By Doug Miller
Of course, Shokrian may not have gotten much of what he wanted. His original application called for 64 units, but the board granted the variances conditionally and, from the informal remarks made by Chairman Rocco Morelli, the indication is that Shokrian will only be allowed to build 50.
"I understand there is a lot of concern about this application," Morelli said after the unanimous vote. "The public needs to know that the conditions the board imposed are very restrictive."
There is a 10,000-square-foot adjacent tract east of the property that the city owns and that Shokrian wants. His plan calls for a swimming pool to be built on the land, and he has offered to buy it for "not more than $1.4 million." Morelli hinted in his remarks that among the conditions governing the variance will be a deed restriction on that land forbidding any development beyond the pool.
The actual conditions placed on the project were not immediately released. Zoning counsel Charles Theofan did not return calls for comment.
Nevertheless, Shokrian's attorney, Walter Belling, called the ruling a win. "I think the Zoning Board showed a lot of courage in the face of a furor from certain elements in the community," he said.
Those elements include several - but by no means all - of the hotel's neighbors, and politicians of several stripes. In the week leading up to the Zoning Board's decision, the three coalition members of the City Council sent Morelli a letter demanding that the application be turned down. Meanwhile, one of the forces behind a grass-roots petition drive against the project was former Democratic City Councilwoman Barbara Mosca.
"I'm very disappointed the ZBA only reduced the units from 64 to 50," she said. "Since we have no idea what the 'conditions' are, time will tell how smart our city administration is."
