By Doug Miller
The board had been acting on an application by Xander Corporation, which is the company name of the co-op for the 126 owner-residents of the original SeaPointe Tower, at 360 Shore Road.
"I disagree strongly" with the ruling, said a terse Jacob Haberman, a partner in the Haberman Group. "We're weighing our options as to what to do next."
He added that the company has not ruled out re-applying to the Zoning Board.
SeaPointe was originally designed to be part of a four-tower complex built by the Haberman Group in the land between Lincoln and Monroe Boulevards. Permits to build the remaining three towers were issued in the late 1980s, but once the first building went up, no construction ever took place on the other three towers.
The Habermans decided they were ready to put the second building up in 2003, and the building department re-issued them a building permit based on the variances granted by the Zoning Board in the 1980s. But Xander Corp. petitioned the board to revoke the permit, and on Dec. 29, 2003, it did.
Last week's Supreme Court ruling supported that action.
"It's a great thing for people who live along the boardwalk, collectively," said Michael Zapson, the attorney for Xander Corp. "What the appellate division has said is that the Habermans can not build pursuant to the variances they received in 1989. They have to build according to today's more stringent standards."
In 1989, Zapson said, the city's zoning ordinances allowed for 10-story buildings and one parking space per unit. Today, the highest a builder can go without a variance is seven stories, and he must provide two spaces for every apartment.
The only higher court is the New York Court of Appeals. But in order to appeal the case to them, the four judges in the Supreme Court who ruled on March 28 could not have ruled unanimously as they did, Zapson said.
But there is still the matter of the SeaPointe parking lot, which currently rests in the footprint of where the Habermans imagined SeaPointe II would someday rise. In January 2005, the Habermans hired a demolition crew to tear up the lot so construction could begin on the second tower - permits be damned - before the city sent police to stop them. The result was a parking lot where the only pavement remaining was that which was under the cars that hadn't been moved.
Xander Corp. and Zapson are still suing for damages to the parking lot, a case that Zapson said is pending.
