Astoria Contextual Zoning Draft

NYT's article on Balancing Needs of Low-Rise Districts

NYC Department of Planning (Queens Division) presented their draft for future rezoning of Astoria at the Astoria Historical Society on April 14th at 6:00 PM. Slideshow below links to the documents presented. Astoria's current zoning map and proposed future zone map (a preliminary draft) for Astoria illustrate zoning changes that will impact your community. Norwood Neighborhood residents would like to see their 3 blocks contextually downzoned to R4B. On the draft map it is zoned for R5B. Please see the comparison chart to see how this will impact your street.

Norwood Neighborhood Organization members asked how City Planners and City Council would respond to our petitions and request for contextual downzoning of 35th, 36th and 37th Streets (between 30th Avenue and 31st Avenue) to R4B. Response was they will listen and that they want to incorporate into future zoning schemes the zoning residents want. We will be sending copies of our petitions to Councilman Peter Vallone and to the Queens City Planning Board.

May 5th @ 8PM there will be an important meeting on Zoning to be held at Ricardo's (21–01 24th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11102). It's important that as many people from our neighborhood attend this meeting as possible. Email us if you need help getting there. Please, mark May 5th on your calendar!

Click on slideshow below to view enlargements of City Planning's presentation:

Abuse of "Community Facility" in Zoning Regulations

The new commercial medical facility on 37th Street (near 30th Avenue) looms over the surrounding one and two family, 2 story homes on the block . Sadly, the building has been built out to the maximum limit, eliminating the front garden. Access to the service alley (used by residents of 37th and 36th Streets) has decreased significantly, creating a blind spot which poses dangers for pedestrians and cars alike; another result of aggressive building out practiced by developers.

How will this commercial medical facility affect traffic congestion, emissions, and our over burdened infrastructure (sewage, power usage and trash collection) in our neighborhood? We will keep you posted. The inconvenience to date has been significant by work trucks blocking access to the service alley a large part of the time.

And how about the Styrofoam "snow"! All those little white particles drifting about are the result of sanding the styrofoam insulation panels covering the building. These particles are everywhere (in the air, clogging storm drains, in the streets, on plants and on cars) and VERY nasty. Norwood Neighborhood Association wrote the EPA to find out if the particle pose a health risk.

Such is life in an R6 zone! If you don't like what you see and support our downzoning effort, please, email us, write your elected officials and call 311!

Norwood Petition: Residents Sign for Contextual Zoning

The majority of property owners in Norwood Gardens sign a petition for contextual downzoning. If you are interested in signing the Norwood Neighborhood Downzoning Petition or obtaining more information on the issues, please email: Norwood Neighborhood Association we'll be happy to call or write you back.

Save Your Neighborhood! Keep Norwood a Liviable Neighborhood!

Norwood Gardens (35th, 36th & 37th Streets between 31st Avenue and 30th Avenue) is zoned R6! In an R6 zoned neighborhood, a developer can put up a 12 - 13 story building right next to a one or two family home if they have a big enough FAR (floor area ratio). On 36th Street a one family home was torn down and replaced by a 4 family apartment building and a 2 family home was torn down and replaced by an 8 family apartment building.

Norwood Neighborhood Association, home owners and residents of Norwood Gardens Astoria community, are urging their elected officials, The NYC Planning Commission and Members of Community Board #1 to support their petition for contextual downzoning from R6 to R4B ; a zone that more accurately reflects our residential neighborhood of one and two family homes.















Wouldn't it be nice if developers enhanced our community rather that blighted it with outsized construction blocking light, paving over gardens and putting in new structures that are not reflective of the community at large? Should preserving green spaces, becoming more valuable to residents each day, be something developers should consider in their building plans? How do you feel about front gardens and green spaces being paved over and replaced by cement parking slabs with cars and trash cans? It's happening all over Queens, because developers and our elected officials don't realize we care! Support Norwood Gardens R4B contextual downzoning petition to show you want to protect your neighborhood and care about your community! Write or call elected officials or call 311 and let them know downzoning matters to you!

Top photo: 4-5 family apartment building replaced one family home in the midst of historically significant block. R6 zoning permits this.

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Bottom photo: 2 family home was torn down and a 4 story commercial medical facility is under construction. Did the DOB really approve plans to build all the way out to the service road, right up to the construction fence ? Resident drivers and pedestrians are finding this dangerous as it's impossible to see incoming cars and people. Access is also difficult for sanitation trucks that service all the homes on both 36th and 37th Streets.











This is what's happening in your backyard!



Top 2 photos: 37th Street between 31st Avenue and 30th Avenue.
Top 3rd Photo: 38th Street between 31st Avenue and 30th Avenue
Top bottom photo: Paved front yard with parking lot: trend in Queens. R4B does not allow this.
Bottom photos: 38th Street between 31st Avenue and 30th Avenue

Aclotramizole ointment LeSpeak out! Let your elected officials know you care about your neighborhood and how inappropriate development is impacting your life: traffic congestion, over crowded schools, pollution from idling cars and trucks, no parking, electrical outages, not enough parks or green spaces (and overcrowding in the 1 we have on 38th Street), front gardens paved for parking, trash build-up, lack of dog runs. But there are lots more multi-family apartment buildings overloading an aging infrastructure! From a webpage at NYC Department of City Planning : example of R6 Zoning

• R6 zoning replaces the R5 and C8-1 districts on Northern Boulevard where, when combined with commercial overlays, it will foster apartment buildings with ground floor retail. R6 zoning is retained on Roosevelt Avenue at the southwest corner of the rezoning area and along its eastern boundary on 114th Street. When developed using the height factor regulations, R6 zoning allows a building height of 11 to 13 stories at a maximum 2.43 FAR with required building setbacks. This high-rise alternative offers development opportunities for Astoria Boulevard where views of Flushing Bay can be maximized. Image: Mid-rise apartment building on Astoria Boulevard in the R6 District that has been expanded

Contectual Zoning for Livable Community in Norwood Gardens!

If you value your neighborhood, green spaces, low density living and would like to encourage development that enhances rather than destroys your neighborhood, let your elected officials and the NYC planning board know YOU CARE; sign the Norwood Gardens downzoning petition. Say no to R6 (buildings 12 stories and higher, curb cuts, front yard parking lots and high density living, drain on limited public services and resources) and Yes to R4B (no curb cuts to make way for parking in front yards, more green, less height, more light, and a neighborhood that is not an anonymous block of ugly apartments buildings built by developers who have no stake in Astoria).