FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JULY 12, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Queens Borough Board approves zoning amendment
that would require hotel permits in manufacturing areas
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Th e Queens Borough Board approved
the M1 Hotel Text Zoning Amendment
in a joint meeting with the Queens
Borough Cabinet on July 9.
Members of the Queens Borough
Board, chaired by Borough President
Melinda Katz, voted 11-5 in favor of
recommending the adoption of the
New York City Department of City
Planning’s (DCP) proposed text amendment.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
a homeless shelter that was rumored to
go up in the neighborhood’s M1 district.
Vallone said that the rumors of the
homeless shelter were not true.
Last month, Community Board 5
unanimously voted “no” to the text
amendment, mentioning a provision
within the proposal that would exempt
transient hotels from the special permit
review process.
If the City Council approves the zoning
amendment, it would require anyone
seeking to open a new hotel within
an M1 zoning district to fi rst obtain
a special permit from the City Planning
Commission. Motels, tourist cabins and
boatels will also be subject to the special
permit.
M1 districts or light manufacturing
districts include woodworking shops,
repair shops and wholesale service
and storage facilities according to the
Department of City Planning (DCP)
Th e current rules state that hotels, offi ces
and most retail uses are permitted in
M1 districts without any special permits.
Since 2010, the DEC said that there
has been a rapid increase in hotels in M1
districts, especially in areas near transit.
Currently, 13 percent of existing hotel
rooms across the city are in M1 districts
and 30 percent of all planned hotels are
slated to be built in M1 districts.
Th e DCP fi rst introduced the proposed
text amendment at the Borough
Board’s meeting in October 2017 as part
of the agency’s environmental review
process. DCP made another presentation
on the proposal in May 2018.
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Th e vote took place at Queens
Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.
Several of the board members, including
City Council members and the
chairperson of each Community Board
in the borough, voiced their approval
on the grounds that each community
board’s conditions were met.
Th ose who voted “no” at Monday’s
meeting were representatives of
Community Boards 5, 7, 8 and 9, and
Councilman Paul Vallone who represents
District 19 in northeast Queens.
In the past, several community boards
raised concerns about the hotels in the
M1 districts being converted into homeless
shelters.
An article on QNS.com mentioned
that New York has had a long history
with converting newly built hotels
in areas like the Fairfi eld Inn in Long
Island City, while planned shelters in
the neighborhoods of Glendale and
Bellerose fell through.
Th e same article mentioned that hundreds
of protesters showed up to a civic
meeting in College Point to rally against
NEW APARTMENTS. NEW AMENITIES. NEW EVERYTHING.
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