TESTIMONY
Kew Forest Neighborhood Proposed Rezoning
December 23rd, 1999
Queens Borough Hall
To Borough President Shulman:
For those of you in the public and press who are unfamiliar with the Kew Forest neighborhood, it is a small enclave of high-quality single-family homes constructed between 1920 and 1930 just to the north of Union Turnpike centered on Kew Forest Lane - approximately 100 feet north of this very building. The history behind this little neighborhood is quite interesting.
When the Man family began the development of Richmond Hill as a planned community inspired by the "Garden City" movement which took place in the United States and England starting in the 1880's, they designed a golf course on the hilly land just to the northeast. Over a three decade period, Richmond Hill became a bustling town of mostly spacious single-family homes, centered on commercial Jamaica Avenue. By 1905, most of the vacant land surrounding Richmond Hill was developed. It was at this time that Albon Man created Kew Gardens to both protect the Richmond Hill area from indiscriminate development on its borders and to develop a new planned community of high-quality residential housing. One small piece of this development, known as Kew Gardens Tract #5, became known as the "Kew Forest" neighborhood, because although it was developed by the Kew Gardens Corporation, it was technically in Forest Hills, which begins on the north side of Union Turnpike.
Until 1920, little development occurred in the Kew Forest tract, as it was not at the center of the development, nor did it have the cachet that adjoining Forest Hills Gardens had on the other side of the railroad tracks. On a map from the Belcher-Hyde Atlas dating from 1920, the only structures built were the original Kew Forest school and a new auto garage, on the west side of Queens Boulevard.
During the 1920's, Kew Forest became a neighborhood. The single-family houses were built according to the enforceable private deed restrictions and covenants attached to the property by the Man family which exist to this very day - as they do in all of Kew Gardens - in order to preserve the character of the neighborhood. At the same time and for a decade after, six-story apartment buildings were constructed on the north, west and south sides of the Kew Forest neighborhood and two-story commercial development took place along the newly constructed Queens Boulevard to the east, effectively isolating the neighborhood from similar types of housing to the south of Union Turnpike - but the Kew Forest single-family housing was never violated.
In the ensuing decades, Kew Forest remained a close-knit community of detached single- family houses. Even after the 1961 Zoning Resolution zoned the area R6 in 1961, reflecting the six-story apartment complexes to the north and west, the area maintained itself as a suburban community surrounded by an urban area, and was enjoyed by all residents, both apartment dwellers and homeowners, as breathing space for the immediate community. Like other neighborhoods in Queens, those residents believed they lived in a single-family neighborhood. They did not know that the area was zoned R6. That is, until recently.
In the early 1990's, one house on the edge of the neighborhood was altered into a small apartment house. Otherwise, the entire neighborhood has remained intact, with the exception of the Kew Forest Lane property, which is why we are here in the first place.
In the current mad rush of development which is sweeping across Queens, it is imperative to make sure that the zoning of a neighborhood reflects the current built environment, not the speculative plan that was put in place 40 years ago by the real estate industry in order to serve an estimated 16 million New York City residents which has failed to materialize. As many, many neighborhoods in Queens are at risk, contextual rezoning in places that warrant it can make the difference between small incremental changes that we can accept and vast, deleterious changes in the places in which we live. This is especially true for enclaves such as Kew Forest which are surrounded by different types of development. I implore the Borough President, and for that matter, all Community Boards and neighborhood and civic associations, to carefully examine every square inch of your territory. Examine your deeds; see if you have private restrictions; and fight to maintain the character of your neighborhood
any way that you can through zoning, landmarking or defending your covenants.
As Kew Forest's Planning/Zoning consultant, I wholeheartedly support the application for rezoning the Kew Forest neighborhood from R6 to R2.
Sincerely,
Paul Graziano
Planning/Zoning Consultant
Kew Forest Neighborhood Association
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