TESTIMONY
Whitestone Lanes Rezoning: Testimony in Support From from the Land Use Chair of Community Board 7
1:36:34
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176 sec
Chuck Opelian, vice chair and land use chair of Community Board 7, testifies in support of the Whitestone Lanes rezoning.
Speaker 1
1:36:34
The last person on this panel is Charles 8 feeling?
Speaker 27
1:36:40
I'm there.
Speaker 1
1:36:41
You made a huge loss.
Speaker 27
1:36:45
Can you hear me?
Speaker 1
1:36:46
Yes.
1:36:46
We hear you.
Speaker 27
1:36:47
Great.
1:36:47
Thank you, Chip.
1:36:48
My name is Chuck Opelian.
1:36:49
I'm the vice chair and land use chair committee board 7 here.
1:36:53
As you heard, it's been a number of years we've worked on this, and and the big turning factor was the support of the venture lending co op representing 5000 families.
1:37:03
Our internal goals of White Stone Lake was simple.
1:37:05
We placed the manufacturing, commercial, retail, and community facility use.
1:37:11
I'll get to that in a second.
1:37:12
Solely what housing.
1:37:14
Why, in one word, as you heard, traffic.
1:37:16
And there are also huge amounts of commercial retail and community facility nearby 100 of 1000 and literally the potential for 1,000,000 of square feet on the other side of the highway.
1:37:28
Everybody felt R SevenA was a good solution and would grade allow greater bulk than current, but only with the strict condition that it become a residential development only.
1:37:38
And without the choice and chance for community facility.
1:37:42
And I'll explain as I keep going forward.
1:37:45
Therefore, the developer agreed to the following restrictive declaration nation, which was the only reason we got all overwhelming support by both the co op community and our community board.
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A, lemonade community facility use.
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B, maximize the dwelling units to be 350.
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Maximum parking spaces to be 300.
1:38:05
You heard about the access and restrictions on Linden Place and on-site parking for delivery vehicles.
1:38:13
The restrictive declaration guarantees a unique health.
1:38:17
Why?
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Well, please remember the plan being presented is illustrative.
1:38:22
And our 7 a zoning is approved without the restrictive deck and community facility use is still allowed in the underlying zoning a high traffic generating med center where school could be built after the resuming and guess what?
1:38:36
No housing would be built even though this plan shows that it is.
1:38:40
We only want housing.
1:38:42
Your committee is learning, so you will understand that the restrictive deck to eliminate community facility ensure that only a residential building can be built and ensure that the 350 unit count in the restrictive deck and the number of Mih houses are permanent.
1:38:58
We came up with 350 units to provide decent size units for families, the flourish, and our community, rather than small studios and transit one bedrooms, and we came up with random parking spaces to meet our board's requirement for a 100% parking.
1:39:14
So
Speaker 1
1:39:14
Thank you, Charles.
Speaker 27
1:39:17
At 2 sentences.
Speaker 1
1:39:19
Go ahead.
Speaker 27
1:39:20
Residents won't need to search on street parking, which would increase the traffic in the area.
1:39:25
Again, reducing traffic I appreciate the time.
1:39:28
Thank you again, sir.
Speaker 1
1:39:29
Thank you, Charles.
