Padavan slams St. John’s, dorm developer

In response to an “open letter to the Jamaica Estates community” from the developer of a St. John’s University dormitory located in Jamaica Estates, State Senator Frank Padavan has slammed the school and branded the developers as liars.
The letter from development company H2H and signed by managing partner David Belt, appeared in some local newspapers at the end of January purportedly to “keep an open dialogue” with the community.
In his five-page response, Padavan dismisses the letter, saying “(f)rom the inception of Mr. Belt’s plan for the Henley Road dormitory, until today, nothing contained in (his) letter could be further from the truth.”
Padavan countered Belt’s claim of voluntarily participating in sewer upgrades by declaring that only after a threat of a stop-work order from the Department of Buildings (DOB) that “Mr. Belt and H2H agreed to perform the additional work required by city agencies.”
According to Padavan, the architect for the project “self-certified” the plans, meaning that construction began without any outside review, until Padavan and community members from Jamaica Estates demanded it.
Upon such review, Padavan stated, “we discovered a number of ‘errors and miscalculations’ on the part of Mr. Belt’s architect/engineer.”
“It should be noted that Mr. Belt’s architect/engineer forfeited his privilege to ‘self-certify’ with the (DOB) due to his prior ‘errors and miscalculations,’” he said.
In addition to challenging the H2H claims of compliance with sewer requirements, Padavan declared, “H2H has no approval for the proposed dormitory sewage discharge plan.”
He also called into question the other half of the equation, namely the possibility of “errors and miscalculations” in the supply of water to the building, which can house 485 students.
“There is no need for any of the St. John’s University students to become victims of a dormitory fire in the event water pressure is not sufficient to reach the 6th floor,” Padavan warned.
“Mr. Belt and his partners are motivated by only one thing, greed,” he charged.
Padavan also upped the ante in his charges against the university administration and its security.
Citing “a recent disturbance involving 50 to 100 students…outside the west gate of St. John’s,” he claimed a campus security guard ignored the incident.
Noting that the guard was asked to intervene by nearby residents and refused because they “were not on school property, and not within his jurisdiction,” Padavan declared, “History has taught us that the promises of supervision of (Henley Road dormitory) students are totally empty promises.”
Padavan again cited university on-campus crime statistics and questioned the abilities of St. John’s University President, Fr. Donald Harrington.
“Can we assume that St. John’s University can control criminal activity off campus, when in fact it cannot control criminal activity on campus directly under the supervision of Fr. Harrington?” Padavan said, noting that “victims of these crimes are the St. John’s University students.”
“The construction of the dormitory is wrong for the students, it is wrong for the community and must be stopped,” the letter concludes.