Zoning Cases May Impact Westside Neighborhood, School

The Long Beach Zoning Board of Appeals will hear two cases next week involving properties located directly across the street from each other, a proposed residential development and a commercial parking lot, which could impacted a westside neighborhood and school.

According to the zoning board’s calendar for June 26, Arcadia Management of Long Beach proposes to build a 30-unit multiple dwelling at 158 New York Ave., and CMJ Group of Long Beach will seek permits to use a yard as a commercial parking lot at Long Beach Catholic Regional School, at 721 W. Broadway.

If approved, the residential development would be built on a lot at New York Avenue between West Beech and West Penn Street, and the commercial parking lot would be located at the blacktop schoolyard between West Penn and West Broadway, also along New York Avenue.

The zoning board calendar lists CMJ Group’s address at 721 West Broadway. Arcadia Management, a realty and property management company, is located at 772 West Beech St., and owns a strip of stores east of the southeast corner of New York Avenue, in front of the lot.

In 2007, a proposal to construct a building with  six two-story homes on the New York lot met with opposition from neighbors, as did a development of six homes proposed for a stretch of land between Oceanview and the beach at Pennsylvania Avenue in 2006, according to the Long Beach Herald.  

In 2008, the zoning board shot down a proposal by developers Charles and Emanuel Rafimayeri to demolish a building, shared by the former Vito’s Fish & Chips and 13 apartments, and construct two beachfront buildings, each with eight townhouses, between New York, Pennsylvania and Oceanview avenues.

The Zoning Board meets at 7 p.m. on July 26 on the sixth floor at Long Beach City Hall.