North Flushing Says “NO” To McMansions

Homeowners group head Sandi Viviani and civic group head Tyler Cassell say "No" to McMansions.

FROM THE DAILY NEWS

Homeowners group head Sandi Viviani and civic group head Tyler Cassell have been working on new Flushing zoning.

In an effort to ward off oversized McMansions, city planners have proposed new zoning for 257 blocks in northern Flushing.

The plan is designed to help the area keep its look and feel of mostly single-family homes and attached Tudors on tree-lined streets.

The proposed zoning changes are “long overdue,” said City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside).

“New construction has been destroying the quality of life,” said Avella, who lobbied hard for the rezoning, which includes a new zoning category for larger one-family lots.

The proposal applies to an area roughly bounded by Union St. on the west, the Clearview Expressway and Francis Lewis Blvd. on the east, Northern Blvd. and Station Road to the south and 25th Ave. to the north.

The complex plan includes several different types of zoning. It is to be discussed at 7 p.m. Thursday at a joint Community Board 7 and Community Board 11 public hearing at Holy Cross High School.

“We are proposing new zoning that will safeguard the character of this beautiful, lower-density community,” said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden.

The plan would replace outdated zoning that dates to 1962, and “establish a low-scale regulatory framework to ensure that future development matches neighborhood character,” Burden said.

Tyler Cassell, president of the North Flushing Civic Association, applauded the move.

“We have been hoping for this for the past 10 years,” said Cassell, who sits on a zoning committee with members of both community boards.

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Every Vote Counts!

People protest 11th State Senate District election tallying process outside the Queens Board of Elections on Queens Blvd.

From the New York Daily News

Also reported by Queens Crap

City Board of Elections commissioners voted unanimously today to reverse their December decision and allow disputed paper ballots to be counted in the yet-undecided 11th SD race, signaling the beginning of the end of what has been an extremely contentious and drawn-out process.

Depending on how long the count takes – and there have been conflicting reports as to exactly how many ballots are out there, but it’s somewhere between 1,700 and 2,700 – this contest could be a contender for the title of longest-running undecided legislative race in modern history.

The record to date is the 2004 Spano-Stewart-Cousins race, in which Spano wasn’t declared the winner until Feb. 8 of 2005 – and then by just 18 votes.

Republican Frank Padavan, who was the incumbent GOP senator when this whole mess started, has a lead of several hundred votes – perhaps as many as 500 – over his Democratic challenger, Councilman Jim Gennaro.

Obsevers and operatives on both sides of the aisle have been more or less in agreement (at least privately) that Padavan is going to be declared the winner.

The Democrats had a stake in delaying that outcome for as long as possible back when the leadership battle was still raging in the Senate, as it deprived Republican Dean Skelos of a vote. But that turned out not to make much of a difference in the end.

Despite the fact that he is techincally no longer a senator, Padavan says he has been showing up for work at his district office, which continues to be staffed at the expense of the Senate GOP. He has already announced his intention to seek re-election in 2010.