1. BY HEATHER J. CHIN
hchin@homereporter.com
Dyker Heights residents are
digging in their heels and filing
complaints with the Department
of Buildings (DOB) about illegal
excavations and alleged single
room occupancy conversions tak-
ing place in the neighborhood this
year.
The construction began in
earnest in March and rapidly
progressed, with nearly a dozen
dumpsters reportedly coming
and going from 978 Bay Ridge
Parkway, full of dirt and debris
from the basement foundation.
“The whole inside was gutted,
so if you looked inside, it was
a complete shell,” said neighbor
Frank Rizzo, who attended the
May meeting of Dyker Heights
Civic Association (DHCA) and
a May 28 Community Board 10
Zoning Committee meeting to
sound the alarm.
“I’m worried that two-family
homes are being converted into
30-40 occupancy buildings,” Rizzo
said. “I hope the [DOB] will stop it
and the house is returned to what
it was intended to be.”
Diane Angelone, whose house
is semi-attached with 978 Bay
Ridge Parkway, worries how the
excavation will affect her founda-
tion. “I’m going to get it inspected.
There was a stop work order, but
construction just started again,”
she said. “None of the new owners
spoke to me [beforehand].”
Bob Cassara told the crowd
gathered at the DHCA meeting
that “there seem to be bathrooms
on each floor, multiple vents that
indicate around three clothes dry-
ers, stainless steel doors opening
onto a single common area and
multiple electricity or gas meters.
“Our community worked hard
to keep these types of develop-
ments out of our neighborhood
[through rezoning]. We need to
get the City Council to change
enforcement rules,” Cassara said.
Cassara noted that houses at
928 and 1176 Bay Ridge Parkway
are also seeing questionable con-
struction.
However, DOB online records
challenge resident concerns about
978 Bay Ridge Parkway stating
“there are no egress issues or ille-
gal conversion” there.
Still, a full stop work order
was placed on the property on
May 2 for unauthorized “earth
work… contrary to [the] approved
plan.” However, on May 21, DOB
partially rescinded the order; on
May 27, the order was rescinded
further “to allow completion of all
work,” after which a new inspec-
tion will occur.
Such decisions aid and abet the
illegal construction work going
on throughout the area, insisted
residents at the CB 10 meeting
with DOB representative David
Nussbaum.
Nussbaum acknowledged the
problems and said inspectors
do the best they can, but must
adhere to DOB regulations.
“Residents are frustrated that
DOB doesn’t have more leeway in
terms of gaining access, especial-
ly when you have a property with
multiple complaints,” said CB
10 District Manager Josephine
Beckmann.
According to the NYC Open
Data Portal, there have been
1,039 calls to 3-1-1 since 2010
about illegal conversions in CB 10,
with 110 in the first five months of
this year.
“David from the DOB explained
what the regulations are cur-
rently. He said he was going to
take back some of the questions
we raised about multiple com-
plaints and what the threshold
of violations is,” said Beckmann.
“I recently saw a house with mul-
tiple air conditioners—the likeli-
hood of illegal conversion there is
great. So that could be a thresh-
old.
“We spent a lot of money and
time on rezoning, limiting the size
of houses [because] changing the
streetscape has financial, tax and
community impact,” Beckmann
added. “You could raise by 300
percent the number of children
going to school, for example. And
safety concerns, particularly as it
relates to electrical and excava-
tion fires, need to be addressed.”
DHCA President Fran Vella-
Marrone agreed, noting, “This
has been a big problem for years.
This is not the first one and unfor-
tunately, it won’t be the last one,
but we have new people in city
departments, so hopefully they’ll
be energized.”
Dyker residents sound
alarm over illegal
conversions
Sandy homeowners to get tax
break
A $4 million tax break program for
Sandy homeowners has been signed into
law by Governor Andrew Cuomo after
pressure from residents, Mayor Bill de
Blasio and City Councilmembers who
pointed out the “double jeopardy” prob-
lem of homeowners being charged high-
er rates specifically because they spent
money to repair their damaged homes.
The tax break will apply to around
7,000 buildings, most one to three-family
homes, bringing an estimated $544 in
savings per homeowner, beginning in
July, 2014.
“Victims of Superstorm Sandy were
being victimized all over again by unfair
increases in their property tax bills [at]
a time when many families’ budgets are
stretched to the maximum and every
dollar counts,” said Councilmember
Mark Treyger, who represents hard-hit
Coney Island and Sea Gate.
For eligibility requirements, contact
311 or the NYC Department of Finance
at nyc.gov/finance.
Assembly moves to
legalize medical marijuana
The Democratic-led Assembly passed
the Compassionate Care Act by a vote of
91-34 on Tuesday, May 27, now sending
it to the Senate, which ends its session
in June. The bill already got through the
Senate’s Health Committee.
The move comes as many New York
City politicians have become more vocal
about their support for legalization, with
a parallel goal of reducing the number of
marijuana-possession arrests. Brooklyn
Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries is
among those calling for reform, criti-
cizing the NYPD’s number of arrests
this year, under Mayor Bill de Blasio,
compared to 2013 under former Mayor
Michael Bloomberg.
But de Blasio said that he and NYPD
Commissioner William Bratton do not
support “full-scale legalizing.”
Brooklynites win millions
in lottery scratch-offs
Bensonhurst resident Geraldine
Pollice, 45, couldn’t believe her eyes
when she saw the six zeroes on her
Maximum Millions ticket, purchased
at the Smoke Stax III store on 18th
Avenue in April. “I saw a match on the
number 38 and then all the zeroes and
thought, this can’t be true,” she said.
But it was true. She and her husband
Fredinando, 46, are now millionaires,
splitting the $5 million prize—just
over $3 million after taxes—which
they plan to invest in a new car, home
and retirement savings.
Bay Ridge 21-year-old Euglen Muslli
also won a jackpot, claiming the lump
sum of his $1,500 A Week For Life
winnings, $740,626 after taxes. The
Albania native described the win as
another part of his American dream-
come-true. Muslli plans to use his win-
nings to help family, buy a house and
potentially open an Italian restaurant.-
-Heather Chin
JUNE 5 - JUNE 11, 2014 • BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP 5
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Housing Preservation Alliance
One of the dozen open-air dumpsters is seen full of dirt and debris taken from inside 978 Bay Ridge Parkway, which
neighbors allege is being illegally converted into an illegal multiple-occupancy dwelling.