More tear-downs threatened in Westerleigh
From the Staten Island Advance
Builder eyes property in shadow of church
Westerleigh pastor breaks unsettling news at anti-teardown rally
Saturday, February 10, 2007
By KAREN O’SHEA
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — When the pastor of Immanuel Union Church joined Westerleigh neighbors and politicians yesterday to protest the razing of one of Prohibition Park’s earliest homes, at 682 Jewett Ave., he delivered some disturbing news.
The Rev. Charles Baldini said a developer had approached the owner of the turn-of-the-century house he rents across the street. Rev. Baldini said his landlord declined the offer.
“He said, ‘as long as I’m living this house will not be sold,'” recalled Rev. Baldini.
Rev. Baldini’s house is one of two his landlord owns on Jewett. Both are imposing old homes sandwiched between the church and a site where four new two-family homes are rising. The builder there demolished 707 Jewett Ave., a house neighbors said helped define the neighborhood until it was torn down last year.
Yesterday, Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore) again called on City Planning to downzone the area to protect a unique mix of 19th- and early-20th-century homes, and he again challenged City Planning Chairwoman Amanda Burden’s contention that the area is not experiencing a demolition trend.
“Amanda Burden, we ask you to change your opinion and to come out to the corner of Maine and Jewett and you will see teardowns,” he said.
McMahon was joined by Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), with whom he shares the district, the borough president’s land use director and residents who held signs urging the city to reconsider a community application to downzone the area to a new zoning permitting single-family homes on slightly larger lots. Right now, one- and two-family detached homes are permitted.
Mike Morrell, president of the Westerleigh Improvement Society, said City Planning should come to the table to talk about ways to tweak or downsize their downzoning application, which, at 130 blocks, is the largest proposal to do away with two-family housing.
“We’ve always said we’d be open to that,” Morrell said yesterday. “The frustrating thing is the lack of dialogue.”
A City Planning spokeswoman said yesterday that Ms. Burden was making a site visit and unable to comment. Ms. Burden has said she believes the current zoning, enacted in 2002, protects the character of Westerleigh.
Real estate broker Frank Coppotelli agrees. He represents the builders who are putting up four, two-family homes in place of 707 Jewett Ave. Coppotelli claimed the latest push to downzone is discriminatory and would lock out more buyers.
“Now they want to drop [the zoning] further? It’s really just an economic barrier,” he argued.
The demolished house at 682 Jewett Ave. was built in the late 1890s by the Rev. William Boole and his wife, Ella, who later headed the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement. Their house was the first in the Prohibition Park settlement. Four new, two-family homes are planned for the site. Jim Ferreri, president of the Preservation League of Staten Island, has blasted the Landmarks Preservation Commission for not considering the house for protective historic status because of its rich history in the temperance movement and its design by architect Edward Alfred Sargent. Landmarks has said the house was too altered.
Builder Richard Epstein said he mistakenly thought the house was connected to illegal activity during Prohibition, but added he plans to build “gorgeous” new homes in its place.
Karen O’Shea covers real estate news for the Advance. She may be reached at [email protected].
Copyright 2007 The Staten Island Advance. Used with permission.