Long Beach condo project back on table

Developers looking to build luxury condominiums on the site of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach property will present a revised project to the Zoning Board of Appeals this month after initial proposals were met with strong opposition from residents and elected officials alike.

In November, Wittek Development LLC and Sackman Enterprises — which filed a variance request with the zoning board last year under the name 73rd Meridian Partners LLC — informed the ZBA that they were going back to the drawing board, just a week after members of the City Council came out against the project.

Initially seeking to build two 15-story towers connected by eight townhouses — totaling 166 units — the developers had scaled back the project at 530 W. Broadway to 130 units in two 12-story buildings. Developers told residents that the beachfront units were expected to sell for an average of $1.4 million, and that the project would attract empty-nesters and young professionals.

The developers began presenting their plans for the property to various civic groups last year, but met strong opposition from residents who said that the development would affect parking and create traffic, reduce property values and block ocean views.

Residents blasted the proposal amid a growing movement against overdevelopment in town, saying that the project was out of character for the Westholme neighborhood and would tax an already overburdened infrastructure.

Council members said that the project was too large for a property that measures less than two acres and too tall for a residential zone.

Now 73rd Meridian has proposed two nine-story, 120-foot-tall structures with 294 parking spaces — 30 percent more than required, according to the developer. The new project would also include a six-story, 85-foot-tall building in the center of the property as well as a previously planned clubhouse, and have a total of 126 units.

“The townhouses remain, and the clubhouse is now the first two stories of the six-story building, and the four stories above that are units,” the developer, Kurt Wittek, told the Herald. “We’re bringing the height down, we’re bringing the density down and we’ve added to the parking. I don’t know of another project in the city of Long Beach that can say that.”

The city’s Building Department again issued a denial to the developers in January, saying that the project exceeded a number of zoning limits, including the neighborhood’s 40-foot height limit as well as the building area, side yards and density.

73rd Meridian Partners is seeking a variance in all four categories, and is set to appear before the zoning board on March 30.

“We met with some [residents] who seem to be receptive to the project, and we tried to be responsive to all that we heard from,” Wittek said. “We’re required to do an environmental impact and traffic study. That data will be presented the night of the hearing.”

But many residents said that the recent changes failed to address their concerns. “It would definitely change the character of the neighborhood,” said Charles Peknic, an attorney representing Long Beach Neighbors Against Overdevelopment, a group that opposes the project. “It’s as if an entire wall will be erected between Broadway and the boardwalk. The revised plan actually makes it worse, because they’re putting a six-story tower in the middle of the property. You’re cutting off ocean breezes, the view and the sounds — everything related to the ocean will be blocked by this wall.”

Peknic likened the project to the row of high-rise buildings that were built on East Broadway and Shore Road beginning in the 1960s, known to many as the “Chinese wall,” which he said led to a number of zoning changes to halt overdevelopment. “There was a rational basis for the zoning codes that went into effect in the ’80s,” he said. “[City officials] saw the detrimental effect that it was having.”

The 40-foot-tall HALB building, Peknic said, was constructed in the 1960s and sits in an area of one- and two-family homes in the Westholme and nearby Walks neighborhoods. To the east is the 64-foot-tall Beachwalk Landing condominium building. The nearby seven- and eight-story Seaview Terrace and Lafayette Terrace co-op buildings were built before the zoning code changes in the 1980s were enacted, according to Peknic.

“This would be the equivalent of two Beachwalk Landings on top of one another,” Peknic said of the HALB proposal. “The density variance that they’re seeking is substantial.”

Many residents were outraged in 2014 when the zoning board approved iStar’s plan to build two 15-story luxury apartment towers on the Superblock. Residents said that by allowing iStar to exceed the city’s height limit of 110 feet in a commercial area by 50 feet, it set a precedent for development in other parts of the city.

“If you allow extreme variances here, what will happen in other parts of the city?” said Dina Fiore, a member of Long Beach Neighbors Against Overdevelopment, which planned to host a community meeting on March 8 at Long Beach Catholic Regional School and has launched a Change.org petition. “We’re all in favor of building within reason and to code.”

Unlike iStar, the HALB property developers have emphasized that they are not seeking any tax breaks and intend to pay about $3 million in property taxes per year.

Wittek said that the project would include a two-level parking garage underneath the structure, in keeping with Federal Emergency Management regulations, and that the height of the buildings had been reduced twice based on residents’ concerns, among other concessions.

“People talk of our nine-story building really being 11, but I don’t think that’s true,” Wittek said. “I think the notion of overdevelopment in Long Beach is not real — there’s not all that much land left. We’re trying to utilize what is clearly a scarce resource. There’s just so much oceanfront property in the world, and in Long Beach, if there’s going to be relatively dense development, that’s where it should be.”