4 MAY 10, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Illegal conversions dominate Councilman’s fi rst town hall
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
The inside of Councilman Robert
Holden’s new street-side
offi ce on Dry Harbor Road in
Middle Village is deceptively large.
The refl ections on the glass windows
make it diffi cult to see inside from the
sidewalk, but opening the front door
reveals a wide-open common room
with original World War I themed
artwork scattered on the walls, staff
members’ desks and a pair of offi ce
rooms toward the back.
On May 2, the room was also fi lled
with chairs and roughly 40 local
residents for the fi rst installment of
‘Conversations with your Councilman.’
The town hall style meeting attracted
people from all parts of Holden’s
district, and the open question-and-answer
format brought up topics ranging
from illegal housing conversions and
transportation woes to homelessness
and the city budget.
According to Holden, these meetings
are one of the main reasons he wanted
to fi nd an offi ce so large, and they are another
example of bringing his civic leader
style to his new government position.
“That’s all I did all my life, well
30 years of my life in the civic, so I
wanted to keep that,” Holden told the
Ridgewood Times. “They can come
meet with me on a monthly basis, and
you heard there’s a lot of complaints
and a lot of issues, and it educates
people as to protecting their blocks
and protecting their neighborhoods.”
The councilman opened the discussion
with about 20 minutes’ worth of updates
about his recent work. He spoke
about the bridge deck replacement project
at Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh
Pond Road and said the new contractors,
Beaver Concrete Construction, hopes to
fi nish the work by November.
The contaminated soil on 69th
Street began to be removed on April
28, Holden said, but 45 truck loads
weren’t enough to take care of it all. He
estimated that another 20 truck loads
are still left to remove.
He also mentioned that he would
be meeting with Department of
Transportation Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg on May 4 and planned to
talk to her about various issues with
the Woodhaven Boulevard Select Bus
Service.
When the fl oor opened to questions
from the crowd, however, the illegal
conversion of two-family homes into
three-family homes in Middle Village
emerged as a primary concern. One
local resident, who identifi ed himself
as a member of the Wynwood Gardens
Homeowners Association, even
claimed that one individual is responsible
for buying eight homes in his neighborhood
and performing self-certifi ed
work to renovate the basements to
create an extra apartment.
“I think this particular individual
should be stopped,” the homeowner
said.
Several other members of the audience
backed up the homeowner’s
claims, and after the meeting the
homeowner provided the Ridgewood
Times with a list of addresses that he
believes to be part of the problem. Of
the addresses on the list, three have
been issued stop work orders and
nearly all have multiple complaints
fi led against them.
Another resident explained that
when the Department of Buildings
(DOB) sends inspectors to investigate
complaints, the case will be closed if
they can’t gain access to the building
aft er two attempts. According to Holden,
the best course of action for local
residents is to get together an affi davit
for each of the problem buildings and
bring them to his offi ce because the
DOB is responsible for delivering any
summons.
“If I think there’s a basement, and I
get proof there’s a basement apartment,
I will actually go and try to get a court
order to get the DOB in there myself,”
Holden said. “I will guarantee the
neighborhood, because I have been a
fi ghter against this for 30 or 40 years.”
The problem revolves around zoning
regulations because most parts of
Middle Village are only zoned for one-
or two-family residences, Holden said.
He also spoke about protecting the
one-family zones from illegal conversion
into two-family homes, although
some two-family buildings have been
grandfathered into the zoning code.
Going forward, Holden said he has
planned to meet with the Department
of City Planning to discuss keeping
the one-family zones, but has been
told that will most likely mean he has
to suggest other areas that the city can
up-zone as a trade off .
Since taking office in January,
Holden said, illegal conversions are
the biggest complaint he has received
from constituents.
The Wynwood Gardens Homeowners
Association member quoted in this
story was previously named, but aft er
reaching out and requesting that the
name be left out, the Ridgewood Times
agreed to retract it. The homeowner
said that they received threats related
to the illegal conversion issue in the
past and feared future retaliation.
Ridgewood business
titan honored
Long time Chairperson/President
Herman Hochberg of
the Myrtle Avenue Business
Improvement District in Ridgewood
was honored by the sisterhood of
Park East Synagogue at their annual
Spring Luncheon held on April 22.
Herman “Hy” Hochberg was honored
by the Sisterhood group as its
fi rst man in memory of Dr. Polly Etkind
Hochberg, Herman’s wife, who
died last August. Herman is very
Photo courtesy of Myrtle Avenue BID
active in the Park East Synagogue
and serves currently as its president.
At the event, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a
long time friend of the Hochbergs
was the guest speaker.
Pictured from left to right are Dr.
Ruth Westheimer, honoree Herman
Hochberg, Herman’s long time secretary
and assistant Cathy Schmitt
Millbrandt; Executive Director of
the Myrtle Avenue BID Theodore
M. Renz and his wife Angela Renz.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Middle Village Preparatory Charter School
will conduct its monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
on Wednesday, May 16th, 2018
WHO: Middle Village Preparatory Charter School
WHAT: Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
WHEN: Wednesday, May 16th, 2018
TIME: 6:00 PM
WHERE: Multi-Purpose Room at Middle Village Prep
Door # 10
Details are as follows:
68-02 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
All meetings of the Trustees and all committees and subcommittees
are conducted with the New York Open Meetings Law
(N.Y. Public Officers Law §§ 100-111).
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