Board 7 Favors Tow Pound Site For Academy
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Before selecting the New York Police Department Tow Pound in College Point for a new Police Academy, representatives of the city's site selection committee, headed by Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, consulted with Community Board 7.

The project, which is yet to be designed and does not have an exact cost yet although Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed $1 billion to it, is expected to break ground by the end of 2009. But before construction can start, the city must complete the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) that will begin at Community Board 7.

Among eight locations considered, three are in the board's jurisdiction. The Tow Pound and the defunct Flushing Airport site lie totally within Board 7 while Flushing Meadows-Corona Park borders several of the borough's boards. Board 7 is the largest of the 14 community boards in Queens.

"I told [the site selection committee] I would not recommend Flushing Meadows-Corona Park," Chairperson Gene Kelty said at the April board meeting in Flushing. "It's 30 acres [that would be taken away from the park], noting one of the criteria set forth by the committee for the new academy was a parcel site of at least 30 acres. "You would have everybody up in arms."

Kelty also did not recommend Flushing Airport. "It's a very difficult site for us," he said, noting that the abandoned airport is in the heart of the 20th Avenue area, a very busy and critical local thoroughfare.

When the site committee asked about the Tow Pound, located at 129-05 31st Ave., Kelty told them he didn't have "too much of a problem" with it. "Our biggest concern is traffic and how to get people there," he said.

The Tow Pound, bounded by College Point Boulevard, 28th Avenue, 31st Avenue, and Ulmer Street, is on land that is owned by the city. In an April 5 press release, the city said Northern Queens is a practical location for the Academy for city residents and those traveling in from the suburbs and that the site is well served by existing mass transportation and is near the Whitestone Expressway. It also stated there are no homes in the immediate area of the site.

"We want [the Police Department to be] concerned about traffic," Kelty said. "Everything must be parked on the site." According to the city's April 5 press release, once it is designed and constructed, the new Police Academy will feature instruction space, support and administrative buildings, a field house, indoor shooting ranges, a tactical village, housing facility, driver training fields, K-9 environments, parking, a vehicle maintenance facility and a utility plant.

"I'm not unhappy with the [selection of the Tow Pound]" Kelty said. "I think it's going to be better than the negative impact of the Tow Pound. We're happy it's on College Point Boulevard on the industrial side [of Board 7] and not on 20th Avenue."

In other business the board's citywide statement of needs for Fiscal Year 2008- 09 was presented and an application to permit the enlargement of an existing one-family dwelling, which would not have the required 30-foot rear yard due to the zoning district change from R3-2 to R2A at 7-12 126th St. was tabled.