By:Laura Lane
'I just want to make the cocktail area into a buffet room so it's more comfortable for my customers. The room is kind of tight right now.'
Fred Nicotra
La Piazza owner
The owner of La Piazza, a popular, upscale pizzeria and catering hall on Merrick Road in Merrick, recently applied to the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board for a variance to build an addition to the eatery.
Fred Nicotra, the proprietor, wants to enclose a patio that he had reportedly promised not to use. Now Nicotra says he needs the patio to better accommodate patrons in his catering hall.
Residents of Lincoln Boulevard, near the restaurant, immediately cried foul when they recently learned about the variance appeal. For starters, they said, Nicotra claimed patrons would never use the patio. And they worry that more people would be able to fit in the catering hall if the patio were available.
Bigger restaurant crowds would bring more traffic congestion at Merrick Road and Lincoln Boulevard, a corner that residents say is already heavily trafficked. They say more traffic tie-ups could lead to more accidents. Residents also fear that a larger catering hall could bring more noise, which some say is already excessive.
Derek Donnelly, president of the Merrick Gables Homeowners Association, lives next door to La Piazza on Lincoln Boulevard. "When they have a party there, it's thump, thump, thump until 11 p.m. in my house," said Donnelly. "I've called the police at least 30 times starting in November of last year, and I have the incident numbers. The police say they can't go into the restaurant until after 11 p.m., and their policy is to tell them to turn down the music."
Donnelly added, "By him enclosing that area, [Nicotra will] be able to cater to more than 85 people," the maximum now allowed. "Like I don't have enough noise problems with them now."
The town is willing to inspect La Piazza for possible noise violations, said Mike Deery, a town spokesman. But residents need to let the town know of exact times when it's noisiest. Susie Trenkle, a town spokeswoman, said the town recently inspected for noise and found no violation during working hours.
Nicotra said he's unaware of community concerns regarding his proposal to enclose the patio, and he's not looking to increase patronage. Rather, he said, he wants to make his current catering clientele more comfortable. "I just want to make the cocktail area into a buffet room so it's more comfortable for my customers," Nicotra said. "The room is kind of tight right now."
Residents aren't convinced. And the possibility of more traffic accidents is their greatest concern. Rosanne Kram, who lives on the south side of Merrick Road at Lincoln Boulevard, said she has seen many terrible accidents. "We hear the noise of screeching brakes, but we don't bother to look anymore. We're used to it," she said.
Aurelia Santangelo, a longtime Lincoln Boulevard resident, said traffic is an enormous problem. "At 4:30 p.m., the area is definitely a safety hazard. And there is no light on the corner of Merrick Road and Lincoln, so it's impossible," she said.
Donnelly said he recently witnessed a motorist losing control of his car and slamming into a parked vehicle on Lincoln.
The area isn't considered a high-frequency accident zone, according to the 7th Police Precinct. To be considered as such, a street must have 25 or more accidents a year. However, the number of accidents appears to be increasing at Frankel and Merrick Road, one block west of Lincoln. Sgt. Anthony Repalone, the 7th Precinct's spokesman, said statistics show there were five accidents in 2001, eight in 2002 and 15 in 2004.
There are other concerns about the restaurant. Terry Siller's home on Frankel Boulevard is two feet from La Piazza's patio. When the restaurant was built, a 16-foot-high wall was erected to install its fans and exhaust system. The wall sits on Siller's property line.
Siller, who has lived in her house since 1953, said bushes she planted years ago are dying because they lack sunlight, which the wall blocks. "I call it the Wall of China," Siller said.
Nicotra had sought and received Siller's permission to erect the wall.
La Piazza is scheduled to appear before the town Board of Zoning Appeals on July 28 over its patio proposal.
Several Merrick civic leaders met recently to discuss La Piazza's variance application. They plan to support homeowners living around the restaurant. Barry Fox, president of the Merrick Park Home Owners Association, said the addition would "lower property values. La Piazza is down-zoning a piece of property, and anytime our civic group sees this, we are opposed to it."
