By Kathianne Boniello
Since carefully studied change appears to be the mantra of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, one northeast Queens activist has decided to renew a Community Board 11 rezoning effort that was rejected by the city in 1999.
In the late ’90s Community Board 11, which is based in Little Neck and includes the communities of Bayside, Douglaston, Oakland Gardens, Hollis Hills and Auburndale, created a proposal known as a 197A plan to alter zoning throughout the area to prevent unwieldy development.
Although the city Planning Department derailed CB 11’s 197A plan in 1999 by failing to approve it — the final step the board needed before a city council vote on the effort — CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said last month that it was time for the board to try again with an updated version.
“We now have a different administration and the plan, in my view, is a good one,” said Iannece, former president of the Bayside Hills Civic Association. “My vision is that we go forward with the update.”
Under Bloomberg, the city has undertaken several big changes and/or studies since the billionaire took office last year, including a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, a massive re-evaluation of the public school system, and initiating quality-of-life efforts such as the creation of more affordable housing units and a crackdown on noise pollution.
The Planning Department also said last month it was undertaking a field study to examine whether or not community facilities need further building and zoning regulations in residential areas. For years Queens civic leaders have protested the wide latitude given to community facilities — structures such as houses of worship and/or medical offices that are permitted to construct large buildings almost anywhere without notifying the communities they are entering.
The zoning changes detailed in the 197A plan would create a blueprint for future development in Community Board 11 and allow the board to rewrite the zoning and building regulations currently in place, advocates of the plan said. That way, zoning rules on the books would match what actually exists in the community.
The heart of the 197A plan, said Douglaston resident and civic activist Sean Walsh, is to ensure the proper long-term development of CB 11’s portion of northeast Queens.
“It would unify it and bring it together in terms of land-use management,” said Walsh, president of the Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella group of more than 100 borough civics.
The original 197A plan was first drafted in 1991 and takes its name from Section 197A of New York City’s charter. The original plan proposes the rezoning of 715,000 square feet of property.
The effort to revive the 197A plan is in its earliest stages, and Iannece said he would like the CB 11 zoning committee to examine the proposed changes before the full board votes on the issue.
A spokeswoman for the Planning Department said Friday that the city had rejected the earlier 197A plan in May 1999 and had not received official word of a new rezoning effort by CB 11.
At the time of the rejection, then-CB 11 Chairman Bernard Haber told the TimesLedger “the policy has been for the city to try to take wide streets and try to up zone the adjacent area along the street. They feel a wide street is ideal for mid-rise residential development.”
Haber said the city had in mind thoroughfares like Queens Boulevard and the Grand Concourse when it thought of zoning for Northern Boulevard in Little Neck and Douglaston.
Walsh said the core of the 197A plan consists of three main goals:
• adjusting current zoning codes to match what is already in the community. For example, Walsh said, the property along Northern Boulevard between the city line and Alley Creek is mainly commercial with many retail businesses. Today’s zoning lists parts of that stretch as residential or mixed use.
“If it’s residential, we’d make it commercial,” he said, describing the changes the 197A plan would bring. “It makes the zoning consistent.”
• shifting mapped zoning boundaries so they would correspond with physical property lines, unlike now.
• creating a natural area district for the wetlands in northeast Queens within CB 11 as well as a special designation for Douglas Manor, a city landmarked district, and Douglaston Hill, a state and national historic area.
By making a natural area district for the wetlands within Udalls Cove, a quiet enclave of water and cattails where wildlife thrives, Walsh said “it would give an extra layer of protection.”
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
