By Mark Hallum
Responding to rumors that Mayor Bill de Blasio would change city protocol to allow basement rentals, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and civic leaders held a news conference to speak out against the possible move to address the affordable housing crisis in the city.
Calling it dangerous and burdensome for residential neighborhoods designed for single- and two-family homes, speakers asked the city administration to find a solution that will not contribute to overcrowding. The fact that many basements do not meet city dwelling codes raised fears of decreased quality of life and concerns that fires could become much more deadly with fewer modes of egress.
“We have zoning in the city of New York, we have building codes. There’s a reason basement apartments are illegal,” Avella said. “They are inherently unsafe, so why the mayor would think about putting families – or maybe even homeless families – in unsafe apartments, simply to solve the homeless problem he himself is mainly responsible for, is unacceptable.” .
He added, “You legalize illegal basement apartments, and you are, overnight, doubling the population in one-, two- and three-family home districts. That is absurd.”
Avella,who is running for mayor on the Democratic line against de Blasio. said residential neighborhoods in the city are experiencing the lowest quality of life than ever before due to over-development, overcrowding, traffic and schools forced to use trailers to accommodate the number of students attending.
Paul Graziano, a land use expert and Democratic challenger to Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside), said allowing illegal conversions would change the zoning in neighborhoods, but the state may step in to end the attempt to allow conversions.
“If you convert a two-family to a three-family, you now have a multiple dwelling. There are different sets of rules,” Graziano said. “I think this might be something where the state might be able to squelch the movement of the city because of the fact they might be violating state law.”
Kevin Forrestal, of the Queens Civic Congress, pointed out that although the nearly 100 civic associations in the organization do not agree on everything, there is opposition across the board for legalizing basement apartments.
“It won’t bring as many housing opportunities as the mayor might think, because there’s a lot of reasons people don’t want to convert their basements to apartments,” Forrestal said. “The zoning has a relationship with density, but it also has a relationship with the amount of infrastructure that supports it. So the amount of water pressure, the amount of sewers, the amount of police, the amount of schools. Also, one of the leading causes of death from fire is illegal conversions. It is a ridiculously insane proposal.”
Angela Augugliaro, first vice chair of Community Board 13, echoed others’ thoughts on illegal conversions. She claimed that if someone cannot afford to be in their house, they should not be in the house, since many rent out space for the extra income.
De Blasio is “putting the homeless situation on the backs of the middle class,” Augugliaro said. “We moved out here because it was a suburban area and we like the fact that there’s room, and now we’re being overcrowded. If I wanted to live in Manhattan, I would have gone into Manhattan. I like Queens the way it was when we moved in, and now I can’t even park in front of my house there’s so many people.”
According to Avella, de Blasio could have the City Planning Commission complete a citywide text amendment and change zoning across the board, also known as a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application. Avella believes de Blasio may be leaking his plans to approve basement conversions in order to gauge opposition, and Avella’s response is the opposition.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
