Shortly after the City Council approved the rezoning of approximately 300 blocks in Middle Village, Maspeth and Glendale, City Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley and community leaders praised the efforts to downzone the area.
“For far too long, overdevelopment was one of our community’s greatest challenges,” Crowley said. “Protecting our neighborhood’s character, the very aesthetic of our low density community, has remained a priority of mine since before taking office.”
The neighborhoods being rezoned are roughly bounded by the Queens-Midtown Expressway, Woodhaven Boulevard, Forest Park, Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Fresh Pond Road and 59th Street.
The objective of the recommended zoning changes was to replace existing zoning designations with newer lower density and contextual zoning districts to more closely reflect the existing built form of the neighborhoods, thereby, ensuring that future development will be more consistent with its surroundings, according to the Department of City Planning. The proposal would also update commercial overlay zones on the area’s primary corridors to match existing land use patterns and prevent commercial uses from encroaching on residential side streets.
“This long overdue rezoning plan will: one, protect our neighborhoods from overdevelopment; two, curb overcrowding and; three, preserve the character of our community,” Crowley said. “Developers will no longer be able to knock down one or two homes and build large housing complexes. All new or renovated homes in our community must be consistent with the character of the rest of the homes nearby, and any developers with plans to build large complexes must reassess their plans to ensure it is consistent with the new laws.”
The rezoning, which the City Council passed on July 29, builds upon recently adopted lower-density and contextual rezonings in portions of these neighborhoods, including the Middle Village-Glendale rezoning in March of 2006, the Maspeth-Woodside rezoning in May of 2006 and the Middle Village follow-up rezoning in August of 2006.
