Opinion

RESCUING ROCKAWAY

THE city may at long last soon start repairing some of the decades of harm it’s inflicted on the Rockaways.

A six-mile-long section of the 11-mile peninsula jutting out from Queens’ southern corner, Rockaway offers an “unbelievably beautiful setting,” says Amanda Burden, who chairs the City Planning Commission.

Yet the Bloomberg administration’s new rezoning plan is practically the first city initiative in half a century to make wise, respectful use of that beauty – and of the charm of the area’s traditional homes.

The damage started after World War II, as the city condemned whole swaths of the Rockaways in the name of urban renewal – demolishing thousands of homes and leaving hundreds of acres vacant.

Then, in 1961, the city imposed residential zoning on areas that had been commercial – leaving businesses stagnant, unable to refinance or expand. It also erected huge public-housing projects on the waterfront – far from jobs and, in many cases, social services.

The public-housing developments were hopelessly wrong for the fragile, storm-prone environment – the city was basically using these beaches as dumping grounds. Indeed, Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Queens Community Board 14, calls the Rockaways the “Siberia of city government.”

But the Rockaways held on – and now these neighborhoods may be set to come back.

The city means the rezoning to spur investment while curbing out-of-character development – thus protecting the scale of the peninsula’s distinctive housing stock, including some 200 bungalows and dozens of blocks of one- and two-family homes. It would also “upzone” two areas near public transit to promote moderate retail and residential development.

Burden says the changes will support residents’ desire to preserve low-density residential neighborhoods. Their charming homes – built by and for regular, wage-earning folks – are now much admired in fashionable architectural circles, and in demand with newcomers as well as longtimers.

“We’re at the lower end of the market, but we’re seeing a resurgence of buyers from New York who want to be near the ocean,” says Richard George, president of the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association. Bungalows that sold for $5,000 in the early ’80s now go for $200,000 to $225,000, he notes.

“We were in a very different place in the 1980s, when speculators were the main customers,” he says

Indeed, that private development has been a disappointment – of such a low quality that many units haven’t sold. Worse, developers and bankers have then turned to the Department of Homeless Services, which has been placing clients in the new housing, introducing concentrations of poverty to whole streets.

It’s wrong and foolish to encourage the replacement of the area’s traditional homes with apartment towers: Those require excellent public transportation, which Rockaway lacks.

The area is so car-dependent that the high-quality, mid-rise market-rate development has been providing 100 percent accessory parking, even though the zoning requires a proportion of only half.

That said, City Planning hasn’t proposed enough intensive commercial development for dreary streets, like 116th Street, that are close to public transit and lead to the beach. Residents fear a loss of views, but the proposed zoning allows for just eight stories, blocking almost no one’s sight lines.

The one remaining concern is the future of market-rate housing. The most successful new housing by far has been Arverne-by-the-Sea, a 2,300-home development on a 127-acre parcel formerly owned by the city. But this project had built-in subsidies that new development would lack.

The community board’s Gaska wants no more subsidized housing units. “We have almost 2,000 units . . . more than any other community in Queens,” he says. “Market-rate housing is important to attracting new retail outlets, particularly national chains that will in turn hire our residents.”

In mid-July, the planning commission will vote on the rezoning. It should embrace it – and start undoing decades of harm.

Julia Vitullo-Martin is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow.