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You are screwed. If the CB wants to allow it you will have to fight both City Hall and the CB. You will be fighting more jobs tax revenue vs. your view. Guess which one will play better to the masses.

Did you see the end of Fight Club?

It sucks, but as someone once said--in NYC, there are only two views that are guaranteed: if you're on a park or if you're facing a brick wall.

Dude. That sucks. You have my sympathy.

There HAD to have been, or might still be, zoning meetings for this sort of thing... you know, those flyers stapled to telephone poles that no one ever reads?

BUt it never hurts to write a letter, or start a petition, if the zoning meeting ship has sailed.

Usually I would say "tough cookies" but you might be able to fight industrial in a residential zone if that is truly the situation.

You'll probably lose if the Community Board backs it, but you can fight. You will have to organize the whole neighborhood against it.

Good luck!

Ugh I feel your pain. You should contact the head of the community board and find out exactly why they chose to allow the development. Perhaps they can give you a little more insight into the project. Good luck!

Here in Philly the ZBA (Zoning Board of Adjustments) almost always grants the builders permission to blow off zoning. Sad, but true. At a recent ZBA hearing I attended, they even said that the view didn't belong to any one person, so blocking it couldn't be a reason to deny the builder. Chalk it up to urban life.

I thought NYC was making efforts to "go green" (saw something about hydrogen busses and taxis on TV the other day)... maybe you can bring up that point. A factory doesn't seem very "green" to me. ;)

Or

Try to get the neighbourhood together against it...

Or

Sell your place, fast.

Have you talked to other people in your building or adjacent properties that might be effected by the proposed plan? They might have already started the opposition process. The Sunday NY Times real estate section has a column you might try researching that discusses problems like this and the potential solutions and outcomes. Despite the odds, a small, very vocal minority can modify or scuttle a proposed real estate development.

I don't know much about stuff like this, but the first thing I would do is start putting out the word with your neighbors and see if you can get a nice big group of unhappy folks together to fight the board or city hall or whoever. It seems that a group of people upset about the factory for a number of reasons is better than one person upset about it for just a couple of reasons, no?

I'd find your city council member and talk to them.

Call your community board. Get a petition started with the signatures of your building's tenants, neighbors and others interested in changing the rezoning. Contact these folks: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WQIDC/. They are civicly active in your community and might be able to help. Also, contact Peter Vallone, your City Council Member.

Good luck.

This is a very real issue that needs a lot of debate. I feel your pain, Ridge. It is getting harder and harder to find a quiet peaceful place to live on a budget.

They are tearing up my entire neighborhood to put more roads in for easy access to shopping centers. A monarch butterfly (an endangered species) reserve will be lost.

The dust and the noise are horrible and I am sick with colds all the time. The neighborhood organizations protested vehmently and held meetings with the city and state representatives. However, the government prevailed.

Pretty much, a situtation is only victorious if economics are involved. That said - I would still argue that the fighting of my neighborhood had its benefits. People have to keep speaking up, no matter how hard it gets. I am sure there are community meetings you can attend. If everyone threatened to leave the neighborhood you might be heard. But watch out for the onslaught of realtors. Realtors keep vigilent watch of neighborhoods ready to turn over. Perhaps you can speak with a powerful realtor who is ready to help the entire neighborhood move, and bring that realtor to the community meeting.

Talk to the other members of the community to see if they are interested in sharing the costs of a lawyer. Lawyers have a bad name, but are absolutely a necessity when fighting bureaucracy. They are part of the boys' club and can gain audience where you might not be able.

This is not an easy battle, but a necessary one if you intend to continue to live there. Unfortunately, I often find that I don't have the strength for activism. If you find this is true with you, then move. That's what I am doing, but I feel a little guilt at not having fought more. And then remember that when we don't fight, our new neighborhood is at risk too.

Sorry to be so moralistic. I feel your pain acutely.

On a lighter note - having seen your previous posts - I know wherever you move, you will make that place very cute.

Did your community board check who owns the 'air rights' to the property adjacent to your building?

Call the media outlets... all of them... get the word out... get your neighbors organized... thrust it in the public arena... good luck! Please let us know what happens...

Have you ever heard of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn? You can try to fight the good fight, but if the city government says it is OK you probably have little chance to stop it. Sorry.

