The good news coming out of Community Board 11’s meeting on Monday night is that a handful of items that long have resided on its capital funding request list have or soon will be getting the money to get them moving or keep them going.
The frustrating news, according to District Manager Joseph Marziliano and Chairman Paul DiBenedetto, is that the city now is having community boards break down their requests by city department, rather than listing them by priority.
“Their first listed department is police, but that [expenditure] might not be our first priority,” Marziliano said.
One request to the NYPD for security cameras did have to have two locations removed, as New York’s Finest recently installed them.
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Whitestone) also told the gathering in the Bayside High School auditorium that she and the Council have secured $3.7 million for a greenway project that will replace Jersey barriers along Northern Boulevard between 223rd Street and Douglaston Parkway.
Language also recently had been changed in a request for improvements around Crocheron Park Pond to reflect that repair work on two gazebos has begun. Multiple portions of that initial request, including dealing with runoff into the pond, remain on the list.
Other capital requests include but are not limited to continued funding for sound barriers now under construction along the Long Island Expressway; work on the playground at PS 130 in Auburndale; multiple sidewalk projects; and the extension or relocation of the Bayside Library. Then there is the board’s longtime favorite item, a new Douglaston Little Neck Library.
“That was approved in 2022,” DiBenedetto said. He said the project now is scheduled to begin in 2027 and finish in or about summer 2029.
Expense budget requests include a senior center in the western part of the district; at least 10 new uniformed officer positions in the NYPD’s 111th Precinct; more crossing guards and school safety agents; more forestry services in order to shrink the present seven-year pruning cycle for city-owned trees; and more park maintenance crews.
In other board business, DiBenedetto shocked some people who had been in the auditorium on Oct. 6 to oppose a proposed eight-story apartment complex and assisted living facility on the site of the Bay Terrace Country Club on 24th Avenue.
The chairman announced that Borough President Donovan Richards has approved the plan, which would allow a zoning change to permit construction of 248 total units. Under existing zoning a developer could build only eight to 10 single-family houses.
“I’m disappointed,” DiBenedetto told the crowd. “This sends it to the Planning Commission, and they will approve it. Then it will go to the City Council.”
There, he said, the project’s success or defeat could come down to member deference, the courtesy of Council members voting against a project opposed by the district councilmember.
Paladino opposes it, but referendum questions on Election Day that would greatly decrease Council and community input on housing developments all appeared to have passed with ease in unofficial returns.