By Nathan Duke
Bayside activist Mandingo Tshaka is calling on Community Board 11 and the Queens borough president’s office to investigate whether various auto shops and other businesses along 45th Road are violating city zoning laws.
Tshaka took Queens Deputy Borough President Barry Grodenchik, Community Board 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld and a representative from City Councilman Dan Halloran’s (R-Whitestone) office to view the properties of several auto businesses operating off Northern Boulevard or 45th Road in Bayside last Thursday.
The longtime community activist accused the city of allowing businesses without variances or with expired variances to operate in the neighborhood. He also said several of the auto shops send out fumes into the neighboring community, which is primarily made up of black residents.
“It’s having a negative impact on our quality of life and property values,” Tshaka said of the businesses along 45th Road, which include an auto body shop, a tile store with trucks parked in its lot, a plumbing company and the back end of a major auto dealer.
But the street is a residential zone with homes next door to businesses with large, fenced-off properties.
Tshaka said he believed the city Board of Standards and Appeals and city Department of Buildings as well as Bayside’s Community Board 11 have made insensitive decisions over a period of years, allowing the businesses to operate in residential neighborhoods.
“Some of the most toxic fumes known to man come from body shops,” he said. “You won’t find this going on anywhere else in northeast Queens. It’s glaring. The community board is insensitive to this community and the Board of Standards and Appeals has broken the law.”
Tshaka chided Northern Boulevard’s Helms Bros., which repairs cars within 30 feet of homes. CB 11 granted a 10-year variance to the dealer in February.
Star Nissan, located along Northern Boulevard, the Clearview Expressway service road and 45th Road, is legally allowed to park 30 cars on its lot. But Grodenchik counted as many as 80 cars at the site last Thursday.
“There’s been a problem trying to get tickets to stick,” Seinfeld said of the car dealer. “And we have properties without variances that have been operating for years. We often get no response from the BSA.”
Star Nissan is fined $700 each time it parks more than the allowed number of cars on its lot. Last fall, elected officials in the community contacted the DOB to complain that the dealer had been parking vehicles on the sidewalk at the Clearview’s service road.
Tshaka also pointed out to the community leaders last week that Parma Tile, a company along 45th Road, had three parked trucks on its lot, which is in a residential zone. A person who answered the phone at Parma Tile said the company had no comment.
Star Nissan, Helms Bros. and the Buildings Department could not be reached for comment.
Seinfeld said businesses created prior to the city’s 1961 zoning laws, which established stricter rules for businesses located in residential zones, were allowed to continue their operations even if they did not conform to the current character of a neighborhood.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
