Activists Take Fight Against Elmhurst Target To NY Supreme Court

ELMHURST, NY — Activists' fight to stop Target from opening a store in Elmhurst is heading for the courtroom.

A coalition led by grassroots group Queens Neighborhoods United hopes to convince a judge to halt Target's construction at the 82nd Street site and overturn a decision this summer that the store doesn't violate city zoning rules.

City Council Member Francisco Moya, State Sen. Jessica Ramos and the non-profit Desis Rising Up and Moving have all signed on to the appeal.

"Every day that the illegal construction continues makes it harder for residents and small business owners in the neighborhood to stop Target," said Paula Segal, an attorney with TakeRoot Justice who is representing Queens Neighborhoods United. "We're asking the high court to step in and enforce the law before it’s too late."

The appeal, filed in New York Supreme Court on Sept. 30, argues that the city's Board of Standards and Appeals wrongly upheld the Target's work permit and that the NYC Department of Buildings shouldn't have let construction go ahead.

"The Board cannot comment on matters that are in pending litigation," Carlo Costanza, executive director for the Board of Standards and Appeals, wrote in an email to Patch.

At the heart of the activists' argument is a city-sanctioned process called self-certification: The lawsuit argues that Target was able to hire its own experts to say their project doesn't run afoul of zoning rules, with minimal oversight from the buildings department.

That process, the petition states, "was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law."

Activists fear the Target will raise rent prices and force out small business owners in a neighborhood full of working-class immigrants.

"I am worried that the store will bring lots more people into our already crowded neighborhood," Queens Neighborhoods United's Tania Mattos Jose said in a statement. "It is going to make it harder to park, to walk on the street and to take the train here."

More than that, they say the proposed Target exploits a zoning loophole by splitting its 23,000 square feet between the ground floor and a basement. Local zoning rules cap the size of variety stores at 10,000 square feet, but cellar space does not necessarily count.

But commissioners with the Board of Standards and Appeals, the city's powerful land use board, rejected that argument in their June ruling.

Activists will have their first hearing before Judge Lynn Kotler on Monday, Oct. 28 at 9:30 a.m.