Proceed with caution.

Staten Island City Council members gave cheers and jeers to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s preliminary $68.7 billion budget plan for Fiscal 2013 yesterday, with no increase in taxes and no layoffs of teachers or uniformed workers, while maintaining long-term investments and reducing the city payroll by a modest 20,000 workers, mainly through attrition.

Yet it leaves open possible cuts to firehouses, libraries, cultural institutions and after-school programs, “exposing them to the proverbial budget dance once again,” said Councilwoman Debi Rose.

“The Council needs to stand strong to once again protect [them],” added Councilman Vincent Ignizio, ” … while at the same time keeping taxes from going up. I will fight against the mayor’s proposed cuts to the Beacon program at Tottenville High School and after-school programs throughout the city.”

Still, Ignizio and Councilman James Oddo said they anticipate a less contentious budget process than in previous years, with Oddo saying his “gut” tells him firehouses here will not be on the chopping block.

But the Uniformed Firefighters Association isn’t about to leave anything to chance, with UFA president Stephen Cassidy saying, “On the heels of the 10 busiest years in the history of the FDNY, both the mayor and City Council have to know that closing firehouses will compromise the public and firefighter safety. We strongly recommend they don’t do it.”

Said Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn): “Relative to budgets in previous years, I believe this will be an easier one with less rancor.”

Added Ignizio (R-South Shore): “This is shaping up to be a much less contentious budget than we anticipated. But this is just the beginning of a long budget process.”

The Council will hold budget hearings in the coming weeks, with Bloomberg submitting a revamped budget plan in May for a Council vote in advance of July 1, when Fiscal 2013 kicks in.

During his preliminary budget unveiling in City Hall, Bloomberg called it a “responsible budget that continues to make responsible spending cuts while protecting the core services and investments that have helped our city to weather the national recession better than most other places.”

But Oddo termed a “huge red flag” the city’s increased revenue projections from property taxes — from $17.8 billion next year to $20.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2016 — the result of increased assessments.

“Next year’s [property tax] bill might be ugly,” Oddo posted on his City Council Facebook page, noting the Council has no say in the matter and calling the “property tax formula in NYC and NYS a convoluted mess.”

Oddo also thumped the Bloomberg administration’s inability to get fringe benefit give-backs and health care benefit reductions during municipal contract negotiations early in the mayor’s time in office, along with reductions in Medicaid and debt service, saying the “long-term” negative impact will be felt far into the future.

Meanwhile, Oddo and Borough President James Molinaro sought to highlight the importance of pension reform for future city workers, saying the current benefits packages are “unsustainable” in the long term — an echo of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Tier 6 pension plan, also spotlighted by the mayor.

“The City of New York has gone from about $1 billion in pension costs in 2002 to an estimated $8 billion this upcoming year,” Molinaro said. “We can’t support this rate of growth. … No reasonable person can look at the current numbers and not see that there is a big problem here.”

Said Ms. Rose (D-North Shore): “While the mayor’s budget touts the results of several years of prudence and no new tax increases, which will be greeted by a collective sigh of relief from New York City residents, we must not be lulled into a false sense of relief. … It is of great concern to me that the city is reliant upon fees and fines to generate revenue to fill budgetary gaps, as demonstrated by the recent proliferation of fines levied against restaurant and bar owners. The excessive meting out of fines and fees amounts to unfair taxation and negates the mayor’s pronouncement of no tax increases.”

City Councilman James Oddo personifies the adage “All politics is local.”

While the Council veteran — he began as a staffer in 1992 — has already announced his intention to run for borough president next year, his 2012 agenda is chock-full of district-specific initiatives.

From a crackdown on what Oddo regards as crime and environmental hot spots, to instituting intersection widening and slow-down zones, unabashedly promising to bring home “more pork” for Island schools and creating a dog run, along with sponsoring a Wounded Warriors softball game, his devotion to hands-on governing is evident.

“If you are going to do something, you do it well,” Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) told Advance editors during a recent meeting.

And if you are wondering whether Oddo will resign from his Council post next year at this time, in order to run flat-out for Borough Hall, his answer is: “No way, no how. Those days of playing games like that are over. I have two more years of work to do.”

For starters, Oddo said he is “committed” to seeing a “fully functioning” fourth police precinct, and said he’s working with cops now on addressing “low-level” crime on Sand Lane and at Midland Beach.

