A programmable, illuminated sign that has tormented neighbors of Bayside High School since school began in September has gone dark – but local residents and Community Board (CB) 11 members just want it gone.
The sign, a computer-controlled LED (light emitting diode) affair that can animate messages, stands near the entrance to the school located at 32-24 Corporal Kennedy Street.
Within days of its unveiling at the beginning of the school year, complaints began – that it was annoying, dangerous and, ultimately, illegal.
After months of communication among local residents, CB11 and the school, Principal Michael Athy threw the switch turning off the sign, but by then CB11 formed an ad hoc committee to investigate.
CB11 received the report at its December meeting and sent a letter to the Department of Buildings (DOB) advising that the sign was, in fact, illegal and calling for its removal.
The seeds of the conflict were sown about five years ago, according to the Bayside High School Alumni Association. “Someone from the yearbook staff called us seeking a donation toward a sign,” said a spokesperson for the association.
“We thought they just wanted a sign with press-in black letters and perhaps a single fluorescent bulb at the top – like they have at Cardozo [High School in Oakland Gardens],” the spokesperson explained.
The Alumni Association donated $1,000 to the cause in 2005 – and another $1,000 the next year. “But nothing happened, so we thought it ‘went away,’” the spokesperson said.
Instead, the much more ambitious plan was in the works. There was one problem. The city’s Zoning Resolution prohibits illuminated signs in residential neighborhoods, except for “hospitals and related facilities.”
Nevertheless, after initial indications that the application to install it would be rejected, DOB Queens Borough Commissioner Ira Gluckman issued an opinion that Bayside High School was a hospital-related facility for the purposes of zoning.
CB11 committee chair Melvin Meer pointed out that, in the recent past, the DOB found that illuminated signs in front of a dentist’s and a chiropractor’s office in the immediate area of Bayside High School were illegal. He warned that if the decision stands “our community and all communities [could be] exposed to an explosion of illuminated signs.”
CB11 is awaiting a response from DOB.
