Developers to revise proposal for HALB site

Developers seeking a zoning variance to build luxury condominium towers at the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach property have requested to adjourn a Nov. 10 special meeting with the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals in order to revise their plans.

The request came a month after Wittek Development and Sackman Enterprises — which filed a variance request with the zoning board in September under the name 73rd Meridian Partners LLC — asked the ZBA to adjourn a meeting on Oct. 13. The week before, City Council Vice President Anthony Eramo, along with fellow council members Scott Mandel, Eileen Goggin and Anissa Moore, came out against the project.

The developers’ most recent proposal for 530 W. Broadway includes two 12-story towers with 130 housing units and a 290-space parking garage. The city’s Building Department issued a denial letter to the developers in July, saying that the project exceeded a number of zoning requirements, including the neighborhood’s 40-foot height limit, as well as the building area, side yards and density.

The 73rd Meridian Partners are currently seeking a variance in all four categories, but now plan to go back to the drawing board, according to Jerry Kremer, a former Long Beach resident who is serving as counsel to Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C., the Uniondale-based law firm representing the builders, after meetings with Westholme residents and groups during the last few months. (Full disclosure: Kremer is a Herald columnist.)

“No builder in my lifetime has ever gone to the extent of meeting with local groups as much as the developers have,” Kremer said. “They really have gone far out of their way to listen to the different comments from the community.”

Kremer said that new plans are currently in the works, and that developers have drawn up renderings of three new options for the site. Each includes a lower building height with fewer units, good sight lines and an attractive exterior, he added.

Developers began presenting their plans for the property — along the boardwalk between Washington and Lindell boulevards — to various civic associations in May and June, where they met strong opposition from many residents. Original plans called for 15-story towers with a total of 166 units, but Wittek and Sackman scaled down the proposal before applying for a variance.

Though HALB is still operating in Long Beach, the school is scheduled to relocate to Woodmere in the coming months, and the developers are in contract negotiations to purchase the property, contingent on whether a variance is granted, city officials have said.

Dina Fiore, a board member for Long Beach Neighbors Against Overdevelopment, an organization that has publicly opposed the project for months, said the developers’ decision to delay the public hearing and change their plans is “great news.”

“We have been consistent in our message that we are not against development, but we are against overdevelopment,” group member Dina Fiore wrote in a letter to the City Council last week. “We hope that after numerous meetings with developers, that they finally have a clearer understanding of the area, neighborhood [and] the community at large. We look forward to reviewing the new revised plans addressing all the concerns, while offering them the opportunity to build something that makes sense.”

Kremer said that the adjournment would give everyone “time to catch their breath,” and have further discussions as the developers put forward a new plan. If the developers cannot amend the original variance application, they entirely resubmit it, he added.

“It’s not like we surrendered because anybody beat us into the ground,” Kremer said. “…The developers have extended themselves above and beyond to listen to the views of the people in the area to try to come up with something that will work, but yet not chase them out of Long Beach.”