On the transportation front, Oddo said he would like to see the city acquire the former Van Bro. Corp. site in Bloomfield, so the Department of Transportation can produce asphalt there to fill borough potholes correctly. He said DOT has been importing asphalt, which cools in transit and results in poor workmanship, along with racking up needless tolls. He also said the environmental review of the Richmondtown Loop alternative he favors, which would close the most dangerous portion of Snake Hill Road without dumping traffic into nearby streets, is well under way.

On the environment, Oddo said he is staying on top of work being done at Willowbrook Pond to prevent another disastrous overflow akin to that occasioned by Hurricane Irene, as well as ongoing phragmites abatement.

He also said he and Borough Hall are exploring the possibility of putting up money to hire a city Law Department staffer dedicated solely to Staten Island, to speed up acquisition of Bluebelt property, Sanitation sewer projects and DOT intersection improvements.

The councilman said he is working with both hospitals to reduce wait-times for non-emergency cases by exploring partnering with a company that uses hand-scan technology for a quick read of medical records. He is also again looking to co-sponsor a health conference.

Oddo said the site of the old Farm Colony in Sea View lends itself to an educational complex, and that the new PS 71 in Concord, should be a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade-school, and will be advocating for both.

A dog-lover, Oddo said he will look to open a dog run at New Dorp Beach.

As for that softball game to benefit the Wounded Warriors group, Oddo said he’s working to get the NYPD and FDNY on board for a matchup at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George later this year, to raise money and awareness.

There’s an unfortunate reality, said Councilman James Oddo, that streets of all sizes have speeding problems.

“Any time a Staten Island driver sees 150 feet of open asphalt, he thinks it’s a sign to hit the accelerator,” Oddo said last week.

That said, Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) and other local councilmembers are in the process of filing applications with the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish “slow zones” in locations plagued by speeders or those registering “above-average accident rates” — especially spots near schools and senior centers.

The program seeks to reduce the speed limit from 30 to 20 mph and adds safety measures within a select area. The aim? To change driver behavior.

Neighborhood Slow Zones are established in small, self-contained areas that consist primarily of local streets. Signs and gateways announce the presence of a Slow Zone.

The Zone itself is a self-enforcing, reduced-speed area with speed bumps, markings and other traffic-related relief. Implementing Neighborhood Slow Zones can result in the loss of some on-street parking. The deadline for this round of applications is Friday.

Oddo, along with City Council members Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore) and Debi Rose (D-North Shore) linked up with Community Education Council (CEC) Safety Committee Chairman Michael Reilly to apply for the DOT Slow Zones through the department’s new program.

Oddo has specifically targeted other schools in his district — PS 11 and PS 52, Dongan Hills, PS 38, Midland Beach and PS 39, Arrochar — as sites where slower would be better. He said his office is backing a dozen spots.

“It seems to me that this program would work extremely well around schools to help prevent speeding and reckless driving and protect kids, and I hope DOT looks favorably on our requests,” said Oddo.

Community Board 2 pointed out additional locations, including Wilder Avenue, Richmond; Rene Drive, Oakwood; Cannon Avenue, Travis; Saxon Avenue (near Laurie Intermediate School and PS 69), New Springville, and Ross Avenue, New Dorp.

“A lot of people reacted with great skepticism to this project,” said Oddo. “Maybe it won’t work, but to me, for the locations I’m supporting, I need to do something, we need to do something. So I need to take a chance on it.”

Oddo expects the city to use speed bumps, 20 mph markers and new striping.

“As cliche as it sounds, at the end of the day, it’s the Staten Island driver that creates most of these problems,” he said.

“I don’t know how you effectively alter behavior, but you have to keep trying.” 

Crowded public schools can be found everywhere on Staten Island. But the Department of Education now has plans to deal with the critical shortage of elementary school seats.

Examples of the problem faced by youngsters and their parents include PS 48 in Concord, PS 38 in Midland Beach, PS 13 in Rosebank and PS 29 in Castleton Corners.

At those schools, there were kindergarten wait lists this past fall and/or capped enrollment for kindergarten.

Help is coming, slowly but surely.

Three new elementary schools are going to be opened in the borough within the next three years:

• An 844-seat school is under construction on the site of the former Doctors’ Hospital in Concord. It is scheduled to be ready by September 2013.

• A 372-seat elementary school is planned for the former St. Peter’s Girls High School in St. George. September 2013 is its opening due date.

