New York, NY —
The Bloomberg administration has overseen some dramatic changes in neighborhoods across the city. In each case, the first step city planners took was to rezone ... to allow for more and taller buildings.
WNYC's Lisa Chow reports on the latest and largest rezoning plan in Jamaica, Queens.
REPORTER: The Long Island Rail Road, AirTrain and several subway and bus lines cross here. Emerging from this central transit hub are streets mostly lined with two story buildings and a lot of storefronts. There's the typical stuff, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, Laundromats and hair salons. Clinton Graham stands at a busy corner on Sutphin Boulevard.
CLINTON GRAHAM: I own this building. And I own the other building, and other building, and skip one. And I own the other building on that side.
REPORTER: Over the course of four decades, Graham has amassed more than 100 properties in Jamaica. His strategy was pretty basic. Buy low and buy properties in foreclosure, and sell high to buy more.
CLINTON GRAHAM: I own the lawyers office across the street, the tax people across the street. The next green front building, I own that.
REPORTER: Now he plans to build an 18-story hotel, residential and commercial complex after he knocks down the low-rise buildings that he owns. But he doesn't own everything yet.
CLINTON GRAHAM: But the Chinese place, I'm in contract. Well I won’t say that openly but I’m in contract to purchase. And I will get the church if God’s willing, I will get it. If money gets it, I’ll get it.
REPORTER: Another barrier to his plans, the current zoning, could come tumbling down today. The City Council is expected to approve a rezoning plan that’s been in the works for years. Not many people know about it, even on the streets where the change will be most radical. The rezoning plan is massive, covering 368 blocks, home to more than 700,000 residents. It will limit building in parts of South Jamaica, Hollis and Saint Albans. It will allow seven story buildings on a nearly one and a half mile stretch of Hillside Avenue. And in the area closest to the railroad, developers will be able to build as high as 29 stories. Meanwhile, Clinton Graham's daughter, Yesenia, has been managing his 200-million dollar vision for the last five months.
YESENIA GRAHAM: My father said I have a little project for you, and I said, oh, all right.
REPORTER: She walks the perimeter of where 18 stories will eventually rise.
YESENIA GRAHAM: I’m really pushing to bring a white cloth restaurant, even something as simple as an Appleby's where we can have lunches. There's no place to have lunch around here. There's one restaurant here that you can sit in. Everything else is take out.
REPORTER: The rezoning is not without its opponents. Councilman David Weprin represents some of the affected blocks.
WEPRIN: The infrastructure in our area can not really accommodate this type of development.
REPORTER: He supports denser development near the transit hub, but not in the more residential areas.
WEPRIN: The sewer system cannot handle it and we've had a number of incidents of flooding. The subway system is very overcrowded. That F train is the first stop and you can't get a seat on the first stop and you have to let 6 or 7 trains go by before you can play musical chairs to try to get a seat. The schools are overcrowded.
YESENIA GRAHAM: I’m not sitting here saying, oh no no no, it's good for everybody. No.
REPORTER: Yesenia Graham is one of the few developers born and raised in Jamaica Queens.
YESENIA GRAHAM: I want to be fair. It is serving us well. It’s not serving all homeowners as well. It’s not serving our kids as well.
REPORTER: She says she wished the plan came with conditions, for example, that more schools get built first. Rezoning meant big changes for neighborhoods like Chelsea and Williamsburg. When this plan goes through, it may mean even bigger changes for Jamaica. For WNYC, I’m Lisa Chow.