Residents oppose West End eatery

Karen Giacopelli, a longtime Long Beach resident and a cancer survivor, says she enjoys spending summer evenings on her front porch on Tennessee Avenue with her tight-knit Italian-American family and neighbors.

“I will be on that porch from May until October, and I don’t go down to the beach too much because of my health issues,” said Giacopelli, adding that she is a diabetic. “But we’re on the porch all day long, that’s my paradise, that’s my happy place.”

But Giacopelli and many of her neighbors say they were shocked when they learned last month that a Jake’s Wayback Burgers was slated to open at 945 W. Beech St., adjacent to Giacopelli’s home. She is one of many residents who say that despite assurances that the restaurant will not stay open late or serve alcohol, they are concerned about increased traffic, trash, loitering and other quality-of-life issues. Additionally, residents said that a franchise restaurant would lower home values and hurt the small-town character of the West End.

“I thought Long Beach was not about franchises — a different type of community,” Giacopelli said. “I think a franchise will bring in more traffic — my kids are riding around on bikes. I worry about the garbage and fumes. I’m worried about the health issues.”

She said she was concerned with potential customer loitering as well. “They’re going to put their dirty cups on our porch; people will be hanging around throwing wrappers,” she said.

Several residents said that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears at the Zoning Board of Appeals since the hopeful business owner, Jonathan Saporta, president of Saporta Consulting Group Inc., filed for an off-street parking and mixed-use variance for the vacant property last month, which he intends to purchase. The board is expected to make a decision at its April 28 meeting.

Additionally, with yet another fast food eatery slated to open a few doors down, at 951 W. Beech, residents said that two such establishments would overwhelm a neighborhood that has lots of children. “We already have double-parked trucks on one side where the Inn gets deliveries, and now we’re going to have doubled-parked cars on the other side,” said Jacqueline Munzel. “Safety has gone out the window. On our block already, we have a tremendous amount of speeding — and people are always looking for spots to go to the Inn or Minnesota’s.”

After several residents attended the March 24 zoning board meeting, they circulated a petition opposing the new Jake’s that, as of Tuesday, had nearly 80 signatures. Sebastian Ebosee, one of three Tennessee Avenue residents who attended the meeting, said he left with a feeling that trustees favored Saporta.

“I feel it’s being expedited with incredible speed,” Ebosee said. “Do we really need a burger joint in the West End? A franchise takes away from the character of the town. And saying that parking is not going to be affected is ridiculous.”

Zoning board Trustee Rick Hoffman, however, rejected the idea that trustees had already made up their minds. He said that after the meeting, he encouraged residents to circulate a petition and told them their concerns would be taken into consideration.

“If you have an outcry about something, obviously it has to be addressed,” Hoffman said. “[The board] will all sit down again and review the new information that comes in.”

Still, Hoffman said he believes Jake’s Wayback Burgers is considerably different than McDonald’s or Burger King: It’s an “upscale” franchise that he said has the potential to fill a storefront that has been vacant for more than two years.

“From my perspective, they’re offering the community something we don’t have,” he said, “and they’ve gone above and beyond to meet or address our concerns.”

For his part, Saporta, 31, a West End resident, said he would be a hands-on owner and wants to get involved in the community. He said that his Jake’s would be open from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. seven days a week and accommodate roughly 70 to 80 customers at a time. He is planning to purchase the property for about $1 million and spend $500,000 on renovations, he said.

Saporta likened Jake’s to Panera Bread, an upscale franchise that makes fresh food to order. He noted his efforts to address residents’ concerns — he made a presentation to the West End Neighbors Civic Association last month — and said he is hoping to work with the community. He maintains that he would never serve alcohol because the franchise does not allow it.

“We’re not going to be that place where people have a bunch of beers and a burger — we’re going to be a family-oriented restaurant,” Saporta said. “We want the Little League teams and families who live in the West End to take their kids to a place to eat where they’re not seeing a bunch of people drinking at 2 p.m.”

Saporta added that he does not expect to extend his hours of operation and that he would not cater to a late-night bar crowd. “We’ll leave that up to the zoning board,” he said, “but that’s not our target.”

Saporta said also he does not believe his establishment would have a big impact on parking in the area because customers would either live nearby or would be frequenting other businesses. He explained that the restaurant would use technology to dispose of grease cleanly and efficiently and would produce no odors. There would be an enclosure for garbage, and the ventilation system would be installed on the west side of the building so as to not impact residents.

But some residents said they are skeptical. “When have you ever had an odor-free garbage experience, even with your small household garbage cans, especially in the summer?” Munzel said, adding that she believes a large volume of garbage would attract roaches and rodents.

Many of her neighbors also disagreed with Saporta’s claim that customers wouldn’t travel from other towns. “When Swingbelly’s opened up, we were swamped,” Munzel said. “People will go to a burger place if they really like it.”

West End Neighbors Civic Association Vice President Maria Fitzgerald said that many residents support the new eatery. “We had a positive response at our meeting,” Fitzgerald said. “What would they like to see open there? Do you prefer looking at empty storefronts? If there was an interest in someone opening an office there, that would have been great, but that didn’t happen. You have to have a strong commercial base in any town to offset your property taxes.”

Munzel said she wouldn’t mind a smaller business opening in that space, but she maintained that a Jake’s is not the right fit and said she hopes the board denies Saporta the variance. “After the last meeting,” she said, “we feel it was a lost cause and that a decision was already made.”

Comments about this story? Arifilato@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.