Our next PBTCA meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 24, at St. Theresa’s cafeteria, 2855 St. Theresa Avenue. Refreshments at 7 p.m. Meeting at 7.30 p.m. Our guest speaker will be Assemblyman Michael Benedetto. Our next meeting will be in September so if you have any complaints be sure and express them loudly at our June 24 meeting.
Our taxpaying residents showed up on a hot night at the June 12 Waterbury LaSalle meeting conducted by Tony Cannata, MaryJane Musano, Andrew Chirico and their dedicated board members. Everyone loudly expressed our objections to the insanity of a huge oversized building without sufficient parking for 44 condos being proposed by a developer with thousands and thousands of housing code violations! I am repeating what I have stated before. When the Department of Buildings received his application with his background, that application should have ended up in the paper shredder.
The reasons his application didn’t end up in the paper shredder are too many: We do not have an architectural review board who would be able to scrutinize every application with a fine tooth comb; the Department of Buildings enforces the zoning laws, but doesn’t have enough inspectors to inspect violations; the zoning laws are not protecting our communities; too many scrupulous greedy developers know how to get around the zoning laws; when a large piece of property becomes available, we the residents find out after it has been purchased by the highest bidder who has no interest in preserving the character, the safety, our schools. Doesn’t care about the lack of parking in our commercial and residential areas, the lack of parking in our commercial and residential areas. Did I mention the lack of parking in our commercial and residential areas?
Our councilman, Jimmy Vacca, who originally alerted us to this oversized proposed development at 3030 Middletown Road and many agencies directly involved with the planning of this building, were all at our June 12 Waterbury La Salle meeting. Andrew Chirico needed roller skates to keep up with all the hands waving by taxpaying residents desperately wanting their objections to this proposal be heard. Many of the members didn’t need the microphone. Their objections came across loud and clear. Every objection made total sense. If the city doesn’t halt over-development in communities that are an asset to Manhattan, all these communities will end up looking like the movie Fort Apache. Over-development breeds crime. When occupants of buildings are subjected to robberies, they move.
Communities with one- two- or three-family homes, whose owners live in their building, are an asset to the community. They take pride in their homes, they love and enjoy their green space, they plant trees, flowering bushes, tulips, flowers and more flowers. They contribute to a healthy, thriving community. Not the absentee owners who live elsewhere and are only interested in collecting the rents. In our communities, we now have a maximum of buildings. Many of the residents in these buildings were former homeowners in our community but as they got older and couldn’t keep up taking care of their building, they moved into apartment buildings or co-ops. We cannot absorb anymore oversized buildings.
New laws must be made to preserve the character and future of all our neighborhoods. Our goals must be: Saving all our neighborhoods and the environment. Sane laws must be the rule, not enforcing, and accepting insane laws that will destroy beautiful safe neighborhoods to raise children. We will ask for amendments to the present zoning laws to preserve our communities. If we wait for zone changes, it will be too late. We want our elected officials to join us in our quest for amendments to the present zoning laws. It can be done, it will be done. We as taxpayers demand it be done.
