City of Yes Battle Tops BHPOA Meeting

By Katie McFadden

The Belle Harbor Property Owners Association’s (BHPOA) return meeting after winter break included lots of new information. Residents gathered at P.S. 114 on Tuesday, March 18, for an introduction to new Rockaway Parks Administrator Elizabeth Walsack, updates from the 100th Precinct and Councilwoman Joann Ariola’s office and a vital presentation from urban planning expert Paul Graziano on what the now approved City of Yes plan could mean for Rockaway, and the ways New York City residents are trying to fight back against it.

BHPOA president Paul King began the meeting by acknowledging Richard Berger, who died unexpectedly in December. “I’m happy to remember him because he was a good member of our association and a good neighbor,” King said.

During a lightning round of updates, King spoke about some recent proposals for cannabis shops around Beach 116th Street. As a member of Community Board 14, King spoke about neighbors coming out to recent meetings to speak against the proposed cannabis shop at the former Rockaway Farmers Market location, and CB14 voted not to approve it. They also didn’t approve a location change for a shop at 114-30 Rockaway Beach Blvd., which wants to change their location to 114-19 Rockaway Beach Blvd., but ANG Carpet has a current lease for that location, so CB14 voted against the move. “Maybe the landlord is pulling a fast one, but we don’t want to see a good local business close over this,” King said. He reiterated that despite CB14 voting against these things, the board is only advisory and it’s up to the “powers that be” to decide if these things move forward.

King also spoke about the ongoing lifeguard shortage and beaches being closed due to short staff. He urged everyone with kids who are good swimmers to take advantage of training opportunities and take the qualifying test for the job. “We need kids that swim to get in the pool, pass the test and have a great summer job. We want the beaches open,” King said.

The new Rockaway Parks Administrator, Elizabeth Walsack, taking over for Eric Peterson, was on hand to introduce herself. A Rockaway resident, Walsack brings with her over 16 years of experience with Parks, most recently working as head of operations in Prospect Park for seven years. “I’m looking forward to working with everyone in Belle Harbor,” she said.

Next King spoke about the recent promotion of the 100th Precinct’s Captain Carol Hamilton, who is now Deputy Inspector.  Ed Lynch presented DI Hamilton with flowers as a congratulations for her promotion and a thank you for her work in the community. Hamilton, who joined the NYPD in 2002 after working as a stockbroker, said she’s honored to work in the community. “I might not live in the Rockaways, but I work in the Rockaways and I’m a part of this community,” she said. King said, “I feel really good with her in charge at the 100th Precinct and I’m glad we have a great relationship with her.”

In some other updates, King said the metal I-beams at the entrance of some beaches in Belle Harbor, will be removed by Memorial Day, either by the Army Corps of Engineers or NYC Parks. The Department of Sanitation was supposed to have a representative at the meeting to speak about composting and other changes, but they couldn’t be there at the last minute. Instead, Phyllis Inserillo of Councilwoman Joann Ariola’s office was able to provide some DSNY updates and other information. Inserillo began speaking of a bill that Councilwoman Ariola passed that will qualify residents enrolled in the STAR program for free official NYC garbage bins. Those who already purchased bins, who qualify, can be reimbursed. The program begins in August and more information will be available at a later time. In more DSNY news, as of April 1, fines will begin for those who don’t separate yard waste, food scraps, and food-soiled paper from trash and recycling for composting. Those items must be placed in brown bins and put out on recycling day.

Inserillo announced that Ariola is now Republican majority leader in City Council. The councilwoman has been attending budget hearings and is fighting for more funding for FDNY, NYPD, schools and projects in the community. She’s also looking into government waste and how taxpayer money is being spent. Inserillo refenced organizations that rally outside of City Hall, handing out buttons and flyers, that allegedly don’t do much otherwise. “All of these community-based organizations are being paid through taxpayer dollars, so we’re going to start doing a deep dive into where that money is going,” she said. She also spoke about the City Council’s efforts to get rid of gang databases and said the councilwoman is against it.

Inserillo advised people to tune into city council meetings at nyc.gov and testify at various hearings. “It’s important to get involved, not just civilly, but in local government,” Inserillo said. She also spoke about Ariola’s efforts to require school doors to be locked and buzzers to be placed at doors. The DOE is in the final stages of doing this at all schools. So far, all elementary and pre-schools are now doing this. Ariola’s also working on getting schools to include smoke detectors in bathrooms to deter vaping.

Ariola is also continuing her efforts to fight on behalf of city workers who were fired for refusing to get the Covid vaccine. Despite mandates no longer being in place, several hundred workers still haven’t been able to return to work. Inserillo spoke about recent Department of Transportation bills that were passed, including Local Laws 5 and 6, which will require DOT to be more transparent by notifying local councilmembers about plans to take away parking or add bike storage racks, and for local firehouses to sign off on any DOT plans, as they could impede emergency services. Ariola is still working on delaying the closure of the Neponsit Adult Day Health Center and is hoping to host a hearing with the Hospitals Committee in City Council.

As far as events go, the councilwoman is hosting an E-waste recycling event on April 5. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., everyone can drop off their old TVs, printers and other large electronics at P.S. 207 (159-15 88th St.) in Howard Beach. There will be a Night at the Opera on April 15 at 7 p.m. at Russo’s (call 718-738-1083 for free tickets) and a Disney tribute band at St. Francis de Sales’ schoolyard on May 2 at 7 p.m. The Beach 116th Spring Fling will be June 1, a movie night will be held June 5, and flag day fireworks on the beach will take place on June 14.

