Committees are all chock full of reportage - the Flatbush Trees, Clove Road, babysitting classes for teens, Composting for Peace, the plan to turn Phat Alberts into a Trader Joe's (psyche!)... Come on down to MS 161 if you have the time.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Tonight's Community Board Meeting
This months Community Board 9 meeting is happening tonight rather than next Tuesday, the last Tuesday of the month. For some reason, they felt Christmas was a bad day for a public meeting. I for one was prepared to fly back from festivities just to deny someone a variance on their curb cut and stare down a prospective liquor licensee.
Committees are all chock full of reportage - the Flatbush Trees, Clove Road, babysitting classes for teens, Composting for Peace, the plan to turn Phat Alberts into a Trader Joe's (psyche!)... Come on down to MS 161 if you have the time.
Committees are all chock full of reportage - the Flatbush Trees, Clove Road, babysitting classes for teens, Composting for Peace, the plan to turn Phat Alberts into a Trader Joe's (psyche!)... Come on down to MS 161 if you have the time.
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4 comments:
For some reason I am dying to hear the reasons why the Ocean Ave guy feels justified in creating an illegal curb cut. Please share!
CeeLeeDee laid out the case brilliantly last night. Perhaps she could be persuaded to give us an encore?
Btw, the CB voted to uphold whatever rules and remedies that Landmarks deems appropriate. No one bought Mr. Coles' assertion that he had no knowledge of the rules about going to Landmarks prior to exterior renovation. He'd signed the petition to landmark in this first place, and had been at many meetings leading up to the designation.
The curb cut was actually a separate issue. The cut is his next door neighbor's, and was apparently done legally long ago. The thing that irks neighbors is that Mr. Coles created a parking "pad" for himself and uses his neighbors cut to drive up on the sidewalk and over to his pad, which is by itself totally illegal. The chair reminded everyone that creating your own driveway is a really bad idea, and that parking on your front lawn without going through the permitting process is risking a lot of money in fines and legal hassle.
I think we'd all have to agree, however, that the practice is incredibly common around here, some would say to the detriment of the neighborhood's attractiveness. Though in my mind, nothing beats the Fedders crapola townhouses (like at Bedford/Parkside) in terms of negative curb appeal!
"The Ocean Avenue Guy" did not create a curb cut. The curb cut was legally created by his immediate neighbor for his own home and medical practice, eons ago. Still, it's important to note that the good doctor who created the cut has given permission to Ocean Avenue Guy to use it. Which is why OAG feels "justified" in using the good doctor's legal curb cut in order to access the illegal front plot driveway that he (OAG) created for himself. Capiche? Yes, I know it's all a bit confusing! :-)
BTW, OAG created his illegal driveway by demolishing a century old+ knee wall at his property/sidewalk line, paving his front yard with concrete, and installing an out-of-context gigando fence. However, since OAG did all this driveway construction work before his property was designated a landmark, the fact of it's illegality is more of an issue now for DOB than LPC.
The purpose of last night's CB9 hearing was to get community input on a whole other bundle of LPC-related violations committed by OAG. Although OAG played the "woe is me, I didn't know what landmarking meant when I voted for it" card pretty heavy, his case did not prevail last night. Q, correct me if I'm wrong, but I got the sense that CB9 has not dealt with a LPC violation issue in PLG in years. So, it was a rather precedent-setting action last night when the board ultimately voted to uphold the integrity of the new Ocean on the Park Historic District and to not give approval to OAG's flagrant break with LPC rules covering exterior facade alterations. The whole matter now goes back to LPC for action: enforcement,correction, waiver of penalties. . . or whatever.
I'm glad that CB9 "voted to uphold the integrity of the new Ocean on the Park Historic District" BUT, had the vote gone the other way, would that have had any effect on LPC's enforcement? I doubt it.
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