Locals answered his “No Parking” sign with a “Stop” sign — but he refuses to yield.
Community Board 15’s zoning committee roundly rejected a developer’s appeal to get around regulations for a property on Avenue Z, between E. 21st Street and E. 22nd Street over concerns about parking and building height.
The panel voted unanimously against the request at a June 23 meeting after nearby residents showed up to say the planned building would destroy the neighborhood’s character.
“These kind of developments are killing Sheepshead Bay,” said Daniel Colon, who lives across the street from the lot.
Another neighbor even called the developer, Aleksandr Finkelshteyn, a “bull in a china shop.”
Finkelshteyn has filed a request for a variance with the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals seeking exemptions from several zoning regulations. He wants to build up to four stories rather than the three allowed, and to include commercial and retail space in a residential zone. Most controversially, he doesn’t want to provide any parking — even though regulations would require a development of that size to include 32 parking spaces.
The proposed structure’s floor area would be twice the size permitted by the zoning rules, and would include retail space on the first floor, a commercial office on the second floor, and medical offices on the third and fourth floors.
The developer’s attorney told the committee that it was not feasible to develop the property under the current regulations. The lot hosted a gas station until 1995 and an auto shop since then, precluding residential use, and the lawyer claimed there wasn’t enough room for all the parking required.
“The shape of the property and the environmental conditions on the property all are forming the basis of our variance,” said attorney Eric Palatnik. “It’s physically impossible to provide the parking, for example.”
Locals were particularly disturbed by how the development could affect parking, worried that retail space and medical offices would make it even more difficult to park in the area.
“I spend 40 or 45 minutes trying to find parking,” said Allen Popper, secretary of CB15 and local resident.
Another woman said that parking in the area is so bad that her driveway is routinely blocked by illegally parked cars — and on one occasion, she parked in for five days.
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) has also come out against the proposal, echoing the sentiments expressed by CB15 in a letter to Margery Perlmutter, the chairwoman of the Board of Standards and Appeals.
“This project, if approved, would create the kind of precedent for additional higher-density development that does not conform to the overall neighborhood character,” Cymbrowitz said in the letter. “Currently the area consists mostly of one- and two-family homes, and even the existing commercial buildings do not have such large bulk use dimensions. ”
Community board votes are purely advisory, and Pearlmutter’s panel will have the final say, so the June 23 vote will not affect the variance application.
“We respect the community board’s decision but we have to move forward with our application,” Palatnik said.
Finkelshteyn is still in the process of purchasing the property, and Palatnik said the transaction would be completed regardless of the outcome of the application.
