Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue (Photo: QueensPost)
April 3, 2019 By Christian Murray
A 12-story, 201-unit building is likely to go up on the corner of Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue as plans to rezone the site are close to being approved.
The building would go up on a 30,000 square foot site that is currently home to Popeye’s, a Sushi restaurant, a tire shop, a Kumon learning center and a house of worship.
The developers, AYC Properties LLC, are seeking to change the current C8-1 zoning on the 47-15 34th Ave. site to R7X/C2-4 in order to move forward with the project.
The C8-1 zone does not permit residential buildings and is geared more toward auto-oriented uses and big box stores. Buildings within that zone are also limited in scale. The buildings that currently occupy the site—which are one and two stories tall– maximize what is currently allowed by existing zoning.
The developers are therefore seeking a zoning change that will permit residential use as well as a building six times the size of the 30,000 square foot site area-under R7-X, with a C2-4 commercial overlay.
The proposal calls for 201 units, of which 61 would be permanently affordable under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing guidelines. The development would contain 8,800 square feet of commercial space and 4,700 square feet of community facility space. The community facility would be used by Urban Underground, which provides services for underserved adults and children, as well as a pre-school. There would be 77 parking space, most of which would be below ground.
The developers, with the support of City Planning, argue that the current C8-1 zoning is no longer the most appropriate use for the site, and that sites along Northern Boulevard would be better utilized for residential use.
“The Department of City Planning finds that support of residential development on these sites better aligns with the city and community’s vision for Northern Boulevard than the existing auto-oriented use,” said Blake Montieth, an urban planner for Dept. of City Planning, who presented the rezoning application to the City Planning Commission during a hearing on Feb. 25.
However, the project has met some community opposition, since the public review process—known as ULURP– began on Nov. 13. The initial proposal was for a 14-story building, although with the same number of units.
Community Board 1 opposed the application in its opinion on Jan. 22, rejecting it by a vote of 31 to 4 with one member abstaining.
“CB1 believes the proposed rezoning application, as submitted and certified, will produce a building that is significantly out of scale and context with the surrounding development,” the board wrote in its non-binding, advisory opinion
The board noted that the development is near many two- and three-family homes, particularly to the north of the site.
“A more appropriate transition between Northern Boulevard and the neighborhoods to the north would be developments with maximum heights between eight and 10 stories,” the board wrote.
The board was not satisfied with the affordable housing component of the plan—despite it complying with the City’s MIH Option 2, where 30 percent of the units (61 in this case) were to be set aside for applicants earning 80 percent of the average median income, or $85,360 for a family of four.
The board wanted the income limits to be lower, noting that in the five census tracts surrounding the project the median housing income is $41,115.
The developer revised the plans, dropping the height to 12 stories and made a pledge to offer two-thirds of the affordable units (40 units) at 60 percent of the AMI. The revisions, however, are not binding.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz weighed in on the plan—as part of the public review process—on Feb. 21. She approved the plan and commended the developer for working with the community by reducing the height and changing the affordable housing component. Like CB1, her views are advisory.
The plan is currently being reviewed by the City Planning Commission and a vote is likely to take place on April 10. The plan will then go to city council for approval. If the CPC and the City Council approve the plan, the zoning change will go into effect.
The development is in Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer’s district and it is the protocol of the council to vote in accordance with the wishes of the member where the project is to be sited.
Van Bramer said that he plans to hold a Council hearing on the project on May 2 at the Zoning Subcommittee. The hearing would then be followed by a vote of the full council in May.
“I am thoroughly studying this proposal and taking input from local stakeholders,” Van Bramer said. “I do have some concerns about this project that are shared by Community Board 1 and others. I will continue to engage with the community before coming to any decisions.”
Block Likely to be Demolished and Replaced by 12-Story Development (Photo: QueensPost)
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12 Comments
Does anyone remember how LIC and Queens plaza were 20-30 years ago? You couldn’t walk on Queens plaza at 3:00am! Then Bloomberg came and changed zoning and development laws and the Tech companies came and now the city is not relying only on Wall Street to provide good paying jobs and we have Cornell Tech campus also in across the bridge from LIC…so the big guys came and started investing money and we got the transformation we see now and all for the better. You couldn’t get a decent cup of coffee years back and now even the dinners offer good coffee because they have to compete and they know we will not drink their “burned colored water” of the days back. As someone else commented above the more the supply the better for renters and residents and workers in the area. If the developers want to take the risk and build a luxury condo building and change the look of the block for the better let them do it. Slowly the whole area will change for the better and then maybe the city will decide to do something with Northen BLVD. Usually, the overbuilds result in an oversupply of housing and some defaults but they are good for society because they replace old and dilapidated housing infrastructure with new housing. Yes, there is a crisis of affordable housing in the city but you don’t solve the problem with limiting supply with price controls if anyone forgot the price controls of the seventies. There is an inventory of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments in old small and medium-size buildings in Astoria and the rents have come down considerably. We missed the opportunity with Amazon to become an anchor in the area and transform LIC/Astoria and the surrounding communities into a future hub of innovation, AI, and other advanced similar tech areas which will be the future of employment. The future will happen with or without LIC/Astoria, the question is if the residents of this city will be part of shaping it or we regress into a Detroit of the future. Then all the naysayers will have plenty of empty Popeys buildings!
What are you talking about? I walked around Queens plaza 30 years ago @ 3am. They had some of the best strip joints in Queens.
So well said! This is the reason community boards should not be involved with land use. They’re common people who lack expertise and planning experience and just want to shout NIMBY!
i live in the neighborhood. The more apartments that come online to add to supply the better. More apartments, more supply, overall long term lower rents and prices. That will never happen in nyc NIMBY though but everyone wants lower rents and lower prices to buy homes….if you dont believe me look at this article for a major world city:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-housing-crisis-in-japan-home-prices-stay-flat-11554210002?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=12
Everyone says they want something (affordable rents and housing), but as a whole won’t do the things necessary in their backyard to make it happen
Let it go up! Come on guys and gals….You are so in love with the Popeyes and the tire joint that you want to halt this? Geez. It’s Northern! It’s not some cute hood. It’s Northern!
Oh no! Leave Popeye’s alone! It’s one of the better fast food places we have in Astoria… since they drove many others off of Steinway St.
Great, lets keep ruining neighborhoods with towers.
It’s a Popeyes . I think it did enough damage . Time for it to go along with all the car dealers , muffler places and car washes .
Popeyes can’t catch a break
Popeye’s can’t pluck a chicken!
what bozo would pay luxury rental prices to live on this block? seriously, how stupid are NY’ers becoming…..LIC is still a pit no matter how nice the tall shiny buildings are. there’s no neighborhood
Northern Boulevard is devoid of any life. Perfect for gas stations, warehouses, not apartment dwellers. That Popeye’s is good too!