I believe if Community Board 10 members were allowed to vote on this facility it would be definitely voted down - but zoning laws allow it to be built...Ozone Park must be re-zoned and as soon as possible to prevent other misappropriate structures and businesses being brought in the community. The fault lies with the Dept of Planning not the Community Board...
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Construction of a Comfort Inn motel on a residential street in Ozone Park is set to begin this month, despite protest from area residents. photo credit -Lee Landor Several dozen Ozone Park residents were met with defeat two weeks ago at a Community Board 10 meeting where they were told there is no way to prevent a Comfort Inn motel from moving into the neighborhood.
It’s as of right, board members told them. The three lots on which the motel will be built, at 137-30 Redding St., are zoned C8-1 for commercial use.
Although residents who live further down the block, which is zoned R4 for residential dwellings, accepted the auto body shop that previously occupied the lot, they are against a C8-1 designation that allows the construction of a two-story motel.
“It’s the demise of the neighborhood,” Redding Street resident Lorraine Benjamin said, noting that many problems already plague the area and the motel addition would only exacerbate them.
Heavy foot traffic and awkward driving conditions have made the intersection of Redding Street and Pitkin Avenue difficult to navigate at certain points during the day — particularly at M.S. 202’s dismissal time, when students swarm the streets.
Benjamin, who organized a protest at the C.B. 10 meeting, is concerned about the loss of parking spaces, increased traffic congestion, excessive noise and dangers posed to pedestrians. “This is not motel alley,” she said. “There are people and families living here.”
Community Board 10 is powerless when it comes to as-of-right building, Chairwoman Betty Braton said. But, had its members been given the opportunity, they would have opposed the construction.
“It is not an appropriate use of a side street,” Braton said, noting that the lot occupies the back end of the C8-1 zone. The chairwoman guessed that automotive uses are primarily what the zoning intended — certainly no one considered the intersection as appropriate for a motel.
One elderly resident was particularly infuriated. “I have lived in this neighborhood for 74 years, 74 years, and I have never had a problem this this,” she said. Others complained that they were initially told condominiums or a medical office building would replace the auto body shop.
“In my wildest dreams I never would have thought that (a motel would move in),” said Benjamin, whose parents have lived in the neighborhood for 43 years.
The problem is that the zoning map is outdated, according to urban planner Paul Graziano. When it was created in 1961 — a time during which Americans were consumed by the country’s car culture — auto-related business was booming.
To support the industry, the city designated certain areas C8-1 so that gas, service and repair stations could be built. But the zoning category was not created exclusively for vehicle-related commercial use: a designation subcategory, “use groups,” indicated that motels and other structures could be built on C8-1 lots as well, Graziano said.
This situation could have been entirely avoided if the Department of City Planning had rezoned Ozone Park two years ago, when it promised it would, he added.
Calls to the DCP were not returned as of press time.
The Department of Buildings approved the developer’s plan and issued permits for construction on March 12.
Equally upsetting for residents and community board members is the prospect of seedy establishments accompanying the motel in its move into the neighborhood. Property owner Amritpal Sandhu has bought two additional lots adjacent to the future Comfort Inn, resulting in speculation that a restaurant or bar will soon join the block.
To ease such fears and diminish speculation, Sandhu must increase his communication with area residents, Braton said. “The best they can hope for is that the owner is up front with them.”
Although Sandhu said he had no knowledge of the residents’ opposition, he indicated that he would be willing to meet with locals to discuss his plans for the $10 million project.
Noting that he chose the Ozone Park location because of its proximity to the airport, Sandhu said few guests would have their own vehicles. Additionally, he is providing between 10 and 15 parking spaces on the 32,419-square-foot property.
This does not pacify some neighbors who said they have already witnessed “inconsiderate behavior” resulting from the project.
During demolition of the former auto body shop, which ended about two weeks ago, at least five trucks lined up along Redding Street, a one-way road, and barricaded the block’s exit.
“Now I won’t be able to have a barbecue,” said a resident whose backyard faces the motel property. People will peep out of windows and invade her privacy, as well as that of other neighbors, she added.
Such disturbances are disconcerting for residents of the quiet street, but they said the most frightening aspect of having a motel — which has a cellar and reaches a height of about 25 feet — on the residential street is not knowing who will occupy its 75 units.
They are nervous about having “transients,” as one neighbor put it, around neighborhood children and frustrated that they can take no action against the construction. The locals don’t want a situation like the one they said has plagued them for many years: prostitutes who occupy the rooms of the Cross Bay Motor Inn.
The recent news of prostitution-ring busts at two hotels near John F. Kennedy International Airport have further alarmed residents about the motel’s potential clientele.
During the C.B. 10 meeting, area resident Joseph Randazzo expressed concern that the motel would become a Section 8 building, housing welfare recipients and other low-income individuals. “It’s a scam,” said one local mother of three. If it doesn’t become designated for Section 8 housing, the owner will just turn the rooms into “condos,” she said, and conduct some type of illegal operation.
When told of these speculations, owner Sandhu was adamant that his motel would uphold the same standards as the well-known Comfort Inn chain. When it opens some time next spring, it will be a family-operated business, he said.
Even so, C.B. 10 and City Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) intend to closely monitor the construction — which was set to begin last week — and operation of the establishment. Both have requested a buildings department audit to ensure compliance of all regulations.
No one will be quite as vigilant as the Comfort Inn’s soon-to-be neighbors. They will first attempt to meet with Sandhu and convince him to make the building residential. If it doesn’t work, they have promised to scrutinize the motel’s every move in every phase from construction to completion.
