In a unanimous vote, the City Council passed the O’Neill’s rezoning on September 26th after receiving the green light from Council Member Holden. The zoning, as passed, would allow for a multi-story apartment building at the site if the restaurant were ever to be closed or sold. The applicant has promised CB5 and the community that they will not build above and beyond the catering hall plan they had presented. There is also a promise to try to secure offstreet parking in the area for large events, but no guarantee. Both of these were put in writing in an agreement that was attached to the deed, but that agreement puts O’Neill’s in charge of enforcing the restrictions against themselves or any future buyer. Council Member Holden’s chief of staff, Greg Mitchell, assured us in an October 19th phone call that the attorney for O’Neill’s was working on attaching a second restrictive covenant to the deed restricting the height and use of the building that JPCA leaders had requested. This would include a third-party enforcer and make it more binding. It had yet to be filed with the Department of Finance as of press time.
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SERVING MIDDLE VILLAGE AND MASPETH SINCE 1938.