Triangle owner wants to build

Woodside community members will have to wait until next month for a hearing on a triangle-shaped property, once used as a park and now a potential site for housing.
The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) has delayed the hearing on the site from the previously scheduled date of Tuesday, April 1 until Tuesday, May 6.
During the hearing, the agency will hear testimony from the owner of 33-57 59th Street, who wants to build a two-story, single-family home on the space, bordered by 59th and 60th Streets and 34th Avenue. The BSA could vote the same day on the proposal or schedule a date for a later vote, and an approval would give the go-ahead for the plan.
According to the current proposal, which went before Community Board 2 on March 6, the property owner would need a variance because the plan would not allow for enough space on the front and side of the property, as required by R5 zoning.
“It’s a perfect right triangle which tapers to a point. It literally is impossible to construct a building of any kind under the zoning regulations,” said Jeff Chester, an attorney for the property owner Sano Construction Corp. “What we have proposed is the minimum, habitable structure that you can construct on the lot.”
However, some community members have already come out against plan for the 1,437-square-foot house - about 720 square feet per floor.
Joseph Conley, who chairs Community Board 2, said he expects to be attendance at the hearing to express the wishes of the community - a no vote by the BSA.
“We think that it’s a travesty that it is going before the BSA,” Conley said of the plan.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think this was a strip piece of land that was open for development,” he added, explaining that for years, neighbors have used the lot as a community park.
Since a fence went up recently around the property, the 1,150-square-foot space has attracted people and their pets.
Dog owner and local resident Kelly McVeigh, who walked her golden retriever to the triangle on recent morning, said she brings the frisky pup there every day.
“There are no parks. There are no places for animals,” McVeigh said.
Otherwise, she would have to travel as far as Astoria Park, which is more than two miles from her Woodside home.
“It’s unfortunate. I understand the neighborhood that surrounds the lot triangle has used the property for years, but it’s someone’s private lot,” Chester said. “There are constitutional issues here as to whether you can use your property at all.”
Some community members, included McVeigh, pleaded that the area become a public recreational area instead of private housing, but the city would have to buy or condemn the property for that to happen.
“Unless the city wants to come in and buy the property from us, which we would entertain … we are entitled to have some use of the property,” Chester said.
The property owners are allowed to develop the lot, Conley agreed, but should abide by rules of the area. The Board Chair complained that illegal conversions have sprouted up at properties throughout the neighborhood - amplifying parking problems and taxing facilities like sewers.
“We are hopeful that they [the BSA] will be mindful of what the community has to say,” Conley said, later adding, “We’ve seen too many times … it’s to the highest bidder and best buck,”