By Stephen Stirling
Members of CB 7, elected officials and community members have become increasingly frustrated in recent months with the seeming lack of action on the part of City Planning to move forward with rezoning plans for three separate neighborhoods within the board's borders: Waldheim-Holly, North Flushing and Auburndale. But the city agency said this week that work is continuing on each of the rezonings and remains a priority for the department and pointed to progress already made in the area over the last six years. “Since 2002 in Community District 7 alone, the city has already adopted five area-wide rezonings to protect neighborhood character covering over 650 blocks in addition to the 27 area-wide preservation rezonings throughout Queens covering over 3,200 blocks,” said City Planning spokeswoman Jennifer Torres. ” For Community Board 7, we have and will continue to invest considerable time and effort in collecting data, analyzing it and preparing materials to put forward proposals and to build consensus.” Torres said it was important to note that the city is also currently working on rezonings in Briarwood, the Rockaways, Laurelton, North Corona and Oakland Gardens/Hollis Hills, and no one area takes priority over another.The Waldheim-Holly rezoning covers an area of southwestern Flushing east of the Van Wyck Expressway and North of Kissena Park, while North Flushing's and Auburndale's rezoning plans cover adjacent areas north of Northern Boulevard and south of Whitestone. Each would be designed to preserve low-density residential districts. CB 7 Chairman Eugene Kelty and CB 7 Zoning Committee Co-Chairman Chuck Apelian have said that the longer the plans wait, the more out-of-character development is allowed to occur. City Planning said work is furthest along on the Waldheim-Holly rezoning, but it is also the most complex. The city said balancing preservation while allowing development to continue in this area is more difficult, because the zoning code is far more diverse than it is in either North Flushing or Auburndale, which are more consistently low-density zonings. The city said a rezoning study on North Flushing is also underway, but the city will not bring its recommendations to the community before they are complete. The city said studies on Auburndale are also ongoing, but since Auburndale spans two community districts, portions of the area will be included as part of rezoning studies of North Flushing and the Oakland Gardens/Hollis Hills area. No timetable was given for any of the plans. “The city continues to work to preserve the character of neighborhoods, updating zoning to create a better match between what is permitted and a neighborhood's built form,” Torres said. Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
