"I'm not hearing any more argumentsŠ," Wright exclaimed. "[May 24] is the next available date [on the board's calendar]."
Wright rescheduled the hearing, in part, because Ellen Igoe, an attorney for the opposition claimed a medical emergency and requested an adjournment. Further, Anthony Iovino, the attorney representing residents of the Oceanside Cove condominium complex on Daly Boulevard, asked for an adjournment, claiming he hadn't received the documents needed to properly represent his clients from either the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation or Serota Properties.
Iovino submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with the DEC for anything Serota had filed with the environmental department regarding the transfer of the recycling facility on Brown Court in Oceanside from Gator Recycling Corporation to Serota. "I want to see what the DEC saw that they have already approved this facility,² Iovino said.
Serota's attorneys, Michael Cassidy and William Cohn, noted that they had met with the opposition at a community meeting in December, between the first hearing on Nov. 30 and the second on Jan. 3, and offered the DEC-approved permit to anyone who wanted to see it. "I was asked for it once at the meeting," Cassidy said, "but nobody ever followed up with me." Iovino charged that Serota was "stonewalling."
When Cassidy argued that the opposition should only get the final documents regarding the DEC permit, Wright ruled that Serota give Iovino all the documents he wanted to review within five days after the Feb. 8 hearing.
The DEC permit granted Serota approval to open its recycling facility for construction and demolition materials at Brown Court, after Gator was closed in October 2003 for incurring fines for code violations. The DEC determined that the proposed enclosed facility met the standard that materials recycled there would not be "noxious" or "offensive" to its neighbors.
Cohn maintained his argument from the Jan. 3 hearing, that the town zoning board does not have the power to supersede the DEC, and that Serota was only before the board to obtain a permit to raise the roof of the existing building from 25 to 35 feet and to remove interior columns. Cohn then suggested that this construction work commence in the meantime.
"We'd like to build the addition to the building," Cohn told Wright. "And if for some reason the board denies our appeal, we have a building we can use for anything. It doesn't have to be this use."
"I would oppose, obviously, vigorously, the start of any construction on this site until this board has had the opportunity to review the full application," Iovino countered.
Board members indicated that so long as the town building department approved the permit, Serota could go forward with the reconstruction of the facility.
Cassidy asked Wright to give the hearing a special date, earlier than May 24, noting that the facility's property has been dormant for over two years after Serota paid $350,000 to clean the site up. Iovino claimed to have documents revealing that Serota was 100 percent owner of the Gator facility before it was closed down.
"March 24 is the next available date," Wright said, cutting both sides off. "And I think I've been considerate of everyone here."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