With room for 440 students, a new elementary school is to open in Rossville in 2015.The school being built on Targee Street on the site where Doctors’ Hospital once stood is an impressive undertaking being overseen by the city’s School Construction Authority.

Tentatively identified as PS/IS 71, it is located just across the street from crowded PS 48.

The sleek new four-story school will cost $53.5 million. Situated on two acres, the energy-efficient building of about 111,000 square feet will wrap around a courtyard that includes an early-childhood playground.

Speaking about the new school, PS 48 Principal Jacqueline Mammolito said, “The parents of the community are very hopeful that it will be a K-through-8 facility.”

That remains to be decided, however.

As part of an agreement with City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), administrators are monitoring the need for new seats in both elementary and middle schools.

“There continues to be a middle-school seat surplus while the shortage of elementary-school seats has grown,” said DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

It has already been determined that the new school will have a District 75 special education component with its own separate entrance.

Located between busy Targee Street and Richmond Road, the property will feature a roadway cutting through it for the drop-off and pickup of students.

What to do with the old PS 48 has yet to be decided, but there are tentative plans to use the building to house a new elementary school.

As we have noted before, the Department of Education is making good use of the vacant building that had housed St. Peter’s Girls’ High School in New Brighton until this past June. It’s to become the site of PS 59.

And PS 62, the elementary school due to open in Rossville in three years will also provide welcome new space where it’s badly needed on the South Shore.

The DOE deserves credit for trying to get out in front of the school overcrowding issue instead of always trying to play catch-up from behind. These new facilities won’t eliminate the problem entirely, but they’ll go a long way toward making public schools in this borough the comfortable, welcoming places they should be.

Three new public schools are slated to open on Staten Island in the next three years — and the projects range from a high-tech, energy-creating building to the upgrading of a former Catholic school.

Two are supposed to be ready in September 2013: An 844-seat school on the site of the former Doctors’ Hospital, Concord, and a 372-seat elementary school in the former St. Peter’s Girls High School, St. George. The third, a net-zero-energy elementary school in Rossville called PS 62, will open in 2015 with room for 440 students.

Bruce Barrett, vice president for architecture and engineering at the School Construction Authority, laid out the details of the new schools during an interview last week.

One project that’s already visibly under way is the new school in Concord, which will replace the overcrowded PS 48 just across the street. Identified PS/IS 71 in some Department of Education documents, the school has about the same number of seats as a recently opened K-through-8 public school, the Staten Island School of Civic Leadership.

“The parents of the community are very hopeful that it will be a K-through-8 facility,” said PS 48 Principal Jacqueline Mammolito.

Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the department was aware the PS 48 school community is advocating for the new school to be K-through-8, and said administrators are monitoring the need for elementary-school and middle-school seats as part of an agreement with City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn).

“There continues to be a middle-school seat surplus while the shortage of elementary-school seats has grown,” Ms. Feinberg said. “This past fall, there were kindergarten wait lists and/or capping of kindergarten enrollment, not only at PS 48 but also at nearby schools PS 38, PS 13, and PS 29.”

The department hasn’t decided what to do with the old PS 48 building yet, Ms. Feinberg said, but has been planning to use the old building as a new elementary school to deal with growing enrollment in those grades.

A decision has not yet been made about which grades will be served, but that’s usually decided by the office of Portfolio Planning.

“Flexibility is a really important feature of all of our designs now, so we know that changes come according to what the powers that be think are the critical need,” Ms. Barrett said.

At many schools, student pickup and drop-off can cause traffic mayhem, with parents double-parked or idling as they wait for students, and yellow buses lined up at the curb. Sandwiched between Richmond Road and Targee Street, two already busy one-way roads, the construction project for the school includes a road cutting through the property for drop-off.

“Both buses and other vehicles can drive through from Richmond Road to Targee Street, so that worked out really well,” Ms. Barrett said.

Four stories tall, the school will be about 111,000 square feet, and is situated on two acres. It will cost $53.5 million to construct, and will use energy-efficient technology. Renderings show a sleek-looking building wrapped around a courtyard that includes an early-childhood playground. The school will have a dedicated component for District 75 — the citywide special education district — complete with its own separate entrance.

Inside the school, there will be both a full-size gymnasium and a “gymnatorium.”

“What we discovered is, in the primary and intermediate school levels, the auditoriums are used a couple times a week for a real assembly function, and the rest of the time they may be used for a class here or there, but they weren’t well-used,” Ms. Barrett said.

