While a proposal to rezone parts of Richmond Hill and Woodhaven is still in the planning stages, it has been met alternately with praise and with questions.
New York City’s Department of City Planning currently has a proposal in the works that would rezone approximately 231 blocks—78 in Woodhaven and 153 in Richmond Hill—in a move that city officials say would preserve the one- and two-family homes that have become the staple of the community’s look while redirecting mixed-use and new residential development to nearby commercial corridors.
According to Brandon Pillar, of the city planning department, for the last two years, his department has been conducting a block by-block analysis examining land use of the surrounding areas—particularly where one and two-family homes are found.
“At the beginning of recommendations, we look at which places would be most appropriate for those types of developments,” Pillar said.
The city began taking a look at rezoning sometime after 2005, when Community Board 9—which covers Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park—asked the department to take a look at a proposal, with the same initial goals as the Woodhaven proposal, to rezone 140 blocks in Kew Gardens.
Pillar emphasized that the current proposal was still in the public review process, which is why his planned visit to the Woodhaven Residents Block Association on Jan. 21 will focus on reviewing the objectives of the plan with concerned residents—particularly how the plan aims at using new zoning districts but focusing on Jamaica and Atlantic avenues because of the transportation resources in those areas.
“It’s still just a draft, and nothing is set in stone yet until the formal public review process,” he said. “Basically, we’re still building a consensus on what the zoning changes will mean.”
Pillar is well aware that he may have a tough task convincing skeptical residents of the plan’s merits. Vishnu Mahadeo, president of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Corporation (RHEDC), is one of those skeptics.
According to Mahadeo, he and his group have several concerns when it comes to the “downzoning” plan, chief among them, the apparent absence of the most recent data from the area that arose from the 2010 Census.
Mahadeo said the census data showed a large spike in the Indo Carribean community, and despite previous attempts to bring this to the city’s attention, he said the current plan’s lack of inclusion of this data was counter productive to that community and would limit religious structures of certain scales in residential areas.
“When you have a community that is growing, you need to make accommodations for that growth, so you can foster economic development,” he said.
The development Mahadeo was referring to was the influx of immigrant businesses in the area, which he said play an important role in the local economy.
It was because of these concerns that the RHEDC have, since June, been circulating a petition against the rezoning plan, which currently has 2,000 signatures.
“We’re just asking for things to be done fairly,” he said.
However, Ed Wendell, president of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association, spoke in favor of the plan, as he believes it may be instrumental in preserving the character of the area.
“This is an issue where you want to preserve the community,” he said. “You want to make sure that developers won’t tear it down and put up apartment buildings, that the neighborhood is protected from overcrowding and over development.”
Noting that illegal conversions of homes have put the area at capacity populations, Wendell said the plan would restrict development in most of Woodhaven to two-family homes while, at the same time, encouraging development along Jamaica Avenue.
The Woodhaven Residents Block Association next meets on Jan. 21 at the Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corp, at 78-15 JamaicaAvenue in Woodhaven.
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
