By Doug Miller
Commission Chairman Rocco Morelli and Michael Leonetti voted in favor of the project, with commissioners Friedrich Hinsch, Jane Novorro, Susan Solomon and William Miller voting against.
The proposal sought variances for this narrow, undeveloped plot of land in the heart of the city's downtown business district for a restaurant called Ocean. In addition to offering high-end seafood, the owners were looking to add a non-conforming 25-foot bar, plus a rooftop deck.
"The restaurant concept and design were superb, and would have continued the trend toward Long Beach being a dining destination," said Walter Belling, the attorney for the project. "I was looking forward to eating there."
While the vote came without comment from the zoning board trustees, at least three factors stood between Pogrebin and his variances. The first issue was the bar, which exceeds by 15 feet what is permitted in the city. The zoning board has been loathe to allow new bars in the city over the last several years amid intense community pressure to dim the city's image as a party town. In his defense, Pogrebin told the zoning board at his public hearing in September that the bar would be as high-end as the food and not likely to attract a rowdy crowd.
Another possible issue was Pogrebin's partners, a group called Ettie Properties LLC, which would have developed the site. Zoning board counsel Corey Klein blasted the group for what he called a lack of attention to the residential properties it manages in Long Beach. "The applicant can't maintain the grass and weeds in a residential area," Klein said. "I'm deeply concerned."
And there was the neighbors on the residential stretch of West Walnut Street directly south of the project, a group of whom retained the attorney Denis Kelly, a former Zoning trustee and Democratic city councilman, to protest the project. The gist of the neighbors' complaint, Kelly said in a letter to the board dated Oct. 18, was fear that the proposed rooftop deck would made life on West Walnut Street less tolerable. "The rooftop deck is not only unprecedented, it is also unnecessary and dangerous..." Kelly wrote. "A rooftop deck will allow noise and quite possibly debris to travel to my clients in the immediate neighborhood."
Belling said that no decision had been made about an appeal or revision to the application.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
