Election Result Concerns Top BHPOA Meeting

By Katie McFadden

At the last meeting of the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association (BHPOA) before a break until March, the agenda focused on the events of the past—the 2025 general election—and how it may impact the future of Belle Harbor.

At the Belle Harbor Yacht Club, BHPOA president Paul King began with by remembering the late firefighter Patrick Brady and neighbor Maureen Meier, who also died, with a moment of silence. He then reflected on the tragedies that have impacted Belle Harbor, and the turnout for Brady’s funeral on Saturday. “Hundreds of civilians were there wanting to pay respects when he passed. Standing on Cronston Ave., you could hear a pin drop, like being in church. This was our cathedral. Love thy neighbor, that’s what makes Rockaway, Rockaway and that’s what makes Belle Harbor, Belle Harbor,” King said. “This is a great community and I think is something worth preserving.”

King then spoke of the news of Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato recently announcing her decision to not run for reelection in 2026. “That makes next year even more important. We need somebody in Albany who understands Rockaway,” King said. He then reflected on the good turnout at the 2025 election by those in Belle Harbor, at 62%, making it among the largest turnout around the city for a small neighborhood. “You all show up and vote, so thank you,” he said. He then spoke of the continued mission to reach 500 BHPOA members. They’re at 352 so far and will be pushing to recruit more in the coming months, so they have more funding to cover things like the malls in Belle Harbor, and more volunteers for events.

Segueing into funding, Councilwoman Joann Ariola was on hand to discuss discretionary funding available for community organizations to apply for. She noted that her budget director, Ciara Donley, can help organizations through the application process. Ariola spoke of her recent unopposed election win for a full four-year term, and the recent election of democrat socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor. “I doubt this community voted for a socialist but that was the end result. So that makes my job a little challenging, but luckily, I am a fighter and I’ve been here longer than he has, and I know the ropes better and I’m hoping we elect a speaker who is moderate so I can work with that speaker to counter what’s coming. The last thing we want is a DSA (Democrat Socialists of America) speaker,” she said.

Ariola then spoke about some concerning legislation being proposed. She first spoke of Intro 948a, which is having a public hearing at City Hall and online on Thursday, November 20, regarding bringing back Airbnbs, something the City Council essentially got rid of in 2022. This bill would allow for any home to be used as an Airbnb, including ones that aren’t owner occupied, with up to four short term renters in a home at one time, and up to eight in a two-family home. Some expressed concerns over this causing parking issues and unknown guests in neighboring houses. “We can’t allow it to happen,” Ariola said, adding that she has already lost some of her power when it comes to land use issues with the passage of ballot proposals 2-4, and the threat of City of Yes impacting neighborhoods.

Ariola also raised an alarm about a “veto-proof” COPA bill (Community Opportunity to Purchase Act), which she says she won’t be able to do much about since it has majority support and can’t be vetoed. Ariola explained, “any home, three-family or more, if you want to sell it as a private owner, you first have to let HPD know and give first right of refusal for purchase to the city or a not for profit,” Ariola said to gasps in the room. “You have 120 days to sell your building. You can’t sell it to your kids, a neighbor or anyone else, you have to first go to HPD and after 120 days you will be free to go to a realtor.” Ariola explained that the bill has not yet been placed on City Council’s agenda, but it could be as soon as Tuesday. “I don’t think it will go past December,” she said. She ended on a hopeful note, saying the bill would effectively be unconstitutional. “It takes away your right for private ownership. We’re not afraid to bring a lawsuit. We’ll litigate and we’ll win,” she said.

On even more hopeful legislative news, Ariola said she’s working to pass legislation that will protect firefighters, as it was found that their bunker gear, although fire retardant and water resistant, has been found to include polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). “They’re carcinogens. It’s causing cancer in our firefighters because it’s throughout the bunker gear. We’re seeing an uptick in throat, thyroid, kidney and prostate cancer in firefighters,” she explained. Her package of four bills would eliminate this particular gear, allow the FDNY to get bids on another type of gear, and give them until 2028 to change all of the gear out. Ariola believes it will have no issue passing. “I’m confident this package of bills will pass,” she said. Another bill she’s hopeful will pass is one that would bring pay parity to paraprofessionals.

