Queens project approved when Council failed to act

Full Council rejects resolution but not project. Private developer College Point Holdings I LLC filed four linked applications for its plan to develop 100 units and 100 parking spaces within 26 attached buildings on a two-acre site in the College Point area of Queens. The applications included a rezoning application to alter the site from manufacturing zoning to residential zoning (M1-1 to R4) that allows as-of-right residential development. Also included were two special permits to … <Read More>


Contentious testimony on EDC’s Willets Point Plan

Concerns over eminent domain dominate hearing. On November 29, 2007, the City Council’s committees on Land Use and Economic Development held their second oversight hearing on New York City Economic Development Corporation’s proposal to redevelop 61 acres of Willets Point in Queens. The site, located directly east of Shea Stadium, largely consists of a range of auto-related, light industrial and manufacturing private businesses. EDC seeks to acquire the entire area and create an urban renewal … <Read More>


City to pay $9 million for Queens waterfront property

Court rejected City’s lower valuation. As part of its plan to develop a waterfront park, the City in 1996 condemned waterfront property in College Point, Queens owned by Malba Cove Properties, Inc. A majority of Malba’s property is underwater and the remainder is constrained by several mapped, but unbuilt streets.

At the trial to determine the property’s value, the City submitted an appraisal estimating the total value at $890,000. Malba’s appraisal found it to be … <Read More>


College Point to be developed after 30-year delay

Illegal landfill slowed approval of Queens development. In 1976, a developer received approval from the Planning Commission for the Riverview development, a 500-unit project on a 28-acre parcel stretching north from 5th Avenue and west from Lax Avenue along the East River waterfront in College Point, Queens. The state then denied a needed permit for the development after discovering 123,000 cubic yards of illegal landfill on the site. After constructing only 236 of the 500 … <Read More>


BSA grants permit to controversial Queens spa

Spa obtained special permit despite Council member objection over use. On July 18, 2006, BSA granted a special permit to Spa World, allowing a 49,634-square-foot, three-story spa at 11-11 131st Street in College Point, Queens. The project site’s 30,124-square-foot lot was formerly vacant and is located in a manufacturing district that contains several residential and commercial uses. The three-story facility will provide sauna, skin, and massage treatments on the first floor; hot tubs, hot pools, … <Read More>


College Point rezoned to protect residential areas

Queens down-zoning covering 161 blocks was designed by City Planning. Increasing demolition of small single-family and detached buildings for new, large apartment developments had concerned the College Point community and Community Board 7. Borough President Helen Marshall’s zoning task force and the community urged the Planning Department to commence a comprehensive down-zoning to protect its smaller residential character and to analyze the broad areas remaining zoned for manufacturing.

Finding that over two-thirds of the lots … <Read More>