So with the city focusing more and more on healthy, sustainable lifestyles, schools are now being built with additional physical education space — like gymnatoriums. The gymnatorium at PS 71 will have a gym floor, and fixed setting on one end of the room. There will also be retractable, motorized seating that can be used when the room is functioning as an auditorium. Curtains to surround a stage area will complete the look, Ms. Barrett said.

“The performance floor is a flat floor at the exercise floor level, but when the seats are pulled out and the curtains are pulled out it, will serve as a bona fide auditorium,” she said.

The school will also have a newer-style cafeteria and kitchen area, Ms. Barrett said. The area where students pick up food will be more colorful, with more signs, designed to look more like a food court.

“It’s to engage the kids in eating healthy foods,” she said.

The school will also house an installation of the Public Arts for Public Schools project, with images relating to natural sciences.

It was designed by Manhattan firm Kliment Halsband Architects. The general contractor is Pavarini McGovern.

The city has taken the first concrete step toward replacing the collapsed Cromwell Center, with the Parks Department receiving $700,000 to study what type of facility should come next and where it should be built.

But before any planning begins, there’s one thing for sure, said borough Parks Commissioner Adena Long: The Cromwell replacement must be built on the North Shore.

“That community has borne the brunt of Cromwell’s demise,” she said.

The original Cromwell, situated on a pier in Tompkinsville, collapsed into New York Bay in May 2010.

The recreation center, where generations of Islanders played basketball, ran track and danced from its beginnings in 1936, was set to undergo a $4.4 million renovation project and had been closed to the public.

Ms. Long said it was “safe to say” that the new center would not be built on the old Cromwell site.

“It’s rare in this day and age for the city to build on existing piers,” she said.

A Parks spokeswoman said that a final decision wouldn’t be made until after the study is complete but confirmed that it’s “highly unlikely” that the old site would be used.

She said the rest of Cromwell would be demolished.

Ms. Long called the funding for the study “pretty exciting,” and said the money would be used to hire a team of consultants to conduct a pre-scoping analysis, to determine what type of facility will be needed to replicate all the activities Cromwell offered, and possible locations for the new facility.

She said the study will look at whether a new facility should be built, or an existing building retrofitted. Parks properties will be looked at as possible sites, she said, as will city-owned land and other buildings.

“It’s a cheaper alternative to re-use, but we’re limited,” said Ms. Long, saying that the North Shore contains many vacant structures but little open space to build on.

“There are lots of things to consider,” she said.

The consultants also will seek input from elected officials, community members and the community boards, she said.

Parks hopes to have a Request for Proposals for hiring a consultant sometime next month. Plans call for the consultant to begin work by the summer, with the study set to last 10 months.

After Cromwell’s collapse, athletic and recreational programs were set up at other Parks locations, including Lyons Pool, Faber Park Field House and the Greenbelt Recreation Center.

“It’s been difficult, but we’ve been resourceful,” Ms. Long said.

She said the goal is to have all the programs again housed in one facility on the North Shore, so that the new building will be able to serve “the same clientele, the same neighborhood.”

“Ideally,” she said, “it will be a large facility capable of handing the many programs we had at Cromwell. We want to replicate as many programs as possible.”

City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) agreed that the new center belongs on the North Shore.

“It’s a facility for all Staten Islanders, but it makes sense to return it to the North Shore,” he said. “It’s a staple of the North Shore.”

When asked when she hoped to have the new center built, Ms. Long said she couldn’t give a date.

“Yesterday,” she quipped.

She could not estimate the total cost of the project.

While welcoming a replacement for Cromwell, a borough government staffer said that $700,000 seemed like a lot to spend on a pre-scoping analysis.

“I find that to be a lot of money,” he said. “Parks has its own design and construction group. Couldn’t they have done this in-house?”

But Oddo said that without knowing the project’s final cost, it was difficult to judge the price of the study.

He said if the final project ends up costing tens of millions of dollars, like the $70 million Ocean Breeze track facility, then $700,000 would not necessarily be expensive for a scoping study.

NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation

FY 2012 Annual Public Hearing

460 Brielle Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10314

January 18, 2012

Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony this evening. Let us warn you at the outset that our testimony will not be very positive.