I dont think the rezoning process has even begun yet because no rezoning application has been filed yet in CB1. It can take ages before an application is filed. And then tt takes 7 months to approve a rezoning application in NYC and there are lots of public hearings on them (it has to go through the ULURP process). The CB, the Queens Borough President, the City Planning Commission, and the City Council all get a chance to approve or disprove a rezoning and each of them are required to have public hearings about it. Those are your chance to be heard. How high up are you? Since it's an R4 I dont think you are that high up, but generally manufacturing doesnt want to go above 1 story, it's just not economically efficent for them to do so and may not change your view at all. Most manufacturing near residential is an M1, so they only have a floor area ratio of 1 floor, meaning that it will most likely only be one or two stories. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered before you should start panicing. www.planyc.com is a great website that lists all the urban planning projects going on in the city and can give you some great information.

Ridge, I live in Astoria too - would you mind disclosing where the building is going up? Hate to see our beautiful streets uglified this way. Ick.

Never underestimate the power of the community to change something.
Assuming they haven't changed the zoning already or issued a permit for it yet - you can still influence the end result. This is part of the democratic process. Get organized with your neighbors (go beyond your building) and let the CB and all local (and regional) elected officials know that you care, that you are paying attention and this isn't what you want. The only way officials know what you want and what the community cares about is by telling them. Companies pay people to make a difference for them - these people work full time doing just that. But don't ever think a community can't do the same on their own time and dime -- they do every day.

I won't lie to you - this is a LOT of work and it will seem that your life has been taken over with this issue for a while. When you succeed in influencing the project (it may not go away but it may be very different than what is currently proposed) -- I think you will find the result very rewarding. Good luck.

If it is too late to make a change, hopefully you will have learned the importance of being involved and informed about what is going on locally. Follow the local news, get emails from your local reps - and don't forget to demand better coverage of local issues in your newspapers. The situation sucks across the country - but if we show there is a market and demand for the information, they will provide it.

NIMBYitis strikes again. I guess you can petition to have that industrial building moved to a neighborhood full of poor people they usually don't fight back.

Zoning laws don't mean a thing while Bloomberg is in office. If a company is willing to pay enough money Bloomberg will have the zoning in any neighborhood changed to suit the builder. I go with the end of Fight Club. Don't expect City Hall to listen to you.

We had a similar problem in my neighborhood some years ago. Except it wasn't a factory it was a middle school. There are approximately on a three block stretch of my street 3 schools including the middle school. The neighborhood agreed it wasn't fair to have another school on a one way street that runs 4 blocks down. On top of that there is one street that is totally blocked between 8:30am - 3:00pm. We fought and had many representing us but in the end we lost. So now we have a middle school, a school for special children, and a high school all on one street.
Imagine morning and afternoon traffic! The school buses block the street and the only one street you can use is closed because of another school. Imagine trying to get to your driveway waiting for at least 15 minutes when it's in eye view.

I think you should sell right this very single stinkin' minute. Do not pass "GO"; do not collect $200. And the next apartment you get needs to face a cemetary, or a park. Cemetaries are as sacrosanct as parks as far as not being converted into high-rises. Well, almost.

I actually had a fairly sweeping view from my last apartment, and when I sold it, there was some construction going on kind of cata-cornered a block of two up from me. I seriously didn't even think about that while I was selling my place, and neither did my Buyer, and it did kind of bug him when it finished being built and blocked his view.

The difference is that he still had a pretty amazing view after that, just slightly less sweeping. I had tripled my money on that place, and the truth is, now four years later, he'd probably double his if he sold.

But what if they're going to be manufacturing furniture?

I'm with history geek on this one: heaven forbid the residents of the nice tree-lined street have to stop braving the inconvenient subway to get to work. Mixed-zone neighbourhoods are one of the most Timeless Ways of Building.

It's hard to fight a community board. They tend to be people who couldn't get elected to student government in high school and are now power mad.

But you might be able to get together with other owners in your building, and prepare a paper to show that your apartmentns will be devalued because of the new building, and get some sort of cash settlement from the developer. I seem to recall a building on the upper west side that was able to do that years ago.

Thanks so much to everyone for your comments and suggestions. I tried to log on yesterday while the discussion was going on, but couldn't remember my login info to sign on remotely. ;-)

A little more info, and a couple of follow-up questions if anyone is still reading this thread:

Firstly, I wrote my post kinda late (thanks, Maxwell, for posting it, BTW!) and in a rush, so I didn't mean to just focus on the view aspect of it, obviously, although that it a huge part of the problem. There are a lot of problems/issues that it brings up, not the least of which is a total devaluation in the surrounding properties. (In other words, there was a reason this side of the street was more expensive than the identical apartments across the street (away from the open view) were. There are also many other things such as the noise pollution (the building as it stands is already too loud ... once it breaks the somewhat-muffled treeline, it'll be a total nightmare. We've also suffered through a year and a half of being under mass construction (and all of its problems) here ... to start a new project I think will make everyone crack.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure where the situation stands ... from what I understand there was a series of flyers posted and possibly a meeting, but I had been working out of town and seem to have come back after the fact...? I'm still trying to figure this out ... I work late and haven't gotten a hold of anyone at CB#1 when I've tried during my last couple of lunches.

