By Alex Ginsberg
A new bill introduced by Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis) would give the Buildings Department more power to punish homeowners who undertake illegal construction projects, but whether it would solve the longstanding problem of illegal conversions is uncertain.
The bill, introduced March 25, would allow the department to disapprove new building permit applications if the applicant has outstanding or unresolved violations, Weprin's office said. As the situation stands now, homeowners can apply for and receive permits even if they owe fines or penalties for illegal construction, work without permits, illegal occupancies or work contrary to plans.
Weprin said the bill would accomplish two major goals.
“One, the city needs the money, and two, there's potentially a dangerous situation that needs to be cleaned up,” he said in an interview.
Weprin said the bill would go before the Housing and Buildings Committee in June.
Although the bill's provisions would encompass unlawful projects of various kinds, Weprin said its real targets were illegal conversions.
Illegal conversions are subdivisions of existing homes that violate zoning ordinances. In most cases, the owners are seeking to earn extra income by renting out small apartments or rooms. The newly created residences violate the one- or two-family home zoning requirements in many neighborhoods of eastern Queens.
“It's an important issue,” said Rich Hellenbrecht, chairman of Community Board 13, who requested the bill from Weprin's office. “People have died because there's too many people living in [illegally converted homes]. It affects crime, parking, congestion, and pollution. And it affects middle-class communities as well as lower-middle class communities.”
In April 1997 four people died when their illegally converted home that had an extra room added to a wood frame structure burned down, according to the Queens Civic Congress.
According to Hellenbrecht, one particularly galling loophole in the current system is that Buildings investigators cannot easily determine if an extra room or apartment has been illegally added to a home.
Investigators will respond to complaints by visiting a building, but if the occupant refuses to admit them, the department must go through a lengthy and tedious process to obtain a court order. Most often, Hellenbrecht said, the department simply marks the file “resolved” and does nothing further except continue to approve new building applications from the same individuals.
Weprin agreed, remarking that “you have a situation where people have multiple violations and despite not correcting these violations, they're doing major construction, knocking down houses, expanding and doing multiple projects.”
Hellenbrecht praised the current bill because it would use approval of the applicant's next project as leverage.
“The only time you have some teeth is when someone is looking for something from the Buildings Department,” he said.
But it is those very “teeth” that could present the biggest challenge to the bill. A Buildings Dept. source indicated that it might be unconstitutional to constrain homeowners from making improvements to their properties.
Weprin said that he was not aware of the possible constitutional problems with the bill, but said that such objections were best left to the courts to resolve.
He also said that cracking down on illegal conversions would not spell disaster for thousands of low-income immigrants who rely on them for affordable housing.
“We have a problem with affordable housing,” he acknowledged. “We want to encourage that, but the benefit to immigrant families is more to worry about their safety, to make sure they have safe affordable housing rather than just any housing.”
Reach reporter Alex Ginsberg by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
