2025 Community Board Applications Now Open
Want to be on Community Board 14? Now’s your chance. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. is now accepting applications from qualified and civic-minded individuals interested in serving on their local community board.
The 2025 community board application can be filled out online, ensuring prospective applicants can complete the process quickly and easily, while also allowing for a more diverse applicant pool. The application requires neither notarization nor in-person delivery to the Queens Borough President’s Office.
“As this year’s community board application period kicks off, I’m looking forward to connecting with residents from all over our borough and hearing from hundreds of our neighbors who want to make a difference in their communities,” Borough President Richards said. “I’m proud of the immense progress we’ve made to diversify our boards thus far, but there is much more work to do to ensure all 14 of them look and feel like the communities they represent. For all those who have an interest in public service, I strongly encourage you to apply today.”
The application is available online at queensbp.nyc.gov, and must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, February 14. This deadline applies to both new applicants and existing community board members seeking an additional term. For the upcoming round of appointments, the two-year term of service will begin on Tuesday, April 1.
Over the course of Borough President Richards’ first term, his administration has worked tirelessly to generate higher interest in community board membership and reverse troubling demographic inequities around age, gender, background and more that have existed for decades across Queens’ 14 community boards.
As detailed in the Borough President’s 2024 Community Board Demographic Report, more than 3,600 applications have been submitted since 2021 — the vast majority of which came from individuals who had not previously served on a community board — while last year’s process alone saw 848 Queens residents submit applications.
Of those 848 applicants last year, 355 were appointed to a community board. That includes 117 individuals who were not previously serving on a board — the largest number of new members appointed during the Richards administration thus far.
Over the past four years, the significantly larger and more diverse applicant pools have led to community board classes that are younger, more female and have greater percentages of members who identify as Latino/Hispanic, African American, South Asian, East Asian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, immigrants and beyond.
Borough President Richards’ community board appointments are a product of the Queens Borough President’s Office’s modernization of the application process and sustained outreach to potential applicants, particularly those from underrepresented constituencies, earlier this year. Efforts to simplify the process included digitizing the application into an easily fillable online form that no longer required notarization.
The heightened interest also stems from Borough President Richards’ 2021 announcement of a series of good-government reforms aimed at establishing a centralized code of conduct for all 14 community boards, as well as a call for a holistic review of each board’s bylaws, making boards more welcoming places for new members.
There are 59 community boards citywide, including 14 in Queens, and each hold monthly full membership meetings. The boards play an important advisory role in considering land use and zoning matters in their respective districts under the City’s Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure, in addition to holding hearings and issuing recommendations about the City budget, municipal service delivery and numerous other matters that impact their communities.
All Queens community board members are appointed by the Queens Borough President, pursuant to the City Charter, with half of the appointments nominated by the City Councilmembers representing their respective Community Districts. Each board has up to 50 unsalaried members, with each member serving a two-year term.
All community board members who wish to continue serving on a board are required to reapply at the conclusion of their two-year term and are subject to review and reconsideration.
