Second Rally, Same Theme: Stop Development Of School

Hillcrest residents, joined by local politicians, held a second rally in front of Queens Hospital Center Sunday afternoon, charging that construction at the medical campus will diminish their neighborhoods quality of life.
Approximately 25 residents and pols protested that residential parking for the 200 residential homes surrounding the hospital would be endangered by the planned construction of an 800-student high school, a mixed-use facility and a medical examiners building, as well as a new ambulatory care unit, which recently broke ground on the campus.
Currently, the Department of Educations School Construction Authority (SCA) has plans to relocate Gateway High School to the hospitals campus. But residents and pols say that the neighborhood already bears its fair share of schools, and they believe that the SCA will not adequately supply parking to accommodate all of the schools personnel, forcing some to find spots for their cars on residential streets. They also believe the parking problem will be aggravated by the other developments. A parking garage is part of the hospitals development plans, but, residents and pols say, its estimated monthly cost, $90, will be too much for city employees again sending many searching for free spots on Hillcrests streets.
Kathleen McGrath, a spokesperson for the Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC), which runs Queens Hospital Center, said that the monthly cost was subject to change.
"This dollar amount was given as the fee proposed to be charged five years from now when the garage is in operation," she said. "The basis for this amount was a calculation of what employees spend now if they use public transportation and travel two zones."
In June, HHC also agreed to conduct a traffic study to gauge the impact of the hospitals developments.
McGrath said, "The expert consultants will also make recommendations on ways in which such traffic may be designed to minimize adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood."
But politicians at the rally said this is not enough. They accused HHC and the SCA of taking a piecemeal approach to the developments impact on the neighborhood, rather than examining them in their entirety.
In response, McGrath said two public hearings have been held for each of the projects that involve leasing buildings or parcels.
Questions have also been raised about the possible contamination of ground soil and water at the high schools future location, which was once the site of the hospitals morgue. Trabold said the SCA provided residents with an executive summary of an environmental study of the site, but 10 pages were redacted. So far, requests by residents and politicians for the missing 10 pages and for an additional environmental review of the entire campus have gone unanswered.