Sparks fly over new Atlantic Beach club

Five representatives of a proposed new beach club faced a tsunami of opposition at a Jan. 23 Atlantic Beach Board of Zoning Appeals hearing on several variances they requested for its construction.

Boardwalk Empire LLC, the owners of the New York Beach Club, want to build a new club at 1815 Ocean Blvd., on the site occupied by the Plaza Beach Club for 60 years before it was destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Fierce resistance to Boardwalk Empire’s requests compelled the BZA to adjourn the public hearing to a later date after a 20-minutes-plus verbal exchange among Building Inspector Steve Cherson, Village Attorney Charles Kovit and residents who complained that they were inadequately informed about the proposal and had not received sufficient notice about the hearing.

The discourse turned into a civics lesson for more than 120 people who filled the hearing room seats, stood inside and in the hallway outside. Cherson and Kovit alternately explained the hearing process and attempted to maintain order as many attendees sought to have their opinions heard simultaneously.

Kovit’s initial suggestion that the hearing would have to adjourned unleashed a torrent of antagonism from the attendees directed at the beach club application, the applicants and, at times, Cherson and Kovit himself. “There has to be a hearing, on the record,” Kovit said above the din, trying to explain the procedure.

Mayor George Pappas attended the meeting, but did not speak publicly. Echoing Cherson and Kovit, Pappas explained the process that BZA applications undergo to the Herald. “The building application needs variances because it’s in the marine recreation zoning, and everything built there needs village board approval,” he said. “The application will go through the zoning board in its entirety, and if approved it is handed to the village board.”

Marine recreational zoning was enacted in 1985 by the Town of Hempstead to preserve beaches by prohibiting development of beach club property for housing. Since it was established, there have been several residential projects proposed and a handful of legal challenges, including a federal court dismissal of a lawsuit by then Plaza Beach Club owner Jeff Greenfield 13 years ago that challenged the village’s zoning.

Among the variances being requested by Boardwalk Empire is a building height of roughly 40 feet, exceeding the village’s maximum by nearly 12 feet. The variance is necessary, New York Beach Club owner and applicant Alex Jacobson said, because of Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements to raise buildings in flood zones.

“Because of FEMA and emergency vehicle access, this club is actually elevated to withstand or avoid the next potential disaster,” Jacobson said after the adjournment. “We’ve designed it in a smart way, where there’s parking underneath the club.”

Former Village Attorney Barry Felder, who grew up in the village and has lived there for the past 17 years, did not comment on the proposed project, but said he wanted the review procedure reversed. “I believe that the logical way to [hear the application] would be for the [village] board of trustees, which has overall responsibility for the welfare of the village and who are elected, by the way, have the hearing first,” he said. “Then this board [of Zoning Appeals] could make adjustments, technical adjustments, on zoning issues, which maybe the [village] board can’t do.”

Ed Radburn, an Atlantic Beach resident for more than 30 years and a former village trustee, said that not knowing the plans for the club was the No. 1 reason he and others pushed for the adjournment. Radburn said he believed that a majority of community members were opposed to the new club. “There’ll be a movement,” he said, against the proposal. “We had an application years ago for a developer who came in and wanted to put houses up. We defeated that. We’ll defeat this too.”

Jacobson said he expected “some opposition,” and noted that there were people at the hearing who favored the project. “I think they should see the application and hear the application before there are any actual modifications,” he said. “We’re in a good economy right now, and we’re looking to put up something that makes a lot of sense and is smart and respectful of the marine recreational zoning.”

Have an opinion about the proposed beach club? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.