Marineland case goes to Albany

      Four residents have been trying to sink the planned Bay Club complex, which is currently under construction along the bayfront on the 700 block of West Park Avenue. Arguing that the decision by Long Beach' s Zoning Board of Appeals to green light the construction of 20 condo units was flawed, the residents who all live near the property filed an Article 78 suit in 2000. Though defeated twice in court, they have continued to appeal. They now will not only get to argue their case before the New York State Court of Appeals, but will do so months ahead of other cases before the court due to the fact that the construction is in progress. The court declined to put a temporary stop to the work.
      According to the residents' attorney, Charles Kovit, the Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case due largely to the opinion of one justice in the Appellate Division in Brooklyn. While three of the four appellate justices ruled in favor of the Zoning Board' s decision this past October, Justice Gloria Goldstein dissented and argued that there was no rational basis for granting a use variance. By upholding the board' s decision, the courts, she said, are acting as a rubber stamp to actions which make a mockery of the legal requirements for a use variance.
      The residents have argued that the variance granted was a stark violation of the criteria governing such cases, particularly in the area of what is called self-created hardship. As the owner, Ebrahim Shokrian, knew that the property was zoned for business before buying it from the Marineland marina owners in 1999, the residents believe he should not have been allowed a variance to construct the condos. Shokrian did not, they believe, show that the land could not support another business, as one must do in order to be granted the variance to construct residential housing in a commercially-zoned strip.
      Goldstein agreed, writing that the so-called