WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 24, 2018 3
Board 5 votes in favor of O’Neill’s expansion
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
It was too little, too late for critics of
the proposed re-zoning of O’Neill’s
Restaurant in Maspeth on May
16, as Community Board 5 voted in
favor of the project during its regular
meeting.
O’Neill’s is seeking a zoning amendment
that would allow the 84-year-old
restaurant to build a second-story
banquet hall seating up to 140 people,
and when fi rst presented to Board 5 in
April the project received overwhelming
support from the community.
The board approved the application
by a vote of 32 to 8, but not before a
group of residents who live close to
O’Neill’s made it known that hundreds
of people are against the expansion.
Christine Isherwood, a resident who
spoke up during the public forum, said
that she started a petition against the
project that has accumulated more
than 200 signatures.
“Nobody was notifi ed about this. I
found out about it on Facebook,” Isherwood
said. “I decided to go ahead and
start asking my neighbors, and they all
dropped their jaws.”
Isherwood and other speakers contended
that bringing an event space
of that size to an already congested
area would make the parking situation
unmanageable. O’Neill’s has valet
parking service but is already limited
in where it can park the cars, and Isherwood
said the addition simply “does
not belong in the neighborhood.”
The conversation became tense
when another resident, Tom McBride,
used his turn at the microphone
to directly respond to the parking
concerns and accuse his neighbors of
making the problem worse.
“Most of the people in the neighborhood
rent their spaces to commercial
vehicles,” McBride said, earning applause
and shouts from the crowd. “We
should look at ourselves. Everybody in
that community on both sides of the
street are making profi ts by letting
people park in their driveways, and
they’re worried about parking.”
Danny Pyle, co-proprietor of
O’Neill’s, got a chance to respond to
the criticism by explaining that the
restaurant does everything it can to
give back to the community and be a
respectful neighbor.
“I’m for Maspeth, I’ve been here for
25 years with George O’Neill and he’s
really instilled in me that the community
is all about us,” Pyle said. “I have
an open door policy. If there’s any
problems with valet or what have you,
come speak to me and let’s address it.
I’m not perfect, the place isn’t perfect.”
When the proposal came up for
a vote, Walter Sanchez, chair of the
Zoning and Land Use Committee,
explained that the committee was
thorough in its review process. It
received Isherwood’s petition against
the project, another petition in favor
of the project with more than 200 signatures
and personal letters from two
dozen people in favor of the project.
Sanchez said that the committee was
concerned during its review about
parking as well as the possibility of the
property being able to add apartments
in the future. The R5D zoning applied for
would technically allow more to be built
than just the second-story banquet hall.
Sanchez further explained that
O’Neill’s responded by getting letters
from other local businesses who agreed
to let the restaurant use their parking
lots on a regular basis, and O’Neill’s
will sign a declaration on the property
that no residential space will ever be
built above the commercial use. The
committee ultimately recommended
that the board approve the application.
Board 5 members who ended up
voting against the project, however,
expressed concerns over the fact that
other buildings around O’Neill’s will
also be re-zoned as part of this application,
and the future aff ects it could
have on those properties is unclear.
The plan must be reviewed and
approved by the borough president,
City Planning Commission and City
Council before moving forward.
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