Tuesday, March 6, 2012

WRBA Reminds Residents To Attend Next Week's Community Board 9 Meeting

The Woodhaven Residents' Block Association is calling on residents to attend the upcoming Community Board 9 meeting. It will be held on Tuesday, March 13, at 7:45 p.m., at the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps (78-15 Jamaica Ave., in Woodhaven).

During the meeting, Community Board 9 (CB9) will vote on two issues that are very important to the people of Woodhaven. First, CB9 will vote on changes to the direction of traffic on two streets in their neighborhood: 89th Avenue and 84th Street, respectively. And second, CB9 will vote on rezoning parts of Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.

The Block Association strongly opposes the street changes because the neighborhood had not been properly consulted in the planning and because the re-directions would greatly inconvenience residents and lead to potentially dangerous rerouting of traffic.

In addition, the Block Association supports the rezoning, which would be the first time that Woodhaven's zoning regulations were modified in nearly half a century. The rezoning would help preserve Woodhaven's character by preventing the future construction of dense developments on residential streets and by making it much more difficult to bring "McMansions" and illegal conversions into the neighborhood.

"Even if you don't say a word at the meeting, your attendance still matters," said WRBA President Edward K. Wendell. "We will ask you to raise your hand if you oppose the street changes or if you favor rezoning, so it is extremely important that you show up if you care about the future of Woodhaven."

To help move the meeting along efficiently, the WRBA plans to select three people to make the case against the street changes and two to speak for the rezoning. The Block Association cannot (and would not want to) prevent any member of the public from signing up for a three-minute slot to address CB9. But simply coming to the meeting would be an important show of support, and would tell the CB9 members—the people who will cast the votes on these issues—where Woodhaven stands.
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Contact:

info@woodhaven-nyc.org
WRBA office: (718) 296-3735
http://www.woodhaven-nyc.org/