By Dustin Brown
One is a long-shuttered gas station in Maspeth where furniture has recently been sold from a row of trailers. Another is a weed-strewn lot alongside a mall in Middle Village, and the third is a dirty Elmhurst parking lot where buses and trucks have long been stored.
In recent months all three properties have come under the scrutiny of Community Board 5, which has heard the land owners’ plans to redevelop the sites and eliminate the blight.
But the proposals, all of which have drawn some public opposition, have met contrasting fates after coming before the community board, which covers Middle Village, Maspeth, Ridgewood, Glendale and parts of Elmhurst.
At its April 10 meeting, the board decided by unanimous vote not to endorse a plan to erect a row of storefronts with upstairs apartments on the site of a long-closed 69th Street gas station in Maspeth. The property owner, Avalanche Enterprises, had submitted an application for a variance that would allow mixed-use buildings to be constructed on a property zoned residential.
Adam Rothkrug, the attorney representing Avalanche, told the board last month the company wants to build four “traditional ’50s- style taxpayer buildings” which would go on the oddly shaped triangular lot at 69th Street and Brown Place.
Although the gas station on the site closed down in the 1980s, the property has since been used to sell furniture. The service station garage is covered in badly weathered paint beneath a sign that reads “North Carolina Furniture Warehouse,” alongside a series of trailers where the gas pumps formerly stood. The rest of the site in empty except for the cracked concrete surface.
Maspeth residents who attended the public hearing voiced strong opposition to the idea of allowing commercial development in a residential neighborhood.
In voting down the request, the community board scolded the land owner for showing disregard for neighbors by letting the property fall into disrepair and indicated the storefronts would negatively affect the character of the area.
“The neighborhood feels that residential is the way to go,” said community board member Robert Holden, who is also president of the Juniper Park Civic Association.
Meanwhile, a hotly contested proposal to build a large housing complex on Admiral Avenue in Middle Village remained stalled in negotiations between the developer and the community board, which is insisting the number of units be scaled back.
The developer, Henry Fabian, needed a variance to build a 70-unit residential complex with two- and three-family homes and an apartment building on a commercially zoned property next to the Metro Mall.
Borough President Helen Marshall asked Fabian and the board last month to try reaching a compromise. But the developer was only willing to reduce the number of units to 59 when he met recently with the Land Use Committee, which has asked that no more than 50 units be built.
“The committee members were not so inclined to change our feelings,” said Walter Sanchez, the chairman of the board’s land use committee.
A large crowd of Middle Village residents denounced the project at a December public hearing for cramming too much construction on too small a lot.
In both cases the final decision for both projects rests with the city Board of Standards and Appeals, which takes community board input into consideration but is not obligated to follow its recommendation. The Middle Village project is currently being heard by the BSA.
A third proposal to rezone a Caldwell Avenue property in Elmhurst for commercial development was recently approved by the City Council, Sanchez said at last week’s meeting. The board had endorsed the project in December under the condition that certain establishments — like 24-hour businesses, fast-food establishments, liquor stores and bar/grill restaurants — be prohibited.
The zoning change will allow the owner to build a two-story office building, with landscaping and 36 required parking spaces, on a site between 81st and 82nd streets currently occupied by an MRI imaging center and fenced parking lot.
The property on the other side of 81st Street, which is included in the rezoning proposal, would remain occupied by produce supermarket Silver Barn Farms, according to lawyer Vincent Petraro, who represented the property owner at a November public hearing.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
