Puglia By the Sea was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Image Credit: silive.com

BSA granted a use variance to demolish previous restaurant damaged by Hurricane Sandy and permit construction of a one-story restaurant and additional parking spaces. On June 24, 2014, the Board of Standards and Appeals granted a use variance to Puglia by the Sea, a restaurant, located at 750 Barclay Avenue in the Annadale section of Staten Island. BSA approved the application for Puglia to demolish the original restaurant, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy, and construct a new one-story restaurant with additional parking spaces. (read more…)

Small rezoning would facilitate expansion of Woodrow Plaza shopping center. On June 29, 2011, the City Council approved Ottavio and Leonello Savo’s proposed expansion of the Woodrow Plaza shopping center at the corner of Woodrow Road and Rossville Avenue in Staten Island. Woodrow Plaza was built in the early 1980s and includes two, one-story buildings and a surface parking lot accessible from Rossville and Alverson Avenues. The project site consists of two wooded, vacant lots located south of the parking lot along Woodrow Road. In 2001, the shopping center’s prior owner proposed building two, one-story buildings on the vacant lots, but the City Planning Commission denied the application.

The Savos plan to develop two, two-story commercial buildings totaling 37,200 sq.ft. and a 124-space parking lot facing the existing shopping center. They plan to improve circulation in the expanded parking lot by reconfiguring the driveways and adding a curb cut at an existing three-way intersection at Woodrow and Foster Roads. The Savos submitted multiple applications to facilitate the project, including a request to apply a C2-2 commercial overlay to the R3X-zoned project site and for a zoning text amendment to remove a portion of the project site from the Special South Richmond Development District’s designated open space boundaries. Pursuant to the special district’s regulations, the proposal also needed the Commission’s authorization to modify the site’s topography. (read more…)

Special permit is associated with major church addition. Gateway Cathedral, located on a 22.5 acre site at 200 Boscombe Avenue in Richmond Valley, Staten Island, applied for a special permit to allow a total of 941 accessory parking spaces. Gateway plans to expand its current 34,493-square-foot church by an additional 87,870 sq.ft. Once the expansion is completed, the church’s capacity will be 3,454 people, up from its current capacity of 820. The expansion plan also included a 12,648 square-foot addition to Gateway’s school, and construction of an outdoor athletic field and memorial gazebo garden.

Currently, Gateway has 225 accessory parking spaces. Under the expansion plan, the church must add an additional 250 parking spaces, for a total of 475 required parking spaces. Gateway, however, requested an additional 466 spaces bringing its total to 941. (read more…)

Bay Terrace and Oakwood down-zoned to prohibit semidetached homes. On November 16, 2005, the City Council approved zoning map amendments to rezone 48 blocks of Bay Terrace and Oakwood, Staten Island.

Council Member Andrew J. Lanza initiated the Bay Terrace proposal in response to concerns about over-development in Staten Island. The proposal called for the rezoning of an area bounded by Amboy Road, Buffalo Avenue, Durant Avenue, and Bay Terrace. Under the proposal, 27 blocks would be rezoned from R3-1 to R3X to prevent the construction of semi-detached houses and require larger lots for increased building height. (read more…)

Mall to be built on 7.7 acres of vacant woodland. Guido Passarelli sought Planning Commission approval to construct a 136,271- square-foot shopping and office center on a 7.7-acre site of undeveloped woodland in the Charleston section of Staten Island. The five proposed buildings would contain a home improvement store, a discount department store, retail outlets and office space, and would include a 454-space parking lot. Access to the site, which is bound by Veterans Road West, Tyrellan Avenue, the Korean War Veterans Parkway and the West Shore Expressway, would be along Veterans Road West.

Passarelli’s development required a special permit to allow the large retail use and approvals for the removal of trees and grading. The site’s existing 426 trees would be removed and replaced with 277 trees within the parking lot, sidewalk and along the setback areas. (read more…)

BSA accepts Buildings’ zoning interpretation of minimum lot area requirement. The Staten Island Borough Commissioner rescinded a stop-work order and approved construction of two, two-story single-family homes on one zoning lot in the Prince’s Bay section of the borough. A civic association in opposition appealed the approval to BSA.

At the BSA hearings, the civic association argued that the project did not meet the 3,800-square-foot minimum lot area requirement set in the City’s zoning code. The developer, Joseph Galante, had proposed two homes on one 7,500-squarefoot zoning lot. The association claimed that both homes needed a 3,800-square-foot area and Galante was 100 sq. ft. short. The association based its argument on the text of the Special South Richmond Development District, which stated that “all residences” must meet the minimum lot area requirements. This position was supported by Council Member Andrew J. Lanza, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro and Community Board 3. (read more…)