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!