CB7 gives ok to tow pound

From the Queens Courier:

Community Board 7 gave the NYPD its blessing Monday night to sign a 20-year lease on a tow pound previously under a temporary agreement to operate at 31-22 College Point Blvd.

After hearing both sides of the debate, the board voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the tow pound stay, with 29 votes supporting the long-term arrangement and 14 votes against.

The tow pound appeared on the lot in 2013 to the chagrin of College Point residents, who feared that the facility would increase traffic and weaken streets already riddled with potholes and deteriorating roads. The area also hosts a new police training academy which opened in January.

With an average of 40 to 50 cars towed into the facility daily, the tow pound is estimated to generate additional traffic of around 60 cars per day including cars towed and employee vehicles. The location has on-site parking for employees, and can accommodate 157 cars.

Despite area residents’ initial reservations, police say they have not received any complaints in the two years of the tow pound’s operation in College Point.

Owners Jerry and George Filippidis, brothers who are both residents of the area, assured board members that they were trying to consider the good of the neighborhood by choosing the relatively lower traffic tow pound than a big box retailer.

College Point tow pound was relocated from Maspeth

From the Queens Chronicle:

A meeting arranged by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) with the NYPD on why the agency had moved its tow pound to the College Point Corporate Park without notice was canceled last week with no new information released.

Avella was not given a reason for the cancellation or told when another session could be held. He and Community Board 7 officials are puzzled and angered by the move.

The senator learned in September that the NYPD had moved its tow pound from under the Kosciuszko Bridge in Maspeth to a site at College Point Boulevard and 31st Avenue without notifying anyone. The corporate park is specially zoned and any change needs to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process.

The location is owned by Ares Printing, which is subleasing the site to the police. Chuck Apelian, chairman of CB 7’s Zoning and Land Use Committee, said Monday he does not know if the subleasing is legal.

The city’s largest tow pound was originally located in the corporate park at a different site nearby, bounded by Ulmer Street, College Point Boulevard, 28th and 31st avenues.

The city took over the tow pound property in 2010 to build the new Police Academy. It is expected to be completed later this year.

The ousted tow pound was supposed to move to a location at Kennedy International Airport but that did not work out. The Maspeth site was then the only tow pound in Queens; now it’s in College Point.
Avella said Tuesday “the whole thing smells,” and noted that the original tow pound in the corporate park was supposed to be temporary and lasted 20 years.

NYPD tow pound takes community by surprise

From the Queens Courier:

College Point leaders fear crumbling roads in an already congested neighborhood will not be able to handle a new police tow pound that “magically appeared” out of nowhere.

State Senator Tony Avella said NYPD tow trucks have been bringing cars in and out of College Point Corporate Park for more than two weeks without first alerting the community.

“This is going to have a major impact on the local area,” he said. “You have tow trucks coming and going all hours of the day and night. You now have more congestion in that area.”

The 31-22 College Point Boulevard lot in the industrial, retail center is approximately 174,000 square feet, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

The NYCEDC oversees the corporate park but has not run the property in question since November 2012, the spokesperson said.

Local leaders said they know little about the use and duration of the operation. An NYPD spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

According to DOB, this site is for retail and is not owned by NYPD.