Western Queens Zoning Debated

The Department of City Planning Commission certified the rezoning study for Middle Village and Glendale last week, beginning the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) phase of the project. The zoning changes include predominantly downzoning throughout the two neighborhoods in order to maintain the residential appeal of the areas.
“Mayor Bloomberg has continued to focus and commit to safeguarding our lower density communities, recognizing their worth in protecting quality of life for these neighborhoods. The Middle Village and Glendale rezoning proposal reinforces this commitment,” said Amanda Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission. “Respecting and preserving the distinctive character of these neighborhoods, this finely grained proposal will ensure that future residential development will be appropriate to its surrounding area and will allow for appropriate growth along Metropolitan Avenue, strengthening an already viable commercial area.”
City Planning worked with Community Board 5 as well as local civic groups including Juniper Park Civic Association and Glendale Property Owners in order to receive input for the zoning proposals.
“We think we kind of got the best arrangement that we can get at this time, but a lot of us don’t think it is good enough,” said Community Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano.
Although the zoning changes will prevent large buildings from going up in the predominantly residential neighborhoods, there is concern that there will continue to be an increase in two-family houses going up in place of one-family buildings.
“It’s going in the right direction, but we are not totally happy because we know that our one-family houses are not protected,” said Bob Holden, President of the Juniper Park Civic Association.
Currently, there are no zoning regulations that prevent building a two-family home in a space currently occupied by a one-family home.
“We are asking the Department of City Planning to come up with a new zoning designation so that we can keep blocks that are predominantly one-family homes as one-family homes,” Giordano said.
Now that City Planning has certified the study, it will send a copy of the report to the community board, which has 60 days to conduct a public forum about the proposal and make recommendations before passing it along to the Borough President’s office for review.
pdavis@queenscourier.com