Community Board 7 gave the city permission this week to dispose of four vacant lots that are too small to develop.
The city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) needed approval from the board on September 23 to remove the properties from its inventory in order to sell in the future.
The tiny plots of land in Mitchell-Linden, Flushing, College Point and Whitestone were created erroneously “when somebody just made a mistake in the 50s and 60s,” according to DCAS senior planner Christian Grove.
The four properties were all acquired by the city for free, between 1955 and 1988, through the in-rem tax foreclosure process, according to a DCAS spokesperson.
DCAS representatives said the department would offer each of the four plots to adjacent owners but did not plan to subdivide and sell in pieces.
“These are small. These are not developable, like we could put a house on. You would just walk right by them,” Grove said. “But they do have some value to the adjacent owners.”
“It could be a patch of grass in between the homes, and they just don’t realize it’s city-owed,” Grove continued. “Here’s an opportunity for them to keep it.”
One three-foot-wide lot in Murray Hill is 1,500 square feet and borders 22 privately-owned buildings between 161st and 162nd Streets and 35th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, according to DCAS.
Another is only 252 square feet and joins three properties in College Point near 119th Street and 9th Avenue.
It was unclear how much money the city would seek for the properties.
None of the four lots have been appraised yet, a DCAS spokesperson said.
Community Board 7 also approved a second DCAS application to disown another property at 135-15 40th Road in Flushing.
DCAS plans to dispose of the property to NYC Land Development Corp, an entity of the city’s Economic Development Corp. The land will then be sold to developer Success 88 for $1.5 million.
A representative for the developer said the proposed six-story building would have commercial space at its base and office space above.
It would also have a community facility, which includes a school for English learners, and would have energy-efficient components.
If the $3.5 million project is approved by the city, construction would begin in 2015, the community board said.
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