By Bob Harris
The C4-2 zoning is equal to R-7 residential zoning. All the houses to the south are R2A except for some on the east side of 185th Street, north of 73rd Avenue, which are R4. The row attached houses behind the commercial strip along the LIE are R3-2.Builders scan the zoning maps and find these higher-zoned areas and build on them. It now seems economically feasible to do this. One builder built a three-story, six-apartment building on 185th Street because he had land behind the property to give him a higher Floor Area Ratio, although this big building is across from the R2A-zoned area. People on these blocks on the side of 185th Street never changed the zoning the way we on the R2 blocks changes to R2A to limit the size of new houses built, although I sometimes wonder É.The Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association is concerned that the three houses on 186th Street opposite the parking lot of the Fresh Meadows Development can be turned into a 12-story building. How will a tall building look alongside single-family capes? Will more houses be bought and torn down, creating more walls of bricks and concrete in Fresh Meadows? Where will people park? They can't park in the Fresh Meadows Development lot because it is limited to parking for customers and tenants.The civic newsletter also wrote about the six-story dorms being built for St. John's University on Henley Road in Jamaica Estates near Hillside Avenue. Although the large one-family homes in the Jamaica Estates area are zoned R1, this particular area was originally zoned R5. Some people wanted to re-zone the R1 to R1-1 and the R5 down to say a R4X or a R3-2X but others didn't want to down-zone because it might lower the value of the property.Well, now they have a private contractor building dorms for 485 students based on a secret 10-year lease. It seems that St. John's never told the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association or the Jamaica Estates Association that they were leasing a dorm when they all met at the regular meeting of the community dialogue meeting. So much for dialogue.These dorms were stopped for a while on a building technicality but are now again being built. It seem that the people on 185th Street had stopped the building for a while but the Department of Building eventually also approved the plans.So here we will have 485 St. John's students living and parking adjacent to one family homes in Jamaica Estates. Several homeowners spoke at recent meetings of Community Board 8 expressing concern about 485 students to be off campus, and out of the reach of campus security, adjacent to one-family homes. If there are incidents now of alcohol and drug use and noise on campus, what will happen off campus? Where will cars be parked? It seems that St. John's wants space for 500 more students off campus. Where? What do they want to build on campus? Where will this end?All this building with brick walls and cemented-over parking spaces and sidewalks will change the character of the community plus cover over grass or flower beds or trees which absorbed rainfall in the past. Will there be more flooding and sewer backups in the future?The October 2007 Rosedale Civic Association newsletter had a full page of Buildings Department news. It told of the creation of Special Enforcement Teams, Excavation Inspections & Audits, Professional Certification Review & Audits and the new B-Scan program, where all building applications are online. There is also a new excavation law passed by Albany, which is stricter about excavations to protect adjacent property. Everyone engaging in construction now has to obtain liability insurance. This is new. Hope it works.If you have a concern about construction or a permit then call 311 or your local community board. Community Board 8 is (718) 264-7895. The Queens Building Department official in charge of Community Boards 4, 7, 8,10, 11, 12 and 13 is Anthony Iuliano at (718) 286-0642.Good And Bad News Of The Week: The October/November 2007 issue of the Mid-Queens Community Council talks about the dangers of aerosol sprays. Yes, aerosols are useful in our daily household activities, but the sprays can increase the risk of developing asthma.European scientists tracked about 3,500 European adults for almost a decade. Initially none had asthma, but 2.1 percent developed it during the study. Those who used cleaning sprays every week had a 30 to 50 percent risk of developing wheezing and shortness of breath. Suggestions are to open a window, avoid mists of chemicals, wear a mask and use green cleaners made from vinegar or baking soda.
