Friday, November 13, 2015

'EXCLUSIVE' -- What You Don't Know About the ZQA Text Amendment Proposal


   One of the battles in Bronx Community Board 8 against the proposed 'Zoning For Quality and Affordability" City Planning Commission proposal is that the Hebrew Home would be given a Zoning Text Amendment ot allow for construction of the Hebrew Home high rise senior buildings in an area zoned for only one family homes. The second battle against ZQA is the option of no parking requirement having to be provided in any new senior housing developments. However what is not being provided by the City Planning Commission is that there is a plan to build on 39 current senior building parking lots citywide by the LiveOn NY Affordable Senior Housing Coalition which includes as its members John Kaiteris, Executive Director/CEO, HANAC, Inc., Laura Jervis*, Executive Director, West Side Federation for Senior & Supportive Housing, Susan Albrecht -Association of New York Catholic Homes,  Monsignor Kevin Sullivan -Catholic Charities Archdiocese, Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens, Chinese American Planning Council, Inc., Community Agency for Senior Citizens, Sr. Elizabeth Hasslet & Sr. Lillian McNamara - Encore Community Services, Goddard Riverside Senior Services, Claire Hilger, Jeanette Puryear, & Jim Crocker - Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council, New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, Presbyterian Senior Services, Nikki Odlivak - (CASC), Queens Community House, Regional Aid for Interim Needs, Inc., James Lenox House & Carnegie East House, Sabrina Lora, John Napolitano HANAC, Inc., Joseph Girven Association,  Donald Manning, Kay Boonshoft - Jewish Home Lifecare, Gary Gutterman - Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens,  Kevin Queen,  Rimas Jasin,  David Gillcrist -  Project Find,  Ben Thomases, Dr. Anderson Torres -(R.A.I.N.), Emily Kurtz - Council Pia Scarfo,  SEBCO Senior Services,  Stuart Kaplan & Evelyn Wolff - Selfhelp Community Services, Sunnyside Community Services,  David V. Pomeranz & Michael Bialek - The Hebrew Home at Riverdale,  YM-YWHA of Washington Heights/Inwood, Judy Zangwill - Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA), and Marty Englisher - Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

   The goal of LiveOn NY is to build on 39 current parking lots of existing senior homes of which 13 sites are in the Bronx. The addresses include 1291 Lafayette Avenue, 980 Aldus Street, 669 White Plains Road, 1072 Havemeyer Avenue, 985 East Tremont Avenue, 887 Southern Blvd., 230 East 179th Street, 787 East 138th Street, 2000 Washington Avenue, 780 East 186th Street, 2275 Olinville Avenue, and 2973 Independence Avenue. The 2973 Independence Avenue is a parking lot for the Schervier nursing home and senior residence a major complex in Bronx Community Board 8, which is also in an R1-1 zone which like the Hebrew Home in CB 8 would require a zoning text change. This could be why it is important to CPC to have the Hebrew Home zoning text amendment under the ZQA proposal approved so that the same zoning would apply at the Independence Avenue site. 

   One interesting note about the 39 sites selected by LiveOn NY is that they are all in the HUD 202 program for large residential buildings usually found in R6 zones which required parking lots as per the current ZR 25-25 zoning which prohibits building on these parking lots which LiveOn NY and CPC want to change. This is all outlined in a 66 page report Paving the Way For New Senior Housing - A Site Selection Survey of HUD Parking Lots in New York City dated May 2015 which was available on the LiveOn NY website, which I will bet has already been taken down.




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