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Applicants seek demapping of paper section of St. Raymond Avenue to merge parcels near train yards
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Summary
Property owners filed a demapping application for a roughly 5,000‑square‑foot portion of St. Raymond Avenue so adjacent lots become contiguous; applicants said the street is an unopened paper street that the city and applicants have handled similarly elsewhere.
Richard Lobel of the law firm Sheldon Lobel presented an application on June 17 asking Community Board 11 to consider a demapping request for a portion of St. Raymond Avenue between Blondell and Waters Avenues.
Lobel said the applicants — property owners Joseph Galito and Steve Squacheri — own four lots that are separated by an unopened, unmapped portion of St. Raymond Avenue that is recorded on the city map but is not used for traffic or public access. "This is a demapping application for a portion of Saint Raymond's Avenue," Lobel said, adding the applicant seeks to remove that portion from the city map so the stub can be purchased and merged into a contiguous private lot after appraisal and sale by the city.
Lobel and his team explained the parcel to be demapped is about 5,000 square feet of the paper street; they said nearly 30,000 square feet of the mapped area remains within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority/rail yard and would not be sold. The applicants stressed that any future development would be "as‑of‑right" under the site's M1‑1 zoning and that demapping itself does not grant additional entitlements; any development would require filings at the Department of Buildings.
Environmental consultants on the call said the application has required several iterations of an environmental assessment statement, and Lobel said the demapping package originally was filed in 2019 and has undergone years of review. He told the committee that prior demapping actions in the area included Ponton Avenue (approved 2014), MacAlpin Avenue (1997) and others; he also described the city’s practice of having an independent appraiser perform valuation for the sale.
Community Board 11 members asked about the length of time for the remaining steps; Lobel answered that, given the advanced state of environmental review, the appraisal and sale contract could be completed within roughly a year but cautioned that such processes sometimes stall. No formal vote was taken at the committee meeting; Lobel said the applicants would supply maps and remain available for additional hearings ahead of the full board vote scheduled later in the month.
