By Stephen Stirling
The New York Police Department certified its plans to build a $1 billion training academy in College Point Monday, much to the chagrin of Community Board 7 leaders, who contend that an unpolished project is being dropped in the lap of an overburdened community.
The certification, confirmed by the City Planning Commission, starts the six−month public approval process, meaning CB 7 will have to issue a recommendation by mid−July. The project has irked CB 7 Chairman Gene Kelty and Vice Chairman Chuck Apelian, who have questioned why the NYPD has had little contact with the board since announcing the project in 2007.
“They can’t just come into our community and say we’re taking 36 acres of your land, thank you very much,” Apelian said. “They’ve gotta sit down and address some of the issues that the community is facing and are long overdue.”
Public hearings had not been scheduled by press time, but CB 7 said they would probably take place in June or early July, if necessary.
“It’s going to take some tweaking,” Kelty said of the project. “We’re just going to kind of wait and see what they come to us with.”
The $1 billion project will be situated on a more than 30−acre site in the College Point Corporate Park near the Whitestone Expressway, bounded by 31st Avenue, College Point Boulevard, 28th Avenue and Ulmer Street.
The facility will not conform to several zoning and height requirements for the area, but the draft environmental impact statement for the project said a mayoral override will be used to circumvent this issue. The executive power grants Mayor Michael Bloomberg the authority to waive certain zoning regulations for a city project.
“As−of−Mike?” Apelian quipped when asked about the use of the practice. “I just think, especially with a project like this, where the culture of the Police Department is hard to work with to begin with, that using something like this just makes things more contentious.”
The new facility will bring NYPD programs, such as emergency vehicles and firearms training, which currently take place in the Bronx and Brooklyn miles from the police academy’s Manhattan site, into one site. It will have 250 classrooms, a field house, a tactical village, facilities to mimic prisoner processing stations and a simulated subway station to permit training in biological, chemical and radiological attacks.
There will be space for 2,000 recruits per year and refresher programs for officers and members of other law enforcement agencies.
Kelty said he was particularly unhappy with the timing of the certification, noting that the board has already had to analyze a glut of complex projects in the last year, such as the redevelopment of Willets Point, the North Flushing rezoning and a special zoning district.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at sstirling@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.