It is unfortunate that the types of changes that all Staten Islanders have hoped to see at HHC during the last decade – i.e. providing more services to Staten Island so that we are treated more fairly and equitably to the rest of the city – have not happened. While you might believe that Staten Islanders spend too much time complaining, in the case of HHC our complaints are well-founded and entirely accurate. One only has to look at the history of HHC on Staten Island and the current and historic funding levels that we receive compared to the other four boroughs. Staten Island’s elected officials and residents remain frustrated by the lack of action.

At this point, less than two years away from a Mayoral election, it is important for Staten Islanders to look towards the future. As a community, we must tell any candidates for Mayor that in order to earn our vote that candidate must pledge to ensure that more HHC resources are brought to Staten Island, thereby bringing about greater fairness and equity. We all know that wholesale changes will not be made this year or next year because they have not been made during the last decade, even during good fiscal times. That is why it is so imperative to use the leverage that a Mayoral election brings to ask Mayoral candidates to make improving HHC services on Staten Island a priority and then hold them to their promises when they are in office.

Frankly, this is where we will be focusing our efforts during the next two years, and we encourage Staten Islanders to join us in this effort. Let’s make all would-be Mayors aware of the historic inequities and tell them they will not get our vote unless they agree to make systemic changes to this agency. We are only seeking fairness, not special treatment.

With that said, we would like to say to the HHC Board that, while we understand that not much will be done during the next couple of years to drastically improve services on Staten Island, it is important that HHC not decrease any funding or services on Staten Island as you cut your budget even further. We already see woefully inadequate services from HHC and your budget should not and cannot be balanced by cutting any of the services we are fortunate to already be receiving on Staten Island. That would be adding insult to the injury.

We would also like to take a moment to recognize and thank Dr. John Maese for his years of service on the HHC Board. Dr. Maese served with great distinction and he had a hand in many of the positive improvements in health care on Staten Island during the last few years. We wish him well in his new endeavors.

Thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony.

Next week, Councilman James Oddo will get a chance to lobby Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye face to face on the issue of tolls. And the good news is that it was Mr. Foye who sought out Mr. Oddo for the meeting.

The bad news is that the meeting will almost certainly not produce toll rollbacks for residents beyond the modest discount program the Port Authority has already offered (but has yet to implement).

“I’m not optimistic you’re going to see additional relief on tolls for residents,” Mr. Oddo said. “I see no indication of it.”

The Mid-Island Republican lawmaker says that while he certainly intends to raise that issue, the meeting will focus primarily on the disastrous impact of the P.A.’s steep toll hikes on Staten Island businesses that rely heavily on truck traffic.

Foremost among these is the New York Container Terminal (NYCT) at Howland Hook.

NYCT has already lost business because of the sharply higher P.A. tolls, and officials say the terminal could be forced to close permanently if those truckers don’t get some sort of relief.

That Mr. Foye wants to sit down with the councilman, who will probably run for borough president next year, to talk about this is encouraging - all the more so because it has long been charged that the Port Authority has had a pro-New Jersey bias.

Obviously, container terminals in Port Newark and elsewhere in New Jersey would get the benefit of increased business if the NYCT were to close.

There is a suspicion that some on the New Jersey side of the Kill van Kull and Arthur Kill, including some P.A. managers, might not mind so much if NYCT went under.
Mr. Oddo rightly insisted “that can’t happen.”

NYCT employs 500 workers and generates a payroll of $52 million a year, much of it spent on Staten Island. The container terminal also pumps millions more into the local economy by using borough firms for repairs, parts and maintenance services and other ancillary services.

“They are a huge cog in our economy,” Mr. Oddo said. “Those are great jobs. We can’t have people trying to kill it. Hopefully, we’re going to get real help on that front.”

Beyond the economic imperative for the container terminal on Staten Island to thrive, Mr. Oddo should stress that NYCT was already at a competitive disadvantage - even before the tolls on Port Authority bridges were raised.

That’s because trucks that transport goods to and from New Jersey’s container ports do not have to pay sky-high Port Authority tolls. But each and every trucker who travels to NYCT must dig deep for P.A. toll money. Since September, they have to dig even deeper. Obviously, this serves as a disincentive for trucking firms to do business on Staten Island, as we’ve seen with several trucking firms that have ceased doing business with NYCT.

The P.A. seems to have viewed this whole issue as solely about raising more revenue. But the toll increase that puts so much more of Staten Island’s money into Port Authority coffers threatens to wreck one of this borough’s biggest employers and further undermine Staten Island’s fragile economic health.

As the head of an agency that is mandated to foster economic growth, Mr. Foye should be made to understand those consequences of myopic P.A. toll policy.

