By Daniel Massey
A Kew Gardens Road landlord obtained an injunction in Queens Supreme Court last week to temporarily stop construction of a three-story apartment complex just over eight feet from the elementary school building he leases to the Board of Education.
The temporary court order was the latest development in a nearly two-year saga that has pitted the landlord and two community groups against developers at 80-15 Lefferts Blvd., located adjacent to the school building that houses the PS 99 Annex.
Opponents of the new development say it is being constructed using faulty permits and will endanger 450 schoolchildren who attend classes at the annex, which is a converted parking garage. A source close to the developer, Main Street Construction Corp., said the design of the new building is flawless and poses no danger to the students.
The source said the landlord and community groups have raised opposition to the apartment building, to be located on the former site of the National Council of Jewish Women center, simply because they are against development in their backyard.
“Just because people don’t like it doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to build it,” he said. “The code allows you to build. If you don’t like it, change the law.”
Sylvia Hack, president of the Kew Gardens Improvement Association, contends the builders were granted permits to alter an existing location when in reality they are constructing a new building. Her group has been joined by the Kew Gardens Civic Association in their fight to halt the construction
“There are two very important issues that we contested,” she said. “One is the obvious one of school safety for 450 kids next door. The other is how a building that blatantly appears to be a new building has received a petition for alteration.”
The landlord, Charles Belanich, of Great Neck, said his engineer reviewed the plans and “found it very disturbing that the Buildings Department would approve a new foundation to an alteration permit.”
Belanich also owns the building at 41-02 Bell Blvd. in Bayisde that houses the TimesLedger offices.
The conflict stretches back to January 2001 when the Department of Buildings issued a stop work order because the developers did not have approved plans at the construction site. Original plans called for the apartment building to be constructed using the wall of the school.
But the plans have since been revised to show an independent support wall that requires the driving of pilings.
“We’re going to rebuild on top of the existing foundation as shown by the plans,” said the developer source. “It is an alteration. We’re using the same foundation, same everything. The same walls are going up. We only took it down to do the pilings so the machine can operate.”
According to the Department of Buildings, “A New Building Application shall be filed for a permit as per Article 11 of Subchapter 1 of the Building Code where, during construction: an existing building is completely demolished to grade or where, during construction, more than 50 percent of the area of exterior walls of such building are removed and any portion of the foundation system is altered or enlarged.”
Belanich said the piles could compromise his school building. “It was irresponsible to drive piles so close to our piles which could have the effect of dragging down our piles and causing the structure to be affected.”
Board of Education spokesman Kevin Ortiz said school facilities staffers visited the site and determined the construction posed no danger to the school building. The board’s only concerns regarding the construction had to do with noise interrupting classroom instruction and the blocking of an exit, he said.
“No one with proper qualifications ever said the building is in danger of collapsing,” he said.
Hack and other community leaders are taking their case to Queens Buildings Commissioner Magdi Mossad on Thursday, when they hope to find out how the building, which was razed and is being rebuilt on the ame foundation, was granted an alteration permit.
Ilyse Fink, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, said the matter was currently in the hands of the courts.
The source close to the developer said he was confident the injunction would be overturned, but that even if it remained in effect, plans to build the three-story apartment complex would remain on course, eight feet, three inches from the school building.
Reach reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
