Queens 49 39 Van Dam Street Demapping

Conditioned Negative Declaration

Queens County (Queens) - The New York City Department of City Planning, as lead agency, has determined that the proposed 49-39 Van Dam Street Demapping will not have a significant adverse environmental impact provided specific conditions are met. There will be a 30 day public comment period commencing with the date of this notice.

The action involves a proposal by the Applicant, JPB Realty Co., LLC, for a change to the City Map to eliminate, discontinue, and close (to "demap") an unbuilt and vacant portion of the Van Dam Street on-ramp to the Queens Midtown Expressway (Proposed Action) in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, Community District (CD) 2. The approximately 7,682 square foot area to be demapped is bounded by the built portion of the on-ramp and the eastern edge of the approximately 21,254 square foot Applicant-owned Projected Site 1 (Queens Block 261, Lots 10 and 15). Both the unbuilt and built portions of the on-ramp are City-owned. The Applicant-owned Projected Site 1 is bounded by Van Dam Street to the West, the built portion of the on-ramp to the north, the unbuilt portion of the on-ramp to the east, and, to the south, the Queens Midtown Expressway and Borden Avenue. Collectively, the area to be demapped and Projected Site 1 comprise the Project Area. In conjunction with the demapping, the Applicant is proposing the disposition of the City-owned portion of the subject street (the unbuilt portion of the on-ramp). The disposition of City Property will require coordination with both the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (NYC DCAS) and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) and any conditions of the two City agencies regarding the sale of the property would be memorialized in a Mapping Agreement between the Applicant and the City of New York. The Proposed Action would facilitate the acquisition of the demapped area by the Applicant. To present a conservative environmental analysis, the Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS, found here - https://zap.planning.nyc.gov/projects/2019Q0479 ) analyzes a Reasonable Worst Case Development Scenario (RWCDS) that assumes a With-Action development consisting of an approximately 6,210-gross-square-foot (gsf) vertical enlargement of the existing building on Lot 15. Under the RWCDS, this enlargement would result in a 20,164-gsf, three-story building containing approximately 10,378-gsf of commercial office uses, 8,999-gsf of warehouse uses and 787-gsf of commercial restaurant uses. Approximately 18 new accessory parking spaces would be added to the existing 12-space surface parking lot, for a total of 30 parking spaces on Lot 15. The With-Action RWCDS assumes that the existing building on Lot 10 would not be redeveloped or enlarged but would be repurposed as the kitchen for the commercial restaurant. Given the accessory parking requirements imposed by the Project Area's existing M2-1 zoning district (1 space per 300-sf) and the limited area of Projected Site 1 (21,254-sf), the RWCDS With-Action development constitutes the largest development that could reasonably be achieved on Projected Site 1. The RWCDS With-Action condition would involve the vertical enlargement of the two-story building currently developed on Lot 15, resulting in a 45-foot tall, three-story building. To avoid any potential significant adverse impacts with respect to air quality and noise, the Restrictive Declaration in combination with the Mapping Agreement between the Applicant and the City of New York in connection with the proposed demapping shall set forth the environmental requirements outlined below concerning development of the Projected Site 1 (Block 2611, Lots 10 and 15). The project is located 49-39 Van Dam Street Long Island City, New York.

The conditions are:

If future development of the Applicant's property and the demapped property should occur, the applicant agrees that in order to ensure avoidance of significant adverse impacts related to air quality, that commercial development would provide an associated HVAC and hot water equipment stack located at the highest tier and 48 feet above grade to avoid any potential significant adverse air quality impacts related to HVAC emissions. This requirement will be embodied in the Restrictive Declaration to be executed in connection with the demapping. If future development of the Applicant's property and the demapped property should occur, the Applicant agrees that in order to ensure an acceptable interior noise environment, future commercial uses must provide a closed window condition with a minimum of 26 dBA window wall attenuation of northern- and western-facing facades in order to maintain an interior noise level of 50 dBA. In order to maintain a closed-window condition, an alternate means of ventilation must also be provided. Alternate means of ventilation includes, but is not limited to, central air conditioning. This requirement will be embodied in the Restrictive Declaration to be executed in connection with the demapping.