CB 14 Is A Joke

From "Letters to the Editor" in the Rockaway Wave http://www.rockawave.com/news/2005/0729/Letters/ 

Dear Editor:

I would like to say that the last meeting of Community Board 14 on July 12 was a joke; however, the way the people of Rockaway Beach are being misled is far from funny. The Board members just don’t seem to be able to come to grips with the reality of the federal law that applies in a Coastal Zone Boundary. In 1982 after the State of New York joined the federal Coastal Zone Management Program spelled out in the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) of 1972, boundary lines were drawn up by NYS’s Coastal Management Program (CMP) and the federal agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Because Rockaway Beach is so narrow, NOAA recommended that the entire peninsula of Rockaway Beach from the tip of Breezy Point to the borders of Nassau County from Ocean to Bay, be declared a Coastal Zone Boundary. At the same time New York City’s Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP) was approved by NOAA, as was the State’s CMP. There was a contract drawn up between WRP, CMP and NOAA to work as partners to enforce the rules set forth in the CZMA in Coastal Zone Boundaries. The contract gives NOAA oversight and enforcement powers.

When it comes to zoning, the local government must conform to the CZMA.

Board 14 is making zoning recommendations and using laws that no longer apply in Rockaway Beach. The Public Trust Doctrine of New Jersey is part of the CZMA nation wide. A few of the key components of the CZMA and the Public Trust Doctrine are: existing Public Access and Visual Corridors to the water must be maintained and enhanced if possible and never diminished, and parking must be increased if possible. What does all this mean to Rockaway Beach? Money. So far NOAA has given the State of New York three billion dollars to carry out the rules and regulations set forth in the CZMA. How much of that money has been allocated for Rockaway Beach? Not one single Farthing. Zero, Zilch, Zippo. Why? Because we are saddled with a rubber stamp, Community Board whose members are out of touch with the law, and elected officials who could care less. Unfortunately the State CMP has kept it that way in order for them (the CMP) to use the CZMA any way they choose to use it.

When a homeowner in Lloyd’s Harbor wanted to extend his dock, Steve Resler, representing the CMP in court, used the CZMA against the homeowner and won.

Yet, in Rockaway Beach Steve Resler didn’t object to plans in the Arverne Urban Renewal Area eliminating 46 existing Public streets to the water. Nor did he object to the building of the Duane Reade drug store on Beach 116 Street on Jamaica Bay that is built over a mapped walkway to a pier blocking Public Access and Visual corridors to the water.  Jamaica Bay is a Special Natural Waterfront Area, and a Marine Protected Area, signed into law by President George Bush in 2001. The CZMA states that any development in a Coastal Zone Boundary that calls for a reduction in existing Public Access or Visual Corridors to the water SHALL NOT BE UNDERTAKEN. Illumining the waterfront with electric lighting is an egregious violation of the CZMA. Part of the three billion dollars is supposed to go to restoring the pier on Beach 116 Street. Restoring and upgrading the wetlands along Jamaica Bay, Mott Creek, and other areas. Educating the public, the politicians, and the Community Boards is a priority.

When, if ever, has a representative from CMP appeared at a Community Board meeting in Rockaway Beach to teach the Board the federal law? Never, to my knowledge. You would think that at least one person on Community Board 14 would be interested in learning about the federal law that applies in Rockaway Beach. After all, they were supplied with the law for years on end, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars Rockaway was denied because there was no one there to represent Rockaway. Board 14 is depriving Rockaway Beach of Rockaway’s share of the federal funding. That is not fair, and ignorance of the law is a poor excuse, or no excuse at all.

JOHN BAXTER

Don’t Clean Lots

That Are Already Clean

The following letter was sent to Jonathan Gaska, the District Manager for Community Board 14.

Dear Mr. Gaska,

I seek your help in the following,

On July 14 and 15 several bulldozers from the sanitation department cleared the lots 1, 80, 78, 76 of Block 15954 situated between Beach 37 and Beach 38 Street, North of Beach Channel Drive. There was very little garbage on these lots, mostly plastic bags and candy bags that inconsiderate passersby throw down. In addition there were the remains of what the Sanitation Department left last year during a similar procedure. Again as last year, what they left behind is an area strewn with blocks of concrete, a pile of metal building material. In other words a lot that looks like a bomb hit it. There are ruts created by the bulldozer tires, gashes created by the frontloading arms that were used to remove mostly plant-life and topsoil.

Many beautiful native plants – Queen Anne’s lace, Chicory, Sweet white clover, Sweet yellow clover, Red clover, Rabbit’s foot clover, Mullein and wild plantain - were destroyed in the process. All these beautiful native plants are described in Barrier Island botany by Richard Statler. I hope they will eventually return, but I am afraid that instead we will get another field taken over by Japanese Knotweed – an invasive species that the Sanitation Department’s lot cleaning protocols have actively promoted in the last few years - that can be seen all over the Rockaways this year.

My first request to you is to ask the Sanitation Department to complete the job by removing the concrete and other debris they left behind and to level the field.

I cannot believe that a department with a terrific compost program on the one hand is not willing to revisit this systemic problem on the other, and so my second request is to organize a meeting with the powers that be at the Sanitation Department to review protocols used to distinguish between “LOT Cleaning” and “weed” control and the manner in which each job gets done. As the situation is now, the Sanitation Department does not fix the problem, they are the problem. (photo graphic documentation on request).

I thank you for your time and attention.

MARLEN K. WAAIJER