Rezoning Seems Imminent For Dutch Kills
"This complex rezoning will achieve multiple goals advocated by many stakeholders in Dutch Kills."
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO AND LINDA J. WILSON

The clock is running on the Dutch Kills rezoning as the long and arduous process enters its final stages. Certified by the Department of City Planning (DCP) on May 19, the plan now begins a public review that could put the rezoning on the books more than three years after it was first proposed.

First up is a hearing and vote by Community Board 1 at its June 17 meeting. Board 1 had 60 days (from May 19) to act on the rezoning. Whether the vote is to approve or disapprove the Dutch Kills rezoning, the community board is advisory and therefore, the public review will continue.

After the community board, the Borough President has 30 days to review, followed by the City Planning Commission (60 days), and finally, the City Council (50 days).

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, in a May 19 press release, said, "This complex rezoning will achieve multiple goals advocated by many stakeholders in Dutch Kills."

Among those stakeholders are residents increasingly concerned about highrise construction, especially in light of several hotel buildings from nine to 16 stories going up in recent months. However, local business owners, opposed to limitations on their potential for redevelopment, have cited new restrictions on commercial density in the rezoning. "We business owners don't feel that we've ever been at odds with the residents," Dominick Fortino, a business owner in the 60-block section of Dutch Kills scheduled for rezoning at the behest of the Department of City Planning, said. "Why not leave the existing 5 FAR as it is, and then if someone wants to develop a piece of property, we can open the issue?"

The central issue, Fortino feels, is the city's liberality in handing out permits to build hotels in boroughs other than Manhattan, especially Queens. "The city has been handing out hotel permits like candy bars, and the Department of City Planning wants to put on the brakes," Fortino said. This, in the eyes of many, is not an unreasonable stand: one concerned member of Community Board 1, within the boundaries of which the Dutch Kills neighborhood lies, pointed out that a hotel with more than 870 rooms, but only 51 parking spaces, is to be built in the area.

Located directly north of the Queensboro Bridge and the Special Long Island City mixed-use district, the rezoning area encompasses 40 blocks located north of Queens Plaza and west of Sunnyside Yards, generally bounded by 36th Avenue on the north, Northern Boulevard on the east, 41st Avenue on the south, and 23rd Street on the west.

According to DCP, Dutch Kills is a mixed-use residential, commercial and light industrial community with approximately half of all zoning lots in the rezoning area being residential and mixed-use and about one-third being in light industrial, wholesale, warehouse or parking use.

Current residential uses are mostly one- and two-family homes located in the middle of blocks while multi-family walkup buildings of up to five stories are dispersed along the avenues. Some light industrial uses also occupy one- and twostory light manufacturing buildings among the residences.

M1-3D zoning currently exists in 36 blocks of Dutch Kills. That zoning was established in 1989 to legalize pre-existing residences in a manufacturing zone. However, the M1-3D severely limits new residential developments or enlargements.

Current M1-3D zoning also permits commercial and light manufacturing uses at densities three times greater than residential uses are allowed and has no fixed height limit.

The rezoning would limit heights to 33 and 40 feet in low-rise areas, with height limits of 70 feet permitted where multifamily buildings already exist. Along portions of Northern Blvd. new housing would be allowed up to 125 feet.

Because the rezoning would remove current restrictions on residential development and conversions, more than 1,500 housing units, of which about 190 would be affordable, are projected to be developed over a 10-year period if it is approved.

"The people pushing for this rezoning said. "Well, so do we. Businesses aren't putting up buildings next to homes. No business owner would want to build a big structure in this area. These are narrow streets. You can't get trucks down them very easily. There are better places to expand in."

Fortino added that building owners in the area under consideration have already received "E" designations for their properties, which means the FAR (Floor Area Ratio, or ratio of building to lot size) can be cut in half. While, as Fortino said, no business owner in the area of Dutch Kills set for rezoning wants to put up huge buildings, neither do they want to see their FAR cut in half, which would mean any building plans would involve applying for a variance. "That's one of the reasons we're not mounting a rezoning campaign," Fortino said. "We don't want to have to seek a variance if we want to make some minor changes to our property."

Not only would decreasing the FAR by more than half, from 5 to 2, place untenable restrictions on business owners, it would also hamper development of those areas which would benefit most from it. "Thirty-first Street from 36th to 37th Avenue is a prime site for commercial development," Fortino said. "Why restrict the possibilities with a FAR that's half what it is now? This 5 FAR will actually protect the residents, not hurt them. With the FAR as it is now, a big commercial building like a hotel can't be plunked down right next to a house. The 2 FAR makes that a possibility."

Especially galling to the business owners is the fact that City Planning has refused to discuss the issue. They smile and say, "We'll be here and you can talk all you want, but that doesn't mean we're going to listen," another person who owns property in the area said. "We were never notified that the area was even being considered for rezoning," Fortino said. "The city isn't obligated to advertise anywhere but in the City Record. Tell me, who reads that? All our comments and suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. We need to know that the city is committed to listening to what we have to suggest."