CB 11 Votes to Allow Douglaston Car Dealer to Expand

Community Board 11 voted Monday in favor of amending a variance to allow a Douglaston car dealership to extend its existing facility.

East Hills Chevrolet, which has been operating in northeast Queens for 59 years, intends to enlarge its existing showroom and adding a parking deck and canopy in the rear of its building, located at 240-02 Northern Blvd.

Gerald Caliendo, the architect for the project, said the car dealer has for years been working with a small showroom.

“The proposal is to extend the showroom to the west,” Caliendo said. “The street is an odd shape, so we’re very limited with what we can do. The existing showroom as it was originally constructed in the 1950s was very small.”
He said construction at the site would likely take four to six months.

Currently, the showroom only has room for two cars, but the extension will accommodate for eight vehicles.

The parking deck would alleviate the demand for on-street parking and provide employees with a place to park on-site.

Joseph Solano, chairman of CB 11’s Douglaston Zoning Committee, said his committee voted unanimously in favor of the variance.

“We don’t have a history of complaints about the site,” he said. “It seems that what they’re asking for is somewhat minor.”

The board voted in favor of the variance with only three members voting against it.

But the board’s conditions for the project were that it must include a motion sensor and that something must be done about drainage issues on the property.