By Alex Robinson
Community Board 8 voted against a Kew Gardens Hills yeshiva’s expansion proposal at a meeting last week after neighbors railed against the plan.
The Sephardic Congregation, which residents said has not been a good neighbor since it moved in 20 years ago, has applied for a variance which would allow it to add a third story to its building, at 141-41 72nd Ave.
“In 20 years, they have never shown they want to work with their neighbors or with the community,” said Dennis Shore, who lives next door to the school. “No one has ever come around to us to find a happy medium. We aren’t saying you can’t have a school there, but it shouldn’t get any bigger.”
The expansion of the congregation, which serves as a synagogue and school, would provide an additional nine classrooms and would allow its student population to grow from 70 to 185.
Residents expressed concerns that increasing the number of students at the school would exacerbate garbage, traffic and parking problems in the area.
“Where are the new teachers going to park? There’s no parking lot,” Shore said. “They’ll take up all the parking space on our block.”
Opponents of the expansion also cited 15 open building violations the synagogue has dating back to 1992. The variance the synagogue applied for would also legalize these violations so the school could build its addition.
Residents also had safety concerns about a larger student population since there is a lack of open space for the students to play in the area.
“The older kids are going to be out on the street,” said George Hammarth, whose mother-in-law, Trinidad Lum, lives across the street from the school. “That is not just an annoyance to the neighborhood. That is a true safety issue.”
More than 50 residents who live near the synagogue signed a petition decrying the school’s expansion effort.
Members of the congregation also attended the meeting to plead their case for the expansion, which they said is necessary for their community to thrive and grow.
“The building fixes lives in the community. It builds people in the community and makes them better,” said Yekutiel Davidov, a Kew Gardens Hills resident who attended the yeshiva. “We want to make the community a better place to grow and excel, not just for myself, but my children and grandchildren as I plan to stay in Kew Gardens Hills for many years to come.”
The Sephardic Congregation bought the property in 1991 and converted a two-family home that sat on the land into the synagogue and school. It has since become a valued institution for the growing Bukharian Jewish community in the neighborhood, congregation leaders said.
Community board members split the yeshiva’s application in two separate votes. The first was on whether the violations should be legalized so the school would be permitted to build again and the second part was whether to approve the enlargement of the building. Both were voted down.
“The community board deliberated and decided the way they decided,” said Jay Goldstein, an attorney representing the Sephardic Congregation.
Goldstein said he expects the yeshiva’s application will go before the city Board of Standards and Appeals, which approves variances and special permits, by the fall.
Even if BSA does not approve the variance, the congregation could use a federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act to challenge the decision.
The act gives religious institutions additional protections to challenge municipal zoning laws if they have been determined to impose substantial “burdens on the ability of congregations to exercise their faiths,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice guide on the law.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
