Residents on Tuesday gave a resounding no on a special permit plan to add a 101-car parking garage in the heart of Sheepshead Bay.
The garage would occupy the second, third and fourth floor of a planned nine-story building that property owner George Krasanakis wants to build at 1501 Sheepshead Bay Road with a medical facility on the fifth floor.
“This owner just wants to make a few bucks,” said local activist Ed Eisenberg, after Community Board 15 unanimously rejected project. “Sheepshead Bay is on its way back and this would kick the pins right out from beneath it.”
Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) shared the view of residents about the safety and viability of the project. “How can over 100 cars be parked on upper floors with only one elevator? Obviously, vehicles are not only going to queue up on Avenue Z, clogging the traffic lane, but will probably end up on the sidewalk, only a few feet away from a very busy bus stop,” he said.
The special permit was actually one of two that Krasanakis is seeking. The other being on his triangular-shaped building at 1401 Sheepshead Bay Road at East 14th Street and Avenue Z, which, is also mixed-use building with medical offices.
That building requires 77 on-site parking spaces. Krasanakis’ garage only holds eight cars.
“The architect didn’t build it in accordance with the local zoning for medical facilities and my client wasn’t aware of it until the building was too far underway,” said Krasanakis’ attorney Eric Palatnik. “We’re now allowed to apply for a special permit to allow the shortage of parking.”
That permit plan was also rejected unanimously, and Palatnik expressed shock that nobody supported either.
“It’s important what the community has to say, and we will act accordingly,” he said.
But the rejection still won’t stop Krasanakis from taking the matter before the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, who could sign off on the special permits with or without the community board’s consent.
“We already made an application with the Board,” said Palatnik. “But no date has been set yet.”