And Mr. Oddo should push for a better discount deal for all Staten Islanders and not just commuters. Of course there are Islanders who work in New Jersey and the deal, if ever implemented, is good for them. But it also benefits many who live in New Jersey, make their money here and take it back to New Jersey, where they spend it. We get a break on the Verrazano for good reason. We should get the same consideration on our New Jersey bridges for many of the same reasons.

City Councilman James Oddo will speak truth to power about the hammering Staten Island commuters and businesses are taking from steeply increased tolls when he meets one-on-one with Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Patrick J. Foye next week.

The meeting is set for Jan. 24 at Oddo’s district office in the Corporate Park, Bloomfield.

Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) said he’ll press Foye on the urgency of giving relief to truckers who use the New York Container Terminal in Mariners Harbor.

NYCT has already lost business because of increased P.A. tolls, and managers say the terminal could close for good if something isn’t done to blunt the impact of the tolls for truckers.

Oddo said that while some on the New Jersey side of the P.A. might not mind seeing NYCT close and all its business flow to the Garden State, “that can’t happen.”

“They are a huge cog in our economy,” said Oddo, who plans to run for borough president in 2013. “Those are great jobs. We can’t have people trying to kill it. Hopefully, we’re going to get real help on that front.”

The terminal employs 500 workers and generates a payroll of $52 million a year. NYCT also pumps millions more into the local economy by using borough firms for repairs, parts and maintenance services.

Oddo said that having privately lobbied Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, he doesn’t believe that any further toll relief for ordinary motorists is in the offing.

Oddo said that a much-maligned discount program for regular P.A. span users here was a tough enough sell to New Jersey, and that that side of the bi-state agency was not prepared to go further.

“I’m not optimistic you’re going to see additional relief on tolls for residents,” he said. “I see no indication of it.”

He said he would still bring up the resident toll problem with Foye and would keep advocating for it.

Oddo said he would also raise other issues with Foye, including P.A. operations at the Teleport and the possibility of the authority’s selling off some of its real estate holdings, as Borough President James P. Molinaro and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) have suggested.

Oddo said the meeting was arranged after a phone call to his office from Foye.

“I thought that was interesting,” Oddo said. “Unusual. I welcomed it. Very rarely do you see someone at that level being pro-active like that. It bodes well for him.”

Castleton Corners residents are breathing easier after a ruling by the Department of City Planning that a residential parcel can’t be turned into a parking lot.

The decision was transmitted last week by Borough President James P. Molinaro and City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), both of whom led an effort to have the city’s zoning resolution pertaining to the property enforced.

The fight began when the owner of a medical facility at 1534 Victory Blvd. proposed razing an adjacent two-story dwelling and putting a 54-car parking lot in its place.

DCP agreed with Molinaro and Oddo that the zoning resolution does not permit expansion of the parking lot into the adjacent residential property, which is zoned R1-2.

“This is a victory for the community, and it reinforces the good work being done by the Mayor’s Growth Management Task Force,” said Molinaro. “The last round of zoning text amendments for Staten Island medical facilities was just passed in January of last year! We were clear at every meeting that we needed to further limit the size of medical offices located in residential zones.

“I was told at those meetings that this type of expansion would never be possible, and I would now like to thank Department of City Planning Director Amanda Burden and Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri for standing behind that commitment.”

Said Oddo: “We knew that the interpretation of this issue was incorrect and, if permitted to stand, would exacerbate traffic conditions in an already congested area. “We are happy that City Planning … will not permit the addition of this monstrous parking field into an R1-2 residential district.”

The original 1992 approval for the medical building at 1534 Victory Blvd. included 17 required parking spaces, located along the side and rear of the building. When the building was constructed, the property was zoned R3-1. In 2001, this type of community facility use was banned from R1 and R2 residential districts.

According to the city, an existing use that becomes “non-conforming” due to a subsequent zoning change is permitted to continue under very specific zoning regulations.

The owner’s game-changing purchase of the adjacent property with the intent to transform it into a parking lot outraged many neighbors.

Said Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore): “I am relieved that we held our position on this zoning issue and that City Planning agrees with us. This is a small win, but it’s a big victory for the community this illegal development would have adversely affected.”

Added Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), “We started this community facility fight in my district on Woodrow Road and hopefully we will be ending it here today in Sunnyside. This type of flagrant zoning violation should not be given any consideration through the formal process.”