Rezoning Plans Upset Business Owners
By ROSS BARKAN
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| Plans to rezone Woodhaven and Richmond Hill has caused concern among local business owners. Tribune Photo by Ross Barkan. |
An apparently seamless rezoning of Richmond Hill and Woodhaven has been lauded by elected officials and Community Board 9, but some Richmond Hill civic leaders and business owners are fuming.
Approved by the City Council on July 25, the City Planning Dept.’s rezoning mixes the downzoning of residential areas in both neighborhoods with the upzoning of commercial corridors along Atlantic and Jamaica Avenues. Advocates of the rezoning — which is roughly bound by Park Lane South to the north, Eldert Lane to the west, Liberty Avenue to the south and the Van Wyck Expressway to the east — believe it is crucial for preserving the “character” of each neighborhood, ensuring one- and two-family homes are not overwhelmed by the construction of massive homes suited for several families. While building size will be limited in certain areas of the neighborhoods, larger commercial development will be encouraged near busy arteries.
One business owner, a self-described son of Richmond Hill, stood in his empty catering hall and wondered, aloud and angrily, who wanted his neighborhood to be rezoned and if his Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean neighbors would be permanently kept from carving out a boomtown like their Asian neighbors to the north.
Chris Sewnarine, owner of the Richmond Hill catering hall Krystal Hall, was not one of the civic leaders or elected officials who hailed last week’s sweeping rezoning of portions of Richmond Hill and Woodhaven. Business owners and civic leaders are seething in Richmond Hill, a melting pot of South Asian, Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean immigrants.
Sewnarine said the property he owned would start to lose value because he or a future owner would never be able to build a bigger structure upon it. Large immigrant families who want to live together, he argued, will also be forced to choose between paying a fine to the Dept. of Buildings and kicking their kin out of the house.
“I’m going to say it as bluntly as I can: maybe white folks are different, their kids turn 18 and they move to California,” Sewnarine said. “I am from a West Indian community. At 18, my kids were still living with me. At 20, they were still living with me. I want to know, when my kids get married, they’ll be right here with us.”
Perhaps the most vocal critic of the rezoning is Vishnu Amadeo, executive director of the Richmond Hill Economic Development Council. He frets that houses of worship in Richmond Hill, particularly Hindu temples known as Mandirs, will not be able to expand to meet the needs of growing congregations. Some have begun to close, and Amadeo wants, at the minimum, an exemption for religious institutions to be included in the rezoning. He would prefer if the whole rezoning was overturned.
“This whole thing was developed and conceived by Community Board 9, not by City Planning, but City Planning got railroaded into it,” Amadeo said. “Community Board 9 did not have due consultation with the community. The members are not reflective of the community.”
Amadeo knocked CB 9 for not having enough South Asian representatives, though Mary Ann Carey, district manager of CB 9, said that the board worked painstakingly for several years to ensure that community members in both neighborhoods approved of the rezoning process.
“The rezoning was discussed ad nauseum, we held meetings in Woodhaven, Richmond Hll and Ozone Park,” Carey said. “We don’t appreciate someone coming out of blue to criticize us. Where were they when we were doing all the work?”
Reach Reporter Ross Barkan at rbarkan@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 127.
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