a way to stop the Salvation Army's project until she received the demolition notification.
Col. Bill Lamarr, a spokesman for the Salvation Army, said the letters were part of the demolition permit process and he could not specify when the two Parsons Boulevard homes would be leveled in part to build parking for the site.
Lamarr said the 32-08 Parsons Blvd. address had been stripped of its siding so that asbestos could be removed in preparation for demolition.
The home at 142-50 32nd Ave. will be used as a temporary Salvation Army facility, possibly for a few years, as the site undergoes construction, Lamarr said. A handicapped ramp is being built there.
John Liu, president of North Flushing Civic, said his group had been seeking old covenants or deed restrictions on the three properties that might have been used to prevent the demolition, but at this point nothing can be done.
“We've looked back towards the turn of the century and there's nothing that could allow us to prevent the demolition and construction of a community facility there,” Liu said.
He said his civic would closely monitor the Salvation Army's activity at the site “to make sure all the procedures are followed to the 't' with regard to permits for demolition and notifications of residents.”
“They're a big organization, so maybe to them we're just little bugs that can be squashed,” Liu said. “We think we're right here, even though they have 'as of right.'”
Liu recently partnered with Community Board 7 to draft a land use resolution that called for other community boards, civic organizations and legislators throughout the city to push for changes in the zoning laws which, among other things, would give civic organizations a say in the building of community facilities.
Lamarr said the community will be able to review the Salvation Army project's final design and that every effort is being made to make sure its appearance fits with that of the surrounding community.