Mota Rose - you had a lot of really insightful information ... where were you able to get this? To follow up on some of your points ... there is a building currently there (the top of the roof comes up just below where my window sill is in the pic), which is indeed M1, and the rezoning is to double the height of the building. It's some sort of machine shop now, and I don't know if that will be expanding or if a new factory will go in its place. Although it's only 1 floor currently, we're talking about one industrial floor, which amounts to the same height as the three-floor houses that surround it. (The reason I look higher is because my street is higher than theirs.) The couple of guys who bitched about the mixed building should understand the neighborhood ... it is a truly residential place ... only single and multi-family houses. No big apartment buildings, no stores, etc. Only a network of tiny one-way streets that kids play on, etc. I was very serious when I said it is a very specific choice to live here - despite it's lack of subway access, quick store visits in an emergency, and ever having friends want to come this far out again! ;-) In fact, everyone who does come out makes a comment about how it really is a lifestyle change to live here. It's like a small town within the city and that's exactly why I scrimped and saved and chose the place.

As to the cries of NIMBYism ... I only respond to that because I think the concept itself is worth debating. In your case, accusing me of being elitist about where my home is, is elitist in itself, but also completely invalid. Damn straight, not in my back yard. There's a reason why they hold public hearings on construction such as this, because it's intrusive and changes the total quality of life that people choose for themselves. There seems to be this thing in New York of settling for what you can get ... I understand that, as I lived in dumps for a long time here myself. In fact, every apartment I've had before this one overlooked brick walls (and I mean ... brick walls that were just a foot away) with the exception of my last place that I was lucky enough to get a lovely view of the building's trash dumpsters from my one grimy window. And to imply that we here are rich is laughable to say the least. It's entirely a working class neighborhood - and plenty of us (myself definitely included) work multiple jobs and sacrifice a lot of luxuries just to be able to afford it. I also say your insults are invalid, because the zoning term for what they want to do is literally "Out of Character" as it will break the line of the entire neighborhood, and because nothing - not even in the nearby industrial steinway neighborhood - will be this height. It doesn't belong in this area, end of story. If I don't even have a corner bodega, grocery store or diner, why would I want a big hulking factory??

As cheesy as this sounds, I actually checked out the zoning rules for this neighborhood when I found the place (and indeed it took me a year and a half to find it) because one of my biggest beefs with New York is that you can have a lovely brownstone wedged in between two huge skyscrapers ... it's depressing. I've had a very long, hard road in my life to end up at my dream home here and I made the choice very carefully. For some people, living near their favorite bars or their work or always being a quick subway ride home is most important to them. For me, it was having some wide open space. I'm an artist and I spend a great deal of time sketching on my balcony and taking hundreds of photos of the clouds above. And every single night in the summer, I watch the sunset. It will be a complete life change to lose that. The photo above doesn't begin to due it all justice (partially because AT chose to annoyingly retouch the photo ... taking the focus away from the outside I guess so you could see my dotted pillow by the window...?)

This is already running too long, so I won't elaborate as much more as I could, but I say it's a good debate because stuff like this is going on all around the country ... it isn't just limited to the cities ... think of all those annoying McMansions that are taking over quiet little neighborhoods outside of town ... if you call me elitist because I don't want a factory next to me, if you were living in a small house and struggling to keep it, would you really like a big, snotty beast of a showplace house crowding you in? Also, how important are your surroundings? How many people just accept what goes on around them? And what price (and I'm not talking money) would you pay for the things that are important to you. (For example, I work outside of the city right now, and have a 5-hour round-trip commute to stay where I am.) I'm curious to see anyone weigh in. Maxwell's story alone always comes to mind ... someone who has chosen to live in a really tiny place with his family, because he's so in love with his neighborhood.

I'm in love with mine too. Well, at least for now.

ridge.

Incidentally, I was totally looking forward to entering this year's I've Got Color contest ... I wonder if I'll even be here for it now...!!!?? ;-)