By Connor Adams Sheets
More than 100 people attended the Station Road Civic Association’s rowdy meeting last week to voice their vehement opposition to a plan to rezone more than 400 square blocks of northeast Queens because it fails to alter a manufacturing district in the middle of a residential Auburndale neighborhood.
The meeting was a chance for the civic members, its supporters and elected officials to state, explain and bellow their views in front of representatives of the Department of City Planning.
The discourse escalated as the evening progressed, with politicians and residents loudly interrupting Deborah Carney, deputy director of the department’s Queens office, throughout and at the end even threatening to sue the city if their demands were not met.
The backlash against the current plan centers on the refusal by the Planning Department to include in the rezoning proposal a change to the zoning of a small section of manufacturing-zoned land at the intersection of 172nd Street and Station Road, where automotive repair businesses, including Star Nissan Toyota and North Flushing Auto Care, currently exist as close as 30 feet from residential areas.
The civic’s members and supporters want the area changed to residential zoning in order to alleviate what they describe as constant noise, pollution and other problems caused by the businesses.
“When you live 30 feet away from these people and they’re in your face from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. and there are tow trucks and deliveries all night, it doesn’t stop,” said Chrissy Voskerichian, the civic’s vice president. “It is a misuse district whether you call it that or not, and it’s not allowable and it needs to go.”
Carney said the city would continue to listen to concerns but did not signal that it would budge on the issue, explaining that department policy and consideration for business owners’ rights and wishes were key reasons for maintaining existing zoning in the area.
“When you have viable businesses on a commercial property, we certainly think twice before rezoning it,” Carney said. She added later that “you don’t always get the answers you want, but we’re coming from two different places. You’re coming from the community and City Planning is coming from a different position.”
Two hours after the meeting began, Eugene Kelty, chair of Community Board 7, sought to dampen the shrieking tone the meeting had assumed with a summary of what attendees had learned from Carney at the meeting and what their options were moving forward.
“You’re standing here yelling at her and she’s telling you the policy,” he said. “It’s now 9:30 and nothing’s changed because there’s nothing she can do to change it.”
He explained that supporters of rezoning the manufacturing area needed to work with area City Council members on changing city policy if they wanted to see their desired changes come to fruition.
The changes would alter a proposed rezoning that would make it more difficult to construct buildings in a 418-square-block area of Auburndale, Oakland Gardens and Hollis Hills which do not fit the character of the existing neighborhoods. The city is aiming to have the rezoning certified by May, meaning it is expected to be either passed or defeated in the next seven months.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
