By Courtney Dentch
Logan Bus Company, an Ozone Park-based company that contracts with the city to transport disabled children to schools, was hoping to build a 15-acre office, maintenance and parking facility for more than 500 buses and vans on unused land at Kennedy Airport.The plan has generated mixed reaction from borough leaders. Community Board 13 voted against the project and a similar plan for Quick Courier International, a small courier service based in Jamaica that specializes in transporting human organs, at its July meeting.Board members said the traffic would add to an already congested community while the bus emissions could contribute to air pollution and respiratory conditions. “We feel there is a significant impact and that additional traffic and congestion, particularly by Logan is going to have a detrimental effect on the air quality, noise and traffic,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, chairman of Community Board 13, which stretches from Glen Oaks along the Nassau border down to the Kennedy Airport area.But Borough President Helen Marshall, who makes a recommendation to City Planning and the City Council as part of the Uniformed Land Use Review Process, approved of the plans, with conditions that Logan build a sound wall to limit noise and install air monitors to measure pollutants that might contaminate the air, according to her recommendation. Marshall also backed the plan from Quick Courier.The move comes as a departure from Marshall's usual stance of siding with her community boards. The borough president visited the site and found that it was away from residential areas and would allow Logan to consolidate its operations away from the crowded Rockaway Boulevard, the recommendation said.City Planning discussed the project at its August meeting, but put off the vote, a spokeswoman for the agency said. It was tentatively on the agenda for the panel's Sept. 8 meeting, she said.Meanwhile, Councilman James Sanders (D-Laurelton), has been talking with the Logan Bus Company to ensure the firm keeps the community in mind, should it move to the Kennedy Airport site.”I believe if it were to go into our district the company needs to do things to be community friendly,” Sanders said.The lawmaker has proposed that the company adopt a stretch of Rockaway Boulevard and maintain it with landscaping, he said.”Dirt bikes have degraded that area something terrible,” Sanders said. “I want Logan to rebuild it and make sure they don't destroy it again.”The company has been open to negotiations but nothing has been agreed on, Sanders said.Representatives from Logan could not be reached for comment.Sanders is also pushing the Economic Development Corporation, which put the two plans together, to do an economic study of the area to plan out what businesses would most benefit from being in southeast Queens and would be good for the community.”We need to do a comprehensive study, otherwise we are forever going to have projects thrust upon us,” Sanders said.And while community leaders were concerned about traffic and environmental issues relating to the project, losing open land that has never been developed would be a loss, Hellenbrecht said.”The community is really desperate for open space, for a true buffer zone between the airport and the community,” he said. “The open space we have is not finished in anyway and really not available for people to use.”Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
