By:JOSEPH KELLARD
The board this week granted virtually all of BIP's original plans to convert a storage warehouse on Beach Street into the amusement park the company said would be geared mainly toward children 13 and younger. BIP proposed to build a children's soft play area in the warehouse as well as a downstairs carousel and two upstairs party rooms. Outdoors on the site's 16,000-square-foot property, which will replace an existing auto body shop and a junkyard, BIP proposed an 18-hole miniature-golf course, a pond with non-motorized rubber bumper boats, and a mini-race track with battery-powered cars with rubber wheels.
The board approved these features as well as proposals for a 114-space parking lot, a maximum capacity of 356 people in the park at any given time, and business hours from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, all conditions that BIP applied for originally.
However, the company has since scrapped one main feature of the amusement park and is undecided about exactly what rides to install. Arthur Nastre, the attorney representing BIP, told the Herald that John Vitale, president of BIP and owner of the surrounding Bridgeview nightclub/catering hall, Paddy McGee's and Coyote Grill, "decided not to [install the pond with bumper boats] because of liability issues. So that feature will be replaced by something that will not involve water."
While the miniature-golf course remains the one sure thing to be installed from the original proposal, Nastre said the other rides are subject to change "depending on their popularity and the trends in the business." But whatever rides and attractions BIP decides on, the board's conditions require that they operate on electric motors and use nylon or hard rubber wheels only, so that there will be no gas smells and to keep noise to a minimum for the park's neighbors.
Nastre said BIP would delay its decision until after July 29, the deadline set for the opponent of its proposal - the Yacht Club, a 128-unit condominium complex near the proposed site - to file an appeal.
"We are not going to do anything until we see if there is going to be an appeal," Nastre told the Herald. "If they don't appeal, then we'll start making decisions by the end of July."
The lawyer representing the Yacht Club, Allen Stein, and the property manager for the condo complex, Joseph Kessell of ABM Management, did not return calls for comment.
At the zoning board hearing in March, Stein and residents argued mainly that the amusement park would further compound the problems with too many people and traffic congestion that the area's bars and restaurants attract during the peak summer months.
While BIP said that the facility would be primarily geared toward pre-teens, residents argued that the park's main attraction, the miniature-golf course, would serve as a place where adults would start the night before hitting the nearby bars.
Other conditions the board demands of BIP are the installation of a six-foot-high fence around the border of the new parking lot, ensuring that all exterior lighting is designed to shine only on the facility's property and parking lot and not on adjoining parcels, and the installation of appropriate pedestrian and traffic safety features.
