By Doug Miller
The property in question is located on a stretch of land between Oceanview and the beach at Pennsylvania Avenue. It already includes the foundations of two homes Iorio planned to build in the 1980s but never completed. At Thursday's hearing, Iorio's representatives made the case for him to receive a renewal on the variances for the two foundations, and variances to build the six homes facing the water, each on a lot nine and a half feet too narrow. Once constructed, Iorio's representatives said they expected the new homes to fetch about $1.5 million each.
In all, Iorio's company, Arcadia Management, was seeking six variances, including height, lot area, building area, front and side-yard setbacks and density.
But more than 40 residents of Pennsylvania Avenue, California Street, New York Avenue and Oceanview showed up with their own attorney, former Zoning Board commissioner and former City Councilman Denis Kelly, who spent 25 minutes describing Iorio's variance application as an unnecessary and ultimately detrimental burden to place on the neighborhood. "There is no reason to do this," Kelly said, prompting cheers from the crowd.
Judging by the tone of the questions from the current commissioners, Kelly was preaching to the choir. After the applicant's traffic expert, Jeffrey Lazarczyk, gave his opinion that the additional homes would not negatively impact the neighborhood's streets, Zoning Board Chairman Rocco Morelli asked him if he'd counted the cars of residents "or of everyone circling the block for the fifth time searching for a parking spot."
Commissioner Fritz Hinsch then asked if Lazarczyk was aware that the right turns he claimed to have recorded cars making from Pennsylvania onto Oceanfront were impossible, given that Oceanfront at that location was one-way in the other direction, and, further, obstructed against motor-vehicle traffic.
Lazarczyk tried to argue Hinsch's point but was cut off by Morelli, who asked "Could you please correct this? You're wasting our time."
Iorio's attorney, William F. Bonesso, argued that denying his client's variance request would place a financial burden on the developer in terms of lost profits. He also stressed that since each home would include a driveway and a two-car garage, the application would serve the neighborhood well in terms of easing the parking crunch.
But Kathleen Slattery, the president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, said that while Iorio was on the whole a responsive landlord for his other West End properties, she did not agree this application would benefit anyone besides Iorio.
Then, to sweeten her appeal, she handed a bag of Oreos, each with a note saying something to the effect of "Oreos against Iorio," to each commissioner.
Another developer, East End Management, took a more humble tact with the commissioners, returning with a plan for two multi-dwelling homes on adjoining lots in the President Streets.
The developers bought two decrepit apartment buildings at 100 Harding Ave. and 101 Cleveland Ave. and hoped to rehab them and reposition the apartments as luxury condominiums.
However, the plan went afoul of both the existing tenants - whom they claimed misled them during due diligence as to the deteriorating state of the buildings - and the neighbors, who came en masse to the May 2006 zoning board hearing to protest, successfully, the variance application for the condo project.
Thursday night the developer, Anthony Rector, told the commissioners his company's high hopes for the site had been swamped and he could only hope to stem the losses. Rector claimed losses averaging $40,000 per year.
To that end he and his partners proposed a twin set of single-family attached residences that required variances for use, since they are located in a zone that only permits single-family detached uses, height, front- and side-yard setbacks, building area and density. The application was met with a complaint by one neighbor, a letter of support from another, and the promise by the commissioners to consider the application.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
