By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
The owner of four houses under construction just north of the Douglaston Long Island Rail Road station said Monday he expects the homes to be completed in three months even as local environmentalists voiced their concerns about pile driving on the site.
Ron Cohen, owner of the subdivided lot that occupies almost the entire south side of 41st Avenue between 233rd and 234th streets, said the four houses would each be two-family homes with at least two parking spots each.
The plans for the residences were unclear, with both Gerald Caliendo, the project's architect, and city Buildings Department spokeswoman Ilyse Fink saying the buildings under construction were one-family homes – not two-family structures.
Cohen said the houses would be finished in about three months, after which they would probably sell in the $600,000 range. Caliendo described the buildings as custom luxury homes in the colonial style.
Work on the lot began several months ago, raising the objections of Walter Mugdan, president of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee, and state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), both of whom feared for the health of the wetlands adjacent to the lot.
Mugdan said Monday that several dozen wood piles had been driven into the swampy lot to stabilize the land under the homes.
Mugdan is concerned that the piles may contain creosote, a substance used to retard the rotting of wood. He said the chemical contained hazardous components that tend to leech out of wood into the surrounding soil.
“I cannot say that anyone has done a chemical analysis, but I'd be willing to bet strongly that it's creosote,” said Mugdan, who based his assessment on the dark color of the piles that resembled telephone poles treated with creosote.
“We think it's a bad location for that kind of material to be used,” said Mugdan, who added that creosote piles were legal.
Art Kelley, a Udalls Cove Preservation Committee board member who looked at the piles and made an inquiry with the Department of Environmental Conservation on the matter, said “it looked to me as though it had been creosote.
“It would be nice to have those pilings out of there,” Kelley said. “We had hoped that we would be able to have the project stopped completely.”
Neither Cohen nor Khalil Jaffarpour, the project's structural engineer, knew whether the piles contained creosote. The project's developer, Merrick Homes, could not be reached for comment.
Mugdan said work appeared to have stopped on the site, but Fink and DEC spokesman Matt Burns said no stop-work orders had been issued by their agencies. Burns said the only violation issued by the DEC on the property was for a relatively minor infraction, the incorrect placement of construction fencing.
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
