Board 2 Considers Photo Developer's Expansion Plans
BY THOMAS COGAN

The May meeting of Community Board 2 began with a public hearing in the matter of a Bureau of Standards and Appeals application that would permit expansion of a Woodside manufacturing site beyond the floor-area ratio (FAR) allowed by law. There followed a few complaints about local situations and occurrences, some of which were already familiar to the board and audience, and then it was on to committee reports and the meeting's conclusion.

The BSA application was made by Expert Realty on behalf of Photo Experts, a photograph developing service located at 39-02 58th St., in an M1-1 zoning district. The application was made because the expansion the company desires would exceed the maximum expansion allowed in an M1-1 zoning district. Photo Experts employs 160 people and is a 24-hour business where thousands of photographs are processed daily. Its current set-up, a collection of buildings taking up the block on 39th Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets, is cramped and inefficient, according to Jordan Most, an attorney with Sheldon Lobel P.C. in Manhattan, who spoke for the company at the meeting. There are many company vehicles that must park on local streets or attempt to park in the company's inadequate lot, Most said. He added that one improvement growing out of an expansion would be parking space for about 40 of those vehicles. The parking garage would be built on the second of three levels that the renovated building would have; indeed, would be on the same level as the business office. (Most brought along architect's illustrations of the proposed project.) The new structure would also house another of Expert Realty's enterprises, Victoria Cruises, a travel agency that arranges for cruises on the Yangtze River in China. The first question addressed by the board to Most was about chemicals and any possible

fire hazard. The attorney said that most of the photo developing material was probably not combustible and noted that the city Department of Environmental Protection has to give the company a passing grade before the BSA can render its judgment. He was asked if the project would entail expansion of the work force and he replied it probably would not, being aimed only at enlargement of facilities. An interested party was permitted to

speak: Vitold Rak, former board member, local activist and 57th Street resident. Rak said that Photo Experts is "not a bad neighbor", adding that the garage plan described by Most looked like a good idea, one that would alleviate the problem of company vehicles all over the adjacent streets. But the owner, a Chinese man currently in China on business, has been slow to respond to what Rak said were courteous requests to fix a couple of the company's lights and remove the graffiti that has been painted on its walls. He said that the house where he lives is a three-family dwelling and he is landlord, and that while he has no complaint himself, his tenants have told him that the chemicals the company uses sometimes cause unpleasant odors. Most said that renovation would require removal of graffiti, and the DEP would have to decide if the olfactory situation is bearable. When the Board 2 committee reports were made, Lisa Deller of the land use committee said the expansion plan looked good, but she worried about the question of hazardous materials. Board Chairman Joseph Conley intervened, saying that there were questions that remained to be answered and that the motion to vote on the application should be tabled. The board agreed unanimously.

During the public comment segment, Julius Weber of Sunnyside Gardens complained about distorted rebuilding on 44th Street. Conley, apparently collecting information on questionable renovations in the Gardens, asked Weber to submit details. Nina Teng, also from the Gardens, said the new stoplight at Barnett and 43rd Streets is causing traffic on 43rd Street to speed up to beat it. Additionally, speeding where Barnett and 39th Avenue converge at 44th Street is reason enough to put a speed bump there, she said. Both Jim Condes and Vitold Rak said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should be removing the graffiti under the railroad trestles in Woodside; Rak wondered why the MTAcouldn't bring itself to remove it there but was able to do it under the trestles in Forest Hills. Daniel Richmond, a resident of City Lights, located beside the East River in Long Island City, was distressed that pile drivers deployed at one of the many building sites in the vicinity have begun pounding away each morning at 7 a.m., getting local residents' days

started in a bad way. He said he'd noticed that they were not pile driving afternoons, indicating room for flexibility, so might operations begin an hour later at 8 a.m., giving some relief to nearby residents trying to get out to work or send their children to school? Conley told him it would take a city ordinance to move the starting time ahead an hour, and that simply wasn't going to happen.

Reports from the Department of City Planning and the board's committees followed. Neil Gagliardi of City Planning said that the department would be voting on the Maspeth-Woodside zoning plan on Wednesday, May 24. The part of the plan concerned with housing on Queens Boulevard remains controversial, especially when that housing is referred to as "affordable." One board member found Gagliardi's description confusing and concluded that it would be affordable only through subsidies, paid for by the public. Lisa Deller was more positive, saying that the Maspeth-Woodside plan was having an influence on other building proposals; she could detect its influence on Bruce Ratner's giant plan to build housing and a basketball arena in Brooklyn. The committee reports included not only the land use report about Photo Experts but also an environmental committee report about reactivating electric pumps on Newtown and Maspeth Creeks, and reports from the city services committee about nightclubs and possible sites for a dog run. The pump plan, reported by Dorothy Morehead, has to do with silt from road runoff collecting near the bridges that span the waterway. Before the silt can be pumped, it has to be tested for toxicity. Tests thus far have revealed no great problem there, so the silt can be removed without further danger to the waterway's contents.