CB 11 Members Call for Better Enforcement of City Laws

Community Board 11 discussed ongoing initiatives to combat airplane noise over northeast Queens as well as a lack of enforcing city laws locally during the group’s first meeting of 2014 on Monday.

Janet McEneaney, a CB 11 member and founder of Queens Quiet Skies, updated the meeting’s attendees on the efforts to halt the constant airplane noise that has plagued Bayside and Douglaston residents for more than a year-and-a-half.

“What’s happening most recently is that all of our elected officials have used political pressure to make something happen for the first time,” she said. “Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo has directed the Port Authority to set up an aviation roundtable and to conduct a noise compatibility study. As usual, the FAA continues to stonewall, so we have to stay on their case.”

McEneaney also told the board that a number of city laws were not being enforced locally.

She said that a homeowner on her street in Bayside performed extensive renovations on his home without a permit as well as created two new curb cuts and an illegal driveway.

“He’s taken away two parking spots from our community and what’s going to happen to him is nothing,” she said. “The city will make him pay a few thousand dollars, but our community will have lost something. It’s not right.”

McEneaney said she also called 311 to complain of a barking dog on her street that she and other neighbors believed was being abused as well as a lack of traffic regulation enforcement during pick-up and drop-off at P.S. 159.

“Why should I tell my grandson to follow the laws?” she said. “I’d like to see some enforcement. I want that guy to have to rip out his illegal construction and I want that dog to stop barking.”

Board member Melvyn Meer said he had experienced similar issues on his block.

“I’ve seen people who widen their driveways without making curb cuts,” he said. “This guy on my block has doubled his driveway and put up a light post. It deprives us of our parking spaces and encourages others to do the same.”

CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said the board would hold its elections in March and that newly-elected leaders would take office in April.