King brought up the issue of recent flooding throughout Belle Harbor and the peninsula. Ariola said a large capital project to replace the storm drainage system is likely needed, but it could take several years, so her office is working with the DEP to try to mitigate some of the issues for the short term by regularly cleaning out catch basins, having valves inspected and bringing pumps into the community.

Mark Viola gave a brief update from the Parks Department. The BHPOA continues to work with them on coming up with solutions to properly maintain the mobimats along the beach entrances. They’ll be doing a walk through with Parks and the councilwoman in early December.

King then discussed the recent passage of ballot proposals 2-4, which Belle Harbor heavily voted No to, and what that means when it comes to development issues. “When it comes to zoning changes, what little power we had, didn’t get better. The most important thing we had was our city council rep. having a major say, now those powers are going to a new board made up of city planning, which is always against the community board, the borough president and mayor,” King said. A lawsuit against the city over the City of Yes, which the BHPOA was a part of, was also dismissed in a court in Staten Island on Friday, raising concerns over the impacts City of Yes may have. The lawsuit attorney, Jack Lester, is allegedly considering appealing the decision, pro bono, as it is believed there is a case for City of Yes being unconstitutional as proper environmental laws weren’t followed in creating it. With that, King asked Ariola to come back up to join local architect Val Pompeo, to answer questions about concerns over that and other election items.

The floor was open to questions. When it comes to the City of Yes laws and ballot proposals, Pompeo expressed the biggest concern for Belle Harbor, a R2 zone, would be the matter of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), allowing people to do things like build up a garage on their property and turn it into housing. He expressed that properties below Beach 125th Street would see an even bigger impact with development as they’re closer to a “transit zone,” where the A train is located, and are mostly in an R3 district. A builder in the audience, Nick, said most of the plans to build up or bigger would be too costly for most people to do, and would lead to high rents to cover the costs of the renovations and increased property taxes, making new units unaffordable, going against the goal of City of Yes. However, someone brought up a current example of this happening at a property on Beach 131st, where the owner is building on their garage, allegedly adding 13 units to the property. Ariola said she would look into this.

A big concern brought up was the reduction of parking mandates for new developments, which could lead to new developments and ADUs created, offering no parking for residents. This led to a question about the risk of the summer parking rules being eliminated to allow for more street parking. Ariola was not concerned about that happening.

With mayor-elect Mamdani campaigning on taxing more affluent neighborhoods, some brought up concerns about their property taxes going up under the new mayor. Ariola was asked what can be done to make sure taxes are applied equitably. “We need a common sense person to replace the existing assembly member,” she said, saying taxes are mostly determined by the state. Asked if unfairly taxing neighborhoods could be challenged on unconstitutionality, Ariola said she believed it could be. “There’s a lot of things the mayor-elect is saying that he cannot do, so we have to keep that in check,” Ariola said. “There are laws on how much we can be taxed, and I doubt Kathy Hochul wants to raise taxes, especially in an election year.”

A community member warned about looking at the bigger picture and goals of the DSA, running on a platform to abolish private property and redistribute wealth. “They will do and say and lie and cajole to get whatever they can get and once it’s in place, you can’t undo it. This isn’t just about our community, it’s about the entire city, the capitalist capitol of the world is being pushed into a DSA agenda, which is more alarming,” the resident said.

Asked about security concerns over Mamdani’s past comments on wanting to defund the NYPD, another neighbor asked what could be done to protect the community if he were to dismantle the police. Ariola remains optimistic about police numbers, as those who are able to retire, are mostly the ones leaving, and the NYPD just had a new graduating class come in, but she expressed concerns over Mamdani taking funding away for future NYPD classes.

On a final note for the development concerns, Ariola said her biggest concern is keeping an eye on homes that don’t have residents in them or were abandoned after Hurricane Sandy, as they could go up for sale to a bank, or homes that are in a trust, that could be sold to developers for a large amount of money. On a lighter note, she shared some hope for the St. Camillus property, saying after she and others pushed back, the “bishop has pulled back. Nothing is going to happen there,” she said. “We have to unite as a community and come out in droves and say we don’t want these things. Elected officials want to be elected again and I don’t think mayor elect will be too aggressive in his first term but let’s try not to give him a second term.”

King ended saying, “We have control over who we sell our homes to. This is not the end all, be all. We love this place, we love what the community gives and we can protect that. I’m not moving anytime soon.” The next BHPOA meeting will be in March.