Orient Heights Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

The Orient Heights Neighborhood Council voted down two projects and approved one other at the group’s May meeting.

The group voted 46 to 7 against the project at 192 Gladstone St. The proposal was to erect a 6-unit residential building with roof deck and six underground parking spaces.

The developer plans to demolish the existing one family that sits on the 5,215 square foot lot and replace it with the six units and parking.

Lifelong Orient Heights resident like Joe Arangio, who took issue with this project said it was too dense.

Arangio argued that zoning in Orient Heights for decades has allowed for one and two-family developments in most areas. This was meant to preserve the fabric of the neighborhood where many streets are dotted with family-owned one and two-family homes.  He said he is becoming increasingly concerned with developers coming in and replacing one or two-family homes with five, six, seven or eight units.

Arangio made the same point regarding the proposal at 18 Crestway. There, the developer plans to demolish existing single family and erect a three story, none-unit building with 12 off-street parking spaces.

Again the quaint home with a  white picket fence current sits on a lot that is 4,314 square feet.

“Destroying this beautiful house because you want to replace it with six units makes you so persona non grata,” said OHNC member Gail Miller.

The only development project the group approved was a proposal at 156 Bayswater St. There the owner wants to change his two-family into a three-family by renovating the basement for an additional apartment unit.

The group approved that project by a vote of 40 to 8.

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