By Courtney Dentch
The state has decided to move forward with plans to establish a group home for five mildly retarded adults in a Laurelton house over community objections that it would strain parking and add to the over-saturation of such facilities in southeast Queens, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Thomas Maul overruled a Community Board 13 vote rejecting the plan to create a facility at 130-57 225th St., said agency spokeswoman Deborah Rausch.
Community Board 13 voted unanimously against the home at its May meeting, but the developer, Bernard Fineson Developmental Center requested an administrative proceeding that was held in July to overturn the board’s vote. The state contracts with developers to operate its facilities.
At the Borough Hall hearing, testimony from both the agency and the community was presented to a hearing officer, who made a recommendation to Maul.
Community members are upset by the decision, especially after more than 50 people attended the July meeting to speak against the project, said Vernel Bennett, president of the 224th-225th Civic Association.
“It was a waste of time to have us come to a hearing when they already had their minds made up,” he said.
The home is slated to serve five developmentally disabled adults with a five-person staff supervising their activities on a 24-hour basis, said Francine Watnick, a representative for Bernard Fineson at the July hearing. The residents would participate in day programs at a St. Albans facility and in leisure activities, such as bowling or watching movies on weekends, she said.
One prime concern on the one-way street is parking, said Diane Kay, who lives next to the house. The home could add cars from staff and the residents’ visitors, she told the July meeting.
“Sometimes it’s very hard for me to get my car out in the morning to go to work because someone has double parked and blocked me in,” she said. “It’s very, very tight in terms of parking.”
Watnick argued that the home is still needed because CB 13 only meets 54 percent of its total need for beds in group homes, she said in July. But Richard Hellenbrecht, chairman of Board 13, said that 54 percent outstrips the borough’s other community boards.
The need figure is calculated by assuming 3 percent of an area’s population is developmentally disabled, the standard rule of thumb, Watnick said.
Community Board 8 in Fresh Meadows is the next closest board, meeting 42 percent of its needs and Community Board 12 in Jamaica meets 35 percent of its needs, she said.
The two western Queens boards, CB 1 in Astoria and CB 2 in Sunnyside, were the lowest in the borough, each meeting 8 percent of their needs, she said.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
