A piece of old industrial Astoria got a reprieve. Community Board 1 voted to support reinstating a zoning variance for an auto body shop at 34-29 31st Street that has operated for 77 years. The vote clears a path for the business to keep running.
This is a small local zoning fight over what the neighborhood is allowed to be. The body shop dates to the Astoria that made and fixed things, the industrial, working-class waterfront that has been steadily zoned and priced toward residential use over the decades. A variance vote like this decides whether the old uses coexist with the new neighborhood or get squeezed out one expired permit at a time.
Boards do not always side with a loud old industrial use over residents who would rather not live next to one. By backing the variance, the board is saying that a business that has anchored the block for three-quarters of a century has earned the right to stay, and that pushing out a long-running local employer is not automatically progress.
The support is not unanimous. Residents remain concerned about the noise and traffic that come with an industrial business on a now mostly residential street, and at the same meeting residents appeared more up in arms about a separate agenda item, the annual carnival at Astoria Park in early June. A favorable vote does not erase that tension. It manages it for another stretch of years.
A community board vote is a recommendation, not a final decision. The variance process continues through the city’s zoning review beyond the board. A board endorsement still carries weight, and for now the 77-year-old shop has the board on its side.
If you live near 34-29 31st Street, zoning meetings are where your block’s future gets decided. Go to Community Board 1, learn how the variance process works, and weigh in. Whether old Astoria keeps its working businesses or gets smoothed into something newer is settled in these rooms.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
