Dozens of residents testified in person and on Zoom for a City of Yes for Housing hearing chaired by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards on Thursday, Aug. 8. Residents headed to the second floor of Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens to voice their varying opinions on the Department of City Planning (DCP) led rezoning proposal.
The meeting started with a brief presentation by DCP planner Veronica Brown, who detailed key parts of the proposal. The proposal encompasses a vast rezoning plan aiming to add a little more housing in every neighborhood. Brown covered topics encompassing modified garage living spaces, allowing apartments to be built on top of ground-floor commercial buildings, and the removal of parking mandates for new housing developments. In April, the DCP drafted an annotated zoning text of the proposal and released an illustrated guide of its major components.
Following Brown’s presentation, Richards had an array of questions, including an inquiry on whether homeowners who are currently renting out their basements would incur fines if their basements were not brought up to compliance if the proposal is legalized.
Brown responded that the legalizing of basement units or other Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) would not mean that homeowners with pre-existing basement units would be penalized or incur fines.
“I don’t think this creates new incentives for the [Department of Buildings] to enforce existing rules. It’s possible that a homeowner who has an informal apartment today would continue to violate building codes or other relevant codes,” Brown said. “People who might have those [basement] homes and want to legalize them know how to do so on a timeline that’s realistic and prioritizing the safety of the occupants, but also makes sure that we are not unfairly punishing people who are trying to get their apartments legalized.”
Richards also voiced infrastructure concerns about the impact the legalization of ADUs…
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