Queens Chronicle, December 14th 2000 Rezoning Ready for Kissena Area Civic Works With CB 7 On Downzoning Plan By Liz Rhoades In an attempt to keep the one-family flavor intact in their neighborhoods, the Kissena Park Civic Association and adjacent groups are working on a plan to downzone to R2. According to Joe Amoroso, vice president of the Kissena Park Civic, part of the area is zoned R4 (multi-family and garden apartments) while other parts are R3-2, which is considered more restrictive. But his group would like the entire area to be zoned R2, which is single-family occupancy, to control the amount of growth in the area. "We are very optimistic," he said. "We are getting good advice on this and we expect to meet with a planning person from Community Board 7 in a weeks." It is unusual for a civic organization to seek rezoning because of the expense of filing, but that hurdle was successfully met by another civic, the Kew Gardens Hills Civic Association, which successfully rezoned an area two years ago with the help of Community Board 8. Pat Dolan, president of the Kew Gardens Hills group and a member of CB 8, was able to have an eight-block area rezoned so that property owners would no longer be able to replace one and two-family houses with large multi-family buildings. Since civics are nonprofit groups, they would have to come up with $10,000 for the city's required zoning studies but with CB 7 sponsoring the Kissena application, the fee would be waived, as was the case in CB 8. Amoroso's group is working with Dolan as an advisor as well as Paul Graziano, a land-use consultant from Flushing. Both advisors are positive that the changes will be made relatively quickly. "There is an excellent chance of passage," Dolan said. "It will take time but I estimate it will be completed by the end of next year." She expects an application to be ready by March for City Planning, with CB 7 acting as an intermediary. "We have good feedback from City Planning," Graziano added, "but it's premature and the boundaries haven't been set yet." He expects more concrete details to be ready in the next three months. "The purpose is to protect the area from speculative development," he said. "The specifics need to be worked out." Graziano expects the process to take between a year and 1-1/2 years "and should be a fast process. "There is nothing outrageous here. It is common sense and the civics have endorsed it." Amoroso's civic has taken a house-by-house survey, which he said verifies that the area is still predominantly one-family homes. "Eighty percent of our findings are accurate with past maps," he added. "Some homes have added garages and some properties show new construction." He stressed that the purpose of downzoning is to "maintain the character of the area since 90 percent of the homes are one-family." The problem is, he added, that some of the one-family homes have been converted to illegal two and three-family residences. Meanwhile, a nearby civic has its rezoning plan already in the Planning Department pipeline. The East Flushing Civic Association currently is zoned R4 and the neighborhood survey was completed some time ago but President Mary Anderson said the Planning Department has put it on the back burner because of more pressing matters. "Our area is pretty well preserved," she said, "but we don't want it to be a metropolis." Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7, noted that the rezoning of East Flushing or the Kissena Park area would go through CB 7 and then the Borough President's Office. "We haven't heard back from Graziano so nothing has been done officially," she said of the Kissena Park and adjacent areas' initiative. But Bitterman is sympathetic to the civic groups that want to downsize. "People are buying up homes and subdividing them," she said. "The rezoning would preserve the neighborhoods and keep the integrity of the area. "I don't blame them for wanting that." Adding to the property value in the Kissena Park neighborhood will be a planned overhaul of Kissena Lake in the park, according to Amoroso. The over $800,000 project was supposed to begin this year but according to the Parks Department, bids are now out and work is expected to begin in a few months. Funded by City Councilwoman Julia Harrison's office, the nine-acre lake will get a new naturalistic look as well as ecological improvements. Plans include removing the badly deteriorated concrete wall put there in 1943 by the WPA, installation of an aeration system to prevent the growth of algae, additional lakeside plantings of trees and plants and a rock island for birds and turtles. Officials at the Parks Department say the lake is eight deep and work would involve lowering its level only a foot or two. Once finished, the level would be returned to its normal depth. The lake originally was fed by a natural spring but the city eventually cut off the water supply, which has worsened its condition. Now, the city will tap a spring water supply to return it to a more natural state. The lake project is expected to take about a year to complete. Kissena Park is bounded by 164th Street and Kissena Boulevard. go to top