A Town Center at City’s Edge

THERE is no plaque marking New York City’s easternmost edge here in Floral Park, a neighborhood in far Queens against the Nassau County line.

Indeed the point — by the intersection of Langdale Street and Union Turnpike where numbered streets suddenly give way to named ones a full 271 blocks from Midtown — is as discreet as the surrounding area. There are long rows of modest homes, just a smattering of stores, and enough wide roads and cars to make the suburbs feel close.

Residents wholly embrace being on the city’s periphery, in a place with honk-and-wave friendliness, well-kept yards, highly rated schools and taxes that can be less than half of similar-featured properties just across the border in Nassau County.

In other parts of Queens, multiunit homes rise from what were once single-family lots, the result of a teardown fever that over the last few years has gripped borough developers. Yet Floral Park remains uncrowded, partly because developers tied up elsewhere in the borough simply haven’t gotten around to it yet. There are about 13,000 people over a square mile, which works out to about 20 homes per block.

And that, in turn, is largely why Amar Singh, a software consultant who works in Midtown, moved here last year. “It was getting way crazy with too many people” in Richmond Hill, his address from 2002 to 2006, said Mr. Singh, who sold his house without having another lined up. He first become a renter in Floral Park.

The initial rental property was, like many here, a gabled Cape on a 40-by-100-foot lot built after World War II, to accommodate returning soldiers. Veterans today make up 11 percent of all residents in Floral Park, versus 6 percent citywide.

Many of those houses, though, remain unrenovated, and the dated carpets and rickety stove in Mr. Singh’s rental made him quickly crave new construction. He eventually bought a stucco-finished two-story colonial with four bedrooms, three baths and 1,500 square feet of space. He also customized the appliances in the house, which closed for 0,000 in August.

“Had I known about this area the first time around, I would have bought here,” said Mr. Singh, who shares the home with his wife, Shally, an accountant working in Manhasset, and a new baby. “It was a fortunate discovery.”

It took place on trips to buy wheat, pickles and rice from the clutch of Indian shops lining Hillside Avenue, he said; his Sikh temple is also close, on Braddock Avenue. Like many Floral Park residents, Mr. Singh was born in India; he immigrated in 1997.

About 34 percent of the neighborhood’s population is foreign-born, with about half identifying themselves as Indian, according to the 2000 census, though that number has climbed sharply since then, says Seema Agnani, the executive director of Chhaya, an advocacy group based in Jackson Heights that finds affordable housing for Indian immigrants.

A quarter of all South Asians in New York live in overcrowded homes, with more than one person per room, and often in illegal basement apartments, Ms. Agnani said; these basement units exist in Floral Park and occasionally cause tension with longtime residents, community leaders acknowledge.

“It’s a result of the fact that there is no affordable housing in the borough,” she said, “and people have to find a place to live.”

What You’ll Find

Relief probably won’t come in the form of larger houses. To keep growth in check, the City Planning Department may shrink Floral Park’s zoning from R2 to R2A, which stipulates that a house take up no more than 30 percent of a lot, down from 37 percent. Adding attic rooms would also become tougher, as height limits would be 35 feet.

City planners may also curtail certain landscaping. Under an amendment being considered this month, fence heights on new houses would be limited to four feet, down from six. The new rules would also set limits on the paving over of yards, requiring that one-third remain planted.

Floral Park’s housing stock is 75 percent detached single-family homes, according to census data, with mostly Capes, brick ranches, wooden colonials and the occasional new Mediterranean. The rest are attached units, like the one owned by Charlie Farugia, a retiree from the city’s Education Department.