By Nathan Duke
Community Board 11 voted down a proposal this week to allow a Bayside company that specializes in fire extinguishing products to develop a one-story warehouse with storage space for commercial vehicles at its site on 215th Place.
The board voted 40-1 at its Monday meeting against the proposal to enable Lund Fire Products Inc., at 40-33 215th Place in Bayside, to construct a new warehouse at the site where the company currently operates a fire extinguishing products business.
The neighborhood is zoned R3X, which allows for detached single- and two-family residences.
“They should move into a manufacturing zone like Long Island City, not Bayside,” board member Melvyn Meer said.
The proposal will next go before Borough President Helen Marshall, who will hold a hearing and make a recommendation to the city's Board of Standards and Appeals. The board will then make a final decision on the proposal.
Adam Rothkrug, an attorney representing Lund, said he believed the warehouse would alleviate parking on local streets by providing a spot for the company to park its trucks. He said the side of the building that faces the Long Island Rail Road tracks would be used for loading and unloading trucks.
But some residents at the board's public hearing said the company's trucks already slow down traffic in the neighborhood. They also complained of vehicles visiting the site at all hours of the night.
“They have a huge operation with a dozen trucks,” said Frank Skala, the East Bayside Homeowners Association president. “The biggest annoyance for neighbors is the tractor trailers that back in and out of the street. People can't get their cars out. They have not been good neighbors and residents want them to leave.”
Rothkrug said that Lund, which has been in Bayside since the 1980s, does not allow its drivers to use tractor trailers.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