An audience member had a question about bike lanes potentially coming to Beach Channel Drive and expressed concerns as it’s an evacuation route. Inserillo said this was something that passed long ago and Ariola’s office will let everyone know when they have more information on it.

Next, King gave an introduction to Paul Graziano, an urban planning expert who has attended a few BHPOA meetings since Corey Johnson, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have introduced massive zoning change plans for the state and city. On December 18, after it was passed by City Council with a few changes, Adams officially passed City of Yes Housing Opportunity. King invited Graziano to speak about what the plan could look like and efforts to stop it, highlighting what can happen when people don’t pay attention to such things. “Sometimes these things look like they don’t hurt so bad. The first part of City of Yes was Carbon Neutrality and that didn’t even come by community board. Now they’re putting lithium-ion battery storage places on Flatbush Avenue by a pizzeria and next to people’s houses. If that goes on fire, it could take five days to put it out. That was part of City of Yes. We’re not being paranoid here; we’re being responsible for our families,” King said.

Graziano briefly spoke about each section of City of Yes but focused on Housing Opportunity. “That’s the thing that’s going to affect you on a daily basis,” he said. “The issue is Adams and people on City Council and real estate developers want your home and want to build like crazy wherever they can and City Council signed off on that.”

Graziano said one of the most concerning parts is that the plan keeps current zoning designations, but they changed the definitions of what these zones can now do. “One of the things changed is on campuses, defined as anything 1.5 acres of more, is not just for campuses, but garden apartments or religious complexes like the church on Beach 129th Street. This now allows religious properties, regardless of what zone they’re in, to build high rise apartments as of right. That’s what got approved,” Graziano said, explaining that the schoolyard or prayer garden owned by St. Francis de Sales, could now potentially be developed into apartment buildings.

As an example of an effect on commercial properties, “For commercial areas like Beach 129th, this now allows for commercial businesses to build apartment buildings above. That site where the gas station is could become 20 apartments with 7,000 square feet of retail, and no parking. Anything under 75 units means no parking,” Graziano said. When it comes to redefined zoning in Belle Harbor, an R2 zone, Graziano explained that for most lots, 25% would be covered by a home, with the rest left for green space, but now homes can cover 80% of a lot. “There are going to be small properties with dense houses,” he said. The new definitions will also allow for more homes to be built on existing lots. “Before the rezoning, out of 1,310 properties in Belle Harbor, 66 could be subdivided, creating two homes instead of one. Now 527 properties can be subdivided and one home can be replaced with two houses each with two units, one primary unit and one accessory dwelling unit,” Graziano said, explaining that the accessory dwelling units in Rockaway would have to be attics due to it being a flood zone. “Now you got four units where there was a single home and the builder can do this as of right,” he said.

“This was a giveaway to the mayor’s real estate donors,” Graziano said of City of Yes. “You might’ve heard rumors that he got indicted for doing favors for people who wanted real estate favors. The rumors are true, and this is the result. The real estate board of New York wrote these rules, gave them to city planning, who gave them to city council to vote on. There were 20 votes of opposition, and we would’ve had six more to shut it down, but Adrienne Adams bought off a bunch of those people, promising things that had nothing to do with City of Yes, if they voted yes for it.”

Since City of Yes Housing Opportunity passed on December 18, Graziano and others have formed a coalition to build a legal fight against it. After it passed, a four-month window opened for legal challenges. “We have over 200 organizations working to fight this. The Queens Civic Congress is the umbrella organization, representing 65 civic groups and this is where funding has been going,” Graziano said, referencing a GoFundMe and other fundraising efforts for the legal battle ahead. The coalition represents areas in all five boroughs. Graziano explained that on March 26, they’ll be filing an Article 78 proceeding. Article 78 is a proceeding in New York is a legal mechanism used to challenge the actions or inaction of a New York State body or officer.

Graziano explained that when developers propose a project, they typically need to do an Environmental Impact Statement to show the effects of the development on the surrounding area. “In this instance, the city didn’t do that. They said since this is going to affect the entire City of New York, we’re going to do something called a generic environmental impact statement. We don’t know what type of developments are gonna happen, how it’s gonna happen and when. So, they created a bunch of theoretical models, 28 models for zoning in 18 different neighborhoods. We have over 500 neighborhoods in the city. There are 313,000 parcels of land. They did 28 parcels, a sample of 9/1000 of 1% and they’re using that to determine the entire outcome for the City of New York. I’ve never seen anything as deficient, or rather fraudulent, as this, but coming from this administration, it’s not surprising,” Graziano said. “So, we’re going to court to prove this was arbitrary and capricious decision making an unlawful decision making. We have pretty good stuff to work with and we’re going to ask for a preliminary injunction to stop City of Yes, not just the housing part, but all of it.” Working with a group of attorneys and experts in zoning issues, they’re hoping to file their case next week, and will have 20 days after that to amend the lawsuit if needed.

Graziano says it’ll take about $250K for the legal proceedings over time. So far, they’ve raised $80K. Those interested in donating can write a check to the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association (P.O. Box 940178, Rockaway Park Station, Rockaway Park, New York 11694) with City of Yes in the memo as a tax write-off, which will then give the money to the Queens Civic Congress. Donations can also be made to the “Support Our Fight Against NYC City Of Yes Rezoning” campaign on GoFundMe.com