More West End bumps and bathrooms

This summer in the West End, beach-lovers will continue to dine at Vito's Fish & Chips while gazing out at the sea because the City of Long Beach will allow the restaurant owner to keep a deck built on city property there. And motorists will find the state-named streets rougher to ride now that there will be more speed bumps.

City Manager Charles Theofan announced these and other plans for the neighborhood this year at the West End Neighbors Civic Association's monthly meeting at the West End Community Center on Feb. 17.

"It's going to stay," Theofan said of the restaurant's deck, at New York Avenue and the boardwalk. The restaurant's original owner got permission from then City Manger Ed Eaton to build the deck there, on city property, in 1994.

In May 2008, the Long Beach Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously shot down a proposal to build townhouses on Vito's property and adjacent properties. Sources said that on those neighboring properties, the developer was likely going to need the property where the deck was build, but that plan fell through. But scaled-down luxury homes are being built on those neighboring lots.

The city will also have to at least delay its plans to use eminent domain to convert two adjoining lots into 10 residential parking spaces at the corner of West Beech Street and Nebraska Avenue. Officials had planned to use a $250,000 grant that Sen. Dean Skelos gave the city in 2004 for the purchase and paving of a parcel at another location, 1055 W. Beech, for parking, but it fell through.

Since Republicans and Skelos lost their majority in the state Senate, the Democrats have reappropriated all such discretionary funds, Theofan said. "If that money was available, I would do it in a heartbeat," he said about paving over the property for parking.

M&T Land Inc. bought the commercial property in 2004 and was granted a variance to use it to build two one-family homes that never materialized. Those variances have since expired and the property sits unused, Theofan said.

Last September, while the city awaited an appraisal to determine that property's worth, Erwin Pitnick, one of several mortgage holders of the property, said the group vowed to vigorously fight the city's plan to take the lots using eminent domain. While Pitnick said the property is worth $400,000, Theofan maintains that he is mistaken if he believes if he will get that much for the land. Theofan said that the city planned to purchase and pave the property with just the $250,000 grant.

After the city installed a splash park, completed with sprinklers and water guns, last summer at the Georgia Street Park at West Beech Street, to the tune of $190,000, officials now plan to install a restroom at the park. Theofan said the city is working on obtaining the funding to cover the $150,000 cost for the prefabricated facility, which includes separate men's and women's rooms.

"Because of space constraints, we're looking to get the smallest operational yet handicapped-accessible unit that we can find," the city manager said.

Resident Larry Benowitz questioned why the city is installing restrooms at both Georgia Street and Clark Street, in the Canals, but not at the Magnolia Boulevard Park that abuts the boardwalk. Theofan said that it is possible to put one there as well, but presently the city doesn't have the money for such a project.

If Theofan seemed assured of anything, it was that more removable speed bumps in the West End were coming, saying that residents seem to favor them as a means to slow down motorists. "You are going to see a lot more of them this spring," he vowed.

Asked whether residents on a block had to sign a petition in order to get the speed bumps installed, Theofan said that it was not required but would otherwise be a good way to gauge their popularity. "There are some people who may not want them, especially if they're in front of their house and you get the big thumping of trucks going over them," he said. "But it's a nice symbiosis of what the community wants and what the government can give them."

Plans are also being made to either completely renovate or just repave two more streets in the West End this year, although Theofan could not say which streets were slated for the work.

Meanwhile, rebuilding continues at the Indiana Firehouse, which is expected to open for full operation in May, Theofan said. When all is said and done, the city will have shelled out $5 million to reconstruct the firehouse on West Park Avenue. Critics say the city has mismanaged the project, which included rebuilding walls that were inundated with water, arguing that an entirely new firehouse could have been built for $3.8 million.

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