Queens Community Board Application Deadline Extended

QUEENS, NY — The application deadline to join one of Queens' 14 community boards has been extended to March 13 — a six-week extension from the original deadline.

Queens' original application deadline of Jan. 31 was the earliest among the five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan all gave community board applicants until Feb. 7 or 14 to submit, and Staten Island accepts applications year-round.

“The extension is to ensure that the pool of applicants is as robust as possible,” Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee said Tuesday.

Though the city touts Queens as one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in the world, the borough's 14 community boards rarely reflect the demographics of the communities they represent, data shows.

Queens community boards are overwhelmingly white and male, and Latino residents are underrepresented on all but one community board, according to a data analysis by the Queens Daily Eagle and Measure for America. The analysis also found that only six of 663 community board members identified as LGBTQ on their applications.

That could change once a new cohort of community board members starts in April.

What do community boards do?

New York City's 59 community boards each hold monthly meetings with all their members and hearings on specific issues, like the proposal to build a new jail in Kew Gardens.

Community board members advise on local land use and zoning issues, the city budget and many hyperlocal issues, such as restaurant liquor licenses. They also put together lists of the district's most pressing budgetary needs each fiscal year.

The upcoming round of community board members will serve two-year terms starting Monday, April 1, 2020. Each board has up to 50 members.

Members do not get paid.

How do I apply to serve on my community board?

The application and instructions are available at queensbp.org/community-boards.

To be eligible, you must be a New York City resident over the age of 16 and live, work or have "a professional or other significant interest" in that community board's district.

The deadline for prospective and current members to submit completed, signed and notarized applications to the Queens Borough President's office is Friday, March 13, 2020.

Keep in mind that applications are subject to the state's Freedom of Information Law, meaning the information could be made public.