By Nathan Duke
The city Board of Standards and Appeals has granted controversial developer Tommy Huang leave to continue work on several homes constructed on 223rd Street, and Bayside community leaders who oppose the project said little could be done to halt it.
Huang now has to go before the city Department of Buildings to obtain a certificate of occupancy before the homes can be sold or inhabited. But he is allowed to continue work on the properties, which are at 39-39 223rd St. near the Cross Island Parkway in Bayside.
“Because of his reputation, the [community] board has voted against the project,” Community Board 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld said of the development. “But he’ll have to do everything right to get a certificate of occupancy. The homes cannot be sold or lived in until they do that.”
The developer, who could not be reached for comment, will have to add dry wells and curb cuts at the project’s site, she said.
CB 11 voted 37-0 in April against allowing Huang to complete the project, which has drawn numerous complaints, violations and stop-work orders since he acquired the property in 2002 and began constructing four homes at the site.
But the BSA gave Huang approval July 13 to continue work at the site. Two of the homes involved in the project are not built to current zoning.
The developer had contended that he had a large portion of the structure completed as well as significant financial investment. On those grounds, the BSA has allowed him to proceed with the development.
The project will not come back before CB 11 following its approval by the BSA.
Community leaders said there is little recourse to prevent the construction from being finished.
“The BSA and its way of doing business is something that needs to be reformed,” City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) said. “There are too many catchalls they have to circumvent the process to the detriment of the neighborhood. It’s unfortunate these neighbors will have to deal with this. We have to be vigilant to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the district.”
Huang has long been considered a notorious developer in Queens. In 1999, he was convicted of a felony for a 1996 oil spill in the basement of the landmarked RKO Keith’s Theatre in Flushing, which he purchased in 1986.
He also bought the 200-year-old Klein Farm in Fresh Meadows in 2003 with plans to construct 18 two-family homes at the site. But he has since put the property up for sale.
A total of 54 complaints have been filed against the Bayside properties.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
