22 The Queens Courier • OCTOBER 3, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com CONCERN IN COLLEGE POINT OVER TOW POUND BY MELISA CHAN did not respond to requests for comment. [email protected] College Point leaders fear crumbling roads in an already congested neighborhood will not be able to handle a new police tow pound that “magically appeared” out of nowhere. State Senator Tony Avella said NYPD tow trucks have been bringing cars in and out of College Point Corporate Park for more than two weeks without first alerting the community. “This is going to have a major impact on the local area,” he said. “You have tow trucks coming and going all hours of the day and night. You now have more congestion in that area.” The 31-22 College Point Boulevard lot in the industrial, retail center is approximately 174,000 square feet, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). The NYCEDC oversees the corporate park but has not run the property in question since November 2012, the spokesperson said. Local leaders said they know little about the use and duration of the operation. An NYPD spokesperson “This just magically appeared maybe three weeks ago,” said Andrew Rocco, president of the College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association. “Nobody was informed about it.” Rocco said the tow pound would increase traffic on deteriorating roads marked with potholes. The area’s infrastructure also has to hold a new police academy currently being built, he said. “There’s going to be 5,000 people coming in and out of there,” he said. “It’s just one insult after another.” Avella said the tow pound is also operating without having gone through a lengthy vetting process called a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which seeks feedback from the community board, borough president, Planning Commission and City Council. Community Board 7 declined to comment at this time. “The streets are falling apart,” said Joe Femenia of College Point. “The idea of a corporate park is bringing in businesses. When you put in a municipal work there, it counts as zero.” “They keep sticking things in this district,” Femenia said. “That’s a cause for concern.” Astoria homeowners will deny access to developers BY MELISA CHAN [email protected] Developers of a nearly complete medical center in Astoria plan to take adjacent homeowners to court to gain key access to their backyards, residents said. Pali Realty needs permission to enter the backyards of about five adjacent homes in order to wrap up an eightstory ambulatory care center project at 23-25 31st Street. But dozens of residents, who say they have suffered foundation cracks and water damage since the project broke ground in late 2009, plan to adamantly deny them entrance. “We don’t want them in our yards,” said homeowner Robert Draghi. “They have done severe damage to numerous houses and they refuse to even discuss settling damages. They never made a single offer to any of the homeowners.” The company is prepared to gain access through a court order, according to a letter it sent the homeowners early last month. Pali Realty wants no more than 60 days to waterproof and apply a cement stucco finish to the back wall of the medical center, the letter says. The developer would need access to a four to six foot wide strip of land behind the building to erect scaffolding and remove piles of shoring steel. It said it would obtain “additional insurance” to cover any potential damage to properties. But Draghi, who has lived in his home for 13 years, said that promise has been made before. “We have a letter from two years ago saying if any damages happen during construction, they would fix them,” he said. “They didn’t do that.” Draghi said the homeowners would only grant Pali Realty access if developers formally agree to repair damages made since construction began. The conflict between the two parties was exacerbated in late 2012 when developers said they accidentally extended a portion of the property an extra 10 feet without permits due to a “design error by the project architect.” According to a Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) application, about 80 percent of the building was already completed when developers discovered the gaffe. Pali Realty ultimately received a special permit in May from Community Board 1 and the BSA to lift a partial stop work order and continue construction. An attorney representing Pali Realty declined to comment. THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Neighboring residents of a medical center being built in Astoria refuse to grant developers access to their backyards. COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE VOTING ON WILLETS BY MELISA CHAN [email protected] A City Council subcommittee was scheduled to revisit a $3 billion Willets Point project Wednesday as The Courier was going to press. Developers need the Council’s final approval to move Citi Field parking to Willets Point in order to construct a 1.4 millionsquare foot mega mall west of the baseball stadium. Plans also include cleaning up 23 acres of contaminated land and eventually constructing housing units near Citi Field. The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, which approves the project before the full City Council, did not vote during its last hearing on September 3. Councilmember Julissa Ferreras, who represents the area, said she needed more answers and better relocation plans from city officials and developers since soon-to-be displaced businesses say they can only survive if they are moved together. It was unclear if the subcommittee would table the vote or move it forward as of October 2. A source close to the project expected it to be delayed again. City officials had said they were open to group relocations and proposed moving smaller clusters of five to seven businesses. Meanwhile, hundreds marched to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on September 29 to protest the proposal. Project opponents said the area needs affordable housing instead of a mega mall, which would not produce “suitable jobs for families.” “I was here in 2008 when Mayor Bloomberg promised to build 2,000 units of affordable housing in our community,” said Maritza Nunez of Our Lady of Sorrows. “It is now 2013, five years later, and people in this area are still suffering with rising rents,” Nunez continued. “A promise was made to this community, and now we are being told that the promise will not be kept.” Assemblymember Francisco Moya said the “development is not worth the 1.4 million square feet it will consume” if residents’ concerns are not answered. “With any large development project, especially those that utilize parkland, there must be serious analysis of the benefits,” he said. For updates, visit www.queenscourier. com. Photo Courtesy Jose Lopez Hundreds marched to protest a mega mall proposal by Citi Field.
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