By:Doug Miller
The board's written denial cited "due consideration of the unnecessary hardship alleged by the applicant, and at the same time [the need for] preserving and protecting the character of the neighborhood and the health, safety and welfare of the community."
The denial resolution did not mention anything about EBM's decision to scale down the application. On the day of their zoning board hearing in December, the applicants said they had significantly shrunk their project from 13 stories to 10 and from 54 units to 46. The denial resolution, issued after the Jan. 27 zoning board meeting, only rejected the 54-unit application, so in theory the board has not weighed in on the smaller project that was presented at their public hearing. The applicants may reapply.
The Brighton Hotel currently operates as an adult home, with about 100 residents. While many of the neighbors consider it a blight, they told the zoning board they preferred the Brighton to a residential development of that scale.
The Brighton's owners are two families, will under the proposal would have sold most of their stake in the building to EBM while retaining a share. The sale price is $7.8 million. The developers said they hope the proposed apartments will fetch as much as $800,000.
The people who protested the application in December consisted largely of residents of the surrounding apartment buildings on the 400 block of Shore Road, and they did not seem impressed with or placated by the downsizing of the proposed building.
Other than the height change - and the removal of a luxury penthouse from the project - the rest of the project remained unchanged, and the developers still needed seven variances in order to proceed, for such issues as density and lot use. Comments? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
