By John Tozzi
“We're not against zoning, downzoning or rezoning,” said architect George Frangoulis, who moderated the forum. “We're against the quickness of it.”The architects said they took issue with a number of provisions of the R2A when the city was crafting the new zone, designed to put additional limits on the height, lot coverage and bulk of homes in the old R2 districts, but their concerns were largely ignored.”Unfortunately, we felt a lot of things needed to be adjusted, tweaked and changed,” said John Calcagnile, an architect on the panel.Specifically, the architects said they asked that the exterior wall height be capped at 23 feet rather than 21 feet-a recommendation echoed by Community Board 11 when the R2A first came to Bayside-because the limit makes it difficult to design homes with high ceilings.In addition, they said, the footprint of a detached garage should not be counted toward lot coverage and the R2A should not have limited space for an attic to five feet in height from the R2 limit of eight feet.”Our freedom as architects is being challenged,” Calcagnile said.The meeting, attended by several dozen people including architects, civic leaders and homeowners, was a notably civil forum during a politically charged rezoning debate that has seen shouting matches at civic meetings and community boards.Several civic leaders disputed the idea that the rezoning had been “rushed” through, noting that some civic groups have sought downzoning for years to restrict large houses being built on regular-sized lots, often referred to as “McMansions.”Bill Gati, president of the Queens chapter of AIA, said restricting the size of homes is not necessarily good for neighborhoods.”There's this misconception that downzoning is designed to improve quality of life in Queens and to eliminate McMansions,” he said. “There isn't really a correlation between quality of life and the bulk of buildings.”Several architects argued that R2A makes existing homes noncompliant, and homeowners in the middle of alterations during a rezoning often face a nightmare trying to complete their work under the new regulations.”When zones are changed from R2 to R2A, a lot of houses have a pre-existing noncompliant condition, which means those houses cannot be added to,” Gati said.City Planning Department officials, who were not present at the meeting, have said previously that they would not rezone areas that would make most houses noncompliant.Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 188.
