Doug Bay Manor Leaders Say They Support Green Market, But Disagree on Proposed Locale

Representatives from a nonprofit that operates city green markets will meet this weekend with the Doug Bay Manor Civic Association’s leaders, who say they support a plan to create a market in the community but are concerned with its proposed locale.

Cathy Chambers, who oversees intergovernmental affairs for GrowNYC, said a green market could be fully operational at the Douglaston Long Island Rail Road station’s traffic circle as early as July. Last week, Chambers visited the site to discuss the proposal to develop a market.

But members of the Doug Bay Manor Association, which represents more than 60 homes located several blocks from the LIRR station, said they believed the market should be located in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s parking lot on the other side of the tracks, rather than in the traffic circle.

Ann Jawin, chairwoman of the board for the civic and founder of the Center for the Women of New York, and Tom Pinto, the association’s president, said they planned to meet with GrowNYC representatives in Douglaston this weekend to voice their concerns.

“We don’t want to be antagonistic,” Pinto said. “We just want to have a location we can agree on. But we’d like to keep our neighborhood nice and quiet. We endure a lot of commuter parking during the week. We’re not against the idea of a green market, but this could make it hard for us to get out of the neighborhood.”

Pinto said there are only two routes available for Doug Bay Manor residents to leave the neighborhood. One involves passing by the LIRR’s traffic circle. The other route involves driving up Bay Avenue for several blocks and then turning onto Douglaston Parkway.

Douglas Montgomery, vice president of the neighborhood’s garden club, has been pushing for the creation of the market for two years. He said hundreds of community residents and a number of local organizations, such as the Douglas Manor Association and the Douglaston Women’s Club, support the proposal for the market.

“This is the ideal location for this,” he said. “It does not stop traffic. All we’re doing is shutting the roundabout.”

Montgomery said the Doug Bay Manor Association’s proposal to locate the market on the opposite side of the tracks in the MTA’s lot would be difficult to put into place.

“That parking lot is private property,” he said. “So, the green market would have to pay the MTA to rent the site. It doesn’t make sense.”

GrowNYC, which was founded in 1976, would operate the market on Sunday mornings from July through November. An estimated eight to 12 vendors would sell everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to honey, wine, cheese, meat and fish.

GrowNYC, which also operates the massive green market in Union Square, would have an on-site manager who would be present during all hours of operation.

Local community groups would be allowed to set up tables at the market free of charge every weekend. Cooking demonstrations would be held regularly.

The nonprofit put in the application for the market last week. The matter will go before Community Board 11.

But Jawin said she believes the market would draw more traffic to the neighborhood.

“We appreciate the efforts that have been put into this and we want to cooperate,” she said. “It might be alright once or twice a year, but not every weekend. The area is very bad for traffic.”

Montgomery said there would be less competition for parking spots in the community on Sunday morning because nearby P.S. 98 would not be in session and commuters would not need the spaces.

GrowNYC also runs markets in Glendale’s Shops at Atlas Park, Corona, Jackson Heights, Astoria and Long Island City.