At the Queens Community 5 Board meeting last week, officials from both the New York City Dept. of Transportation (NYC DOT) and the New York City Department of Design and Construction (NYC DDC) spoke on the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) currently amending the city map to remove an approximately 4,000-square-foot section of 57th Drive, just West of 59th Street, which is no longer being used as a street.
Robert White, a consulting city planner with AKRF, gave a brief presentation to inform board members and public attendees on both the environmental reports on the section of the road, as well as describe what the city considers to be a “paper street.”
“Just to reiterate: the intent here is to formally align the city map with the long-standing operational use,” said White.
Nearby homeowners and commuters need not worry, as the section being de-mapped is merely a patch of a dead end road that’s being used as a pseudo-parking lot by NYC DOT Maspeth sign shop, where all local traffic and parking signs are made and residents can request their own signs for special events. Locals are aware that the section of road has essentially been off limits for several years now, fenced off with “No Trespassing” signs displayed.
Despite the project’s smaller scale, as a TK, it is still required to undergo the ULURP, which includes the presentation to the board.
While nothing has officially been drawn up, a representative of NYC DOT said the small change is indicative of large plans in the future too redesign the building which he stated was admittedly and “eye-sore” for the local community. On top of fixing the parking situation for employees, the representative also noted the building will hopefully be reequipped with “energy efficient” machinery and be less noticeable during operational hours.
“I want to envision a building that is designed so that all of our parking would be interior to the building and we would no longer park in the neighborhood,” he said. “We’re going to we’re going to make it so that we’re blending into… and not interfering with the neighborhood. Having that piece of property would make best sense, so we want to legalize it plus make sure that we’re planning for the future”
