By Gina Martinez
College Point residents are concerned about a potential new hotel.
State Sen Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has written a letter to city Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler after College Point residents expressed concerns over a proposed six-story hotel at 14-61 127th St. According to Avella, at his request DOB will conduct an audit of the plans. He has also requested a meeting with DOB officials to discuss the building plans for this site.
The state senator said he believes a six-story hotel located in an M1-1 zoning district is totally inappropriate.
Plans for the hotel show that it will be constructed at the site of a single-story building. Avella said he found it amazing that DOB would approve an alteration of a one-story building which is not a hotel into a six-story hotel. He pointed out that the traffic situation in College Point is already ridiculous due to the narrow streets.
“To think that College Point could assimilate the additional traffic flow from a hotel is absurd,” Avella said. “How much more development can the residents of College Point take?”
Joe Femenia, president of the College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association, was upset that the community was not notified and was worried that the hotel could be another “sneak it in” development.
“How did this happen without community involvement or knowledge?” he asked. “No one notified the College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association. We are talking about an M-1 zone now having a 60-foot building constructed where a one-story building for industrial use was. This is 2017, not pre-1968. Why doesn’t the current zoning apply?”
Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmart
