This is my second post on my “website”!

I live in northeast Queens and I have heard about people in the area being opposed to governor Hochul’s plan to increase housing half a mile away from LIRR train stops. So I downloaded some data and tried to see where housing could potentially be built in northeast Queens.

  1. I first downloaded the data for the LIRR stops and selected stops in what I considered to be northeast Queens
  2. Then I created a half mile buffer around these LIRR stops
  3. Next, I clipped the zoning data so that I could see the zoning areas now in these half mile buffers
  4. I also added data for historic districts and coastal zone boundaries, since any street that is covered under these 2 different districts might have difficulty to build townhouses/residential buildings.

Once I layered my data on my map, I noticed a couple of things.

First, for the Douglaston/Little Neck neighborhoods, most of it is zoned for residential use, specifically for single-family detached homes. When I overlay the historic districts and the coastal zone boundaries, I see that most of Douglaston/Little Neck is covered by these 2 zones, so those streets might have some difficulty in building more residential properties. But I do see that other areas like the streets closer to Northern Boulevard, it might be easier to build higher density housing. Northern Boulevard might be a good place to build more housing since that is a commercial area and it has bus routes like the Q12 that goes to Flushing Main Street.

In the Laurelton and Rosedale area, some homeowners have protested Hochul’s housing plan because it will change their neighborhood. They mentioned in the article I linked below that people died in their basement apartments during Tropical Storm Ida, as their reason for not approving the governor’s plan. But if there were more housing options in this area that were not basements, then wouldn’t this new housing plan save lives in case of future tropical storms? If anything, more housing is needed, especially housing that is not at low level, preferably townhouses or even small buildings.

I think giving homeowners the option to build a townhouse on their property or being allowed to safely build a legal and safe basement apartments, will help with the housing problem in New York City and in New York State. I don’t think this plan is enough, but it is a start.

Data Sources: