Tuesday Feb 24,2004 7:30 8:30

We had company tonight!

Detective Andolina brought some of his fellow officers to observe out meeting. They were Officer Lore, Sergeants Johnson; and Sergeant Carey. Also Mr. Peter Mustich from the Sunhaven neighborhood association was in attendance. We appreciate the support guys!

Anne Guida started the meeting at 7:30 and introduced John Caldarano from the New Rochelle building department. John spoke about his meetings with Anne and our concerns regarding housing, building codes etc. John can appreciate the concerns, but mentioned that while there use to be 8 inspectors there are now only 2. There has been more building and construction in the city than ever before, so the result is a less effective department. They do their best to follow up go out to the sites, but with no overtime budget, they cant go out to the houses after 5 when people will be home and follow up or do inspections. His suggestion to Anne was to write a letter to the city manager expressing our concern for enforcement and perhaps finding money in the budget, to set up a task force to respond to and follow up on complaints. (The letter was passed around at the end of the meeting. A copy of the original unsigned letter is at the end of this document)

Mr. Caldarano expressed frustration that a call complaint can take up to 6 weeks before they can get to it. He also explained to the group that when a violation is found, for illegal tenants or build code violations its only a $25 fine!!!  And its only enforceable by the state not the city. If they are caught AFTER the work is done the fine can be $1500 and removal of the offending code. They will go to a house and stop them if they are in the middle of building. Thats what they did on Petersville Road. He found 3 bedrooms in the basement. 2 Bedrooms in the dining room and more being built in the living room! They were stopped; with only a $25 fine and lack of enforcement power Are they really stopped?  We dont know who made the call on Petersville, and Bob said many of the calls they get are anonymous. Bobs advice to the group was to stay informed.  The main number to contact Mr. Caldarano's office is 654 2032.

If someone is legally applying for a permit for a change to zoning, it will be brought up at the citys zoning board meetings. A list of the cases to be heard is listed on the citys web site WWW.NEWROCHELLENY.COM

Some group members stated raising concerns about the legality and problems of specific addresses. Housing is certainly our priority said Anne, and it was agreed that a housing committee will meet to address specific concerns and make sure that as an association, we keep on top of the city and the judges to make sure they know our concerns. Keep your eyes and ears open and show up at the zoning board meeting the city has and make your voice heard.

Our next speaker was Mr. Bob Young who is building the townhouses at the end of Petersville Rd on Old Boston Post Road. Mr. Young showed us all a model of the development and went on to explain that there are 28 town hoses being built and 7000 foot of retail space on Main Street. The residential units are from 1700 1900 sq. feet and 2-3 bedrooms. They are priced in the mid 600s. The entrance to the residential area will be on Old Boston Post Road only. It was originally zoned as straight commercial property and has been re-zoned for commercial and residential. No other zoning changes were necessary regarding parking, traffic etc.

Detective Ray Andolina was our final speaker and he brought us up to date on the situation around Joeys Deli. Seems that most of the problems in the alleyway have caused by the restaurant, not the Deli and summons have been given out. He next addressed specific traffic conditions. Jackson and AdamsPratt and Adams ..The speeding and noise. There is a traffic engineer fro the city and his office is on 40 Pelham Road. Anne agreed that a traffic committee needs to address these issues. Once again the city has a rule that a car must be moved every 48 hours. This was recently enforced when 2 cars were towed from Monroe Street.

The last subject was Adopt an Island. Where we adopt the islands that run the middle of Stephenson Blvd. The objective to beautify the area and show pride in our neighborhood. Sign up sheets for this project as well as Traffic and Housings committees were left for people to sign up for.

Next meeting a change from the last Tuesday of the month rule  is March 16.