It recommended the city approve a variance for the mixed residential and commercial…
By Matthew Monks
Community Board 5 threw its support behind the construction of a Grand Avenue building in Maspeth despite objections that the four-story structure would congest the area.
It recommended the city approve a variance for the mixed residential and commercial development on the corner of 64th Street granting the dwelling a higher front wall and smaller units than zoning permits.
During a half-hour debate April 14, residents who spoke in favor of the project — many of them carrying bright orange fliers reading “Support Grand Ave. Variance! For Our Future!” — said it was good for the local economy. They said it would help vitalize the area, drawing new businesses and reasonable housing.
Detractors argued that the structure is too large for its lot and would add to Maspeth’s overdevelopment, just as the city launches a campaign to downzone the area.
“This is the perfect opportunity to fight overdevelopment,” said board member Bob Holden, also president of the Juniper Park Civic Association. The civic is helping the city Planning Department draw a new zoning scheme to protect one- and two-family homes.
“This is a great opportunity to say: ‘We need to keep it the way it is,’” Holden said of the neighborhood.
The new building will displace a 50-year-old Carvel ice-cream stand that the developer of the project, D’Angelo Properties Inc., has leased since the 1970s and purchased in 2000, said Mitchell Ross, the company’s attorney.
The first floor will have 3,000 square feet of commercial space, which will house a new Carvel shop and possibly one or two other businesses, Ross said.
Up to 15 residential units, averaging 834 square feet each, will take up the other three floors, he said, adding that the developer has not decided yet if they will be condominiums, coops or rentals.
CB 5’s land use committee recommended that the board back a variance, or zoning exception, after the developer modified its original proposal, adding a larger parking lot and a community meeting room. It also reduced the number of units from 18 to 15 and cut 10 feet off the top of the building, bringing its height to 45 feet, said Walter Sanchez, a member of the board’s land use committee.
“The plan was not unreasonable,” Sanchez said.
Ross said the variance would allow the developer to erect a profitable building by making the structure slightly larger than what zoning permits and permitting it to have smaller units.
The corner lot is an awkward place to build, he said, because the property is sloped and shaped like an “irregular trapezoid.” To erect a building that the market would support, he said the developer has to bypass two zoning restrictions: one that limits the front of buildings to 30-feet high and another that mandates residential units be no smaller than 900 square feet.
The D’Angelo building will have a front wall height of 35 feet and an average unit size of 834 square feet, Ross said, adding that the roof would slope up in the rear, giving the building a total height of 45 feet. He did not say how much the units would cost.
He said he thinks the board approved the structure because it recognized it as a good development that matches the integrity of other buildings in the neighborhood.
“We’re very pleased to have their support,” he said. “We feel the board did the right thing.”
Now the proposal goes to the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, which will take the board’s recommendation under consideration, make a decision and pass it up to the Buildings Department, which should issue a construction license.
Ross estimated that construction will begin in four to six months.
At the same meeting, officials from the New York City Transit Authority updated the board on a bus depot slated for construction on Grand Avenue between 47th and 49th streets in Maspeth.
Work on the foundation of the $216 million depot and maintenance facility should start at the end of this month, said William Montanile, lead design manager for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent of the Transit Authority. He said the project is on track for a December 2006 completion date.
The depot will house up to 200 buses, alleviating pressure on the Fresh Pond Bus Depot in Ridgewood, which he said exceeds its capacity by 50 buses.
A state-of-the-art facility, the new depot will be environmentally friendly, using solar panels and pollution-free fuel cells on the roof, he said. It will also have a 100,000-gallon underground tank filled with rain-water collected from roof drains. The water will be used to wash buses during droughts, Montanile said.
“We’re all excited. In fact, all of the Transit Authority is excited about it.”
Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
