A JPCA board member observed men working on the property owned by Tommy Huang at 57-39 Mazeau Street in Maspeth on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007. The NYPD was called and responded to the scene.

A stop work order has been in place at this location since November 1st, 2006. The zoning in this area allows only for 2-family homes and Huang attempted to erect a multi-unit building on the site of what formerly was a garage. On November 15th, an audit was done by the Department of Buildings which found 23 objections to the building code. Huang has not yet answered the objections, and the stop work order remains in effect.

On December 2nd, Councilman Tony Avella and JPCA held a press conference to call attention to the problem of developers not conforming to the zoning code and violations of stop work orders, which was covered extensively by local papers and the New York Daily News.

The morning of January 3rd, a JPCA executive board member observed that a load of new bricks had been delivered to the site and that men were working on the property. He called 911 and then telephoned another JPCA executive board member who in turn called the 104th precinct directly. Officers promptly responded to the scene and ejected the workers. JPCA has notified the Department of Buildings of this occurrence so that they may take action against the contractor doing the work along with Tommy Huang, the developer who for 25 years has refused to abide by the city’s building code.

JPCA is calling on the City of New York to forcibly demolish the Huang house on Mazeau Street and make sure that Tommy Huang never obtains another permit to build within the City of New York.