Amendment would help Gardens homeowners

Sunnyside Gardens residents might not have to make multiple applications to renovate their houses, should an amendment in the City Planning Commission (CPC) get the go-ahead.
The amendment, which CPC members began drafting on Wednesday, August 22, would require homeowners in Sunnyside Gardens - one of four Special Planned Community Preservation Districts in the city - to apply only through the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
According to a CPC spokesperson, the text amendment has been passed along to Community Board 2 and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who will both be allowed concurrent 60-day review periods. Afterward CPC will consider and then either approve or deny the amendment.
In the past several months, applicants had to file paperwork through as many as three city agencies - the LPC, CPC and the Department of Buildings (DOB). Should the amendment be okayed, then the LPC will review applications and issue approvals and denials based on historic district requirements and the LPC’s own purview.
“The Landmarks Preservation Commission has the tools, expertise and experience to effectively regulate work in the new Sunnyside Gardens Historic District and preserve its special character,” said LPC spokesperson Lisi de Bourbon.
Sunnyside Gardens residents have had to get multiple approvals since June, when area was given historic district status. Since then, homeowners have been required to get a CPC permit for new developments, enlargements or substantial alterations of landscaping and topography.
However, some residents and local politicians, in the months leading up to the historic district creation, called the alteration application process lengthy and cumbersome.
Still, others hope that the amendment will not allow for creations out of character with the neighborhood.
“Ideally the review process will be streamlined but the regulations are still there,” said Laura Heim, a Sunnyside Gardens architect and three-year resident, who recently won approval on the first two projects to be okayed since June. Heim will work on an enclosed porch and a rear dormer.
In order to make sure that the single-application process would not create any construction loopholes, CPC included in its amendment several guidelines for the area - a maximum building height, density and yard regulations, and off-street parking regulations for an R4 zoned area. In addition, the prohibition on curb cuts will continue, a spokesperson said.
Still, residents expressed concern in particular that the switch over to review by the LPC would allow homeowners to make alterations permitted by R4 zoning - like enlargements - and that illegal construction already completed would be grandfathered into legality.