Residents To Protest Posed Daycare, Apartment Complex In Bayside

BAYSIDE, QUEENS -- Plans to build a four-story apartment and daycare building in Bay Terrace have not received a warm welcome from residents, who claim such a structure would threaten the neighborhood's quality of life.

Locals are planning to voice their displeasure with the 18-unit building developers want to build at 214-10 15th Ave. with a protest outside the lot on Friday at 10:30 a.m.

"I can't imagine less than 100 people showing up," said longtime resident Sharyn Bagell. "People in the neighborhood are very upset."

Bagell, one of the rally's organizers, told Patch she fears the number of units planned for the 28,000-square-foot development will bring too many people into her quaint suburban neighborhood.

"This would ruin our neighborhood's quality of life," she said. "It's a totally ridiculous development."

Bagell has lived in the neighborhood 61 years, long enough to remember the people who lived in what eventually became an abandoned two-family home on the lot. In December, she and her sisters even considered buying the house to fix up and rent out after it started to become a local eyesore, but a local developer Dun Xing Zhang beat them to the punch.

Zhang, a partner at Bayside 215th Realty, has since demolished the house and on June 25 filed plans to build the mixed use apartment building with a 5,320-square-foot daycare on the first floor, city records show. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

"When I found out what they wanted to do, I got hysterical," Bagell said.

She has since recruited local politicians and joined forces with other neighborhood groups to fight the development. The Bay Terrace Community Alliance also voiced their distaste for the project in a meeting last week.

"We are totally and adamantly opposed to it," Warren Schreiber, vice president of the group, told Patch. "It's an out-of-character development for that particular location, and we're just concerned about the development itself."

Schreiber said he worries about the month-to-month tenants and illegal Airbnb renters the development's small units could attract. It would bring about a host of problems such as loud parties, excess garbage and a shortage of street parking, he said.

"These are people who have no ties or concern for the community," he said.

Schreiber and Bagell are among residents who ultimately want to ban such complexes from the neighborhood altogether by change the zoning laws to only allow up to three-family homes, but they know that process will take months.

For now, they hope Friday's rally will deter developers from following through with building plans.

"We're hoping for a good turnout that will at least let them know they might not receive a warm welcome here," Schreiber said.

"They're definitely going to hear us and know that we're out there."

Lead photo via Google